Mel Brimfield THIS IS PERFORMANCE ART PART
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Mel Brimfield THIS IS PERFORMANCE ART PART ONE: PERFORMED SCULPTURE AND DANCE Glossary Performance Art Performance, or Live, Art became defined as a form of art, distinct from visual art, in the mid 1960s and is usually an event that employs the artist’s own body as subject matter. As no art object is made, such as a painting or sculpture, the history of performance art is based on documentary evidence, such as photographs, films and objects used in the performance itself. Mel Brimfield Mel Brimfield is a London-based artist and curator with a particular interest in Performance Art, and who creates playful alternative histories inspired by real artists, artworks and pop culture influences. Recognising that performance art is difficult to document and represent accurately, Brimfield toys with the truth and produces fabricated information, objects and epherema to support her often comic parallel realities. Vito Acconci Vito Acconci (1940-) is a US designer, landscape architect, performance and installation artist. His performance and video work was marked by confrontation and Situationism, seen in works including Seedbed (1971) where he lay hidden beneath a gallery-wide ramp installed at the Sonnabend Gallery, masturbating while vocalising into a loudspeaker his fantasies about the visitors walking above him. One motivation behind Seedbed was to involve the public in the work's production by creating a situation of reciprocal interchange between artist and viewer. Action painting Action painting is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dripped, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied – the practice is sometimes called gestural abstraction. The resulting work often emphasises the physical act of painting itself. The style was widespread from the 1940s until the early 1960s, and is closely associated with abstract expressionism. John Baldessari John Baldessari (1931-) is a US artist who makes books, videos, films, billboards and public works, often incorporating text and photography. A major retrospective Pure Beauty was held at Tate Modern in 2009. Joseph Beuys Joseph Beuys (1921-86) was a very influential German artist and teacher who made sculpture, video, performance and installation art. He is particularly recognised for his idea of social sculpture, gesamtkunstwerk, which he claimed could shape society and politics. One of his most famous works is the performance How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare (1965). Lionel Blair Lionel Blair (1931-) is a British actor, choreographer, tap dancer and television presenter. He is well known for being one of the team captains on the gameshow Give Us a Clue from 1979 until the early 1990s, and for being the second presenter of the British version of Name That Tune in the 1980s. Mel Bochner Mel Bochner (1940-) is a US conceptual artist and an early proponent of photo-documentation work, which he describes as creating ‘not so much a sculpture as a two-dimensional work about sculpture’. John Cage John Cage (1912-92) was a highly influential US composer, philosopher, poet, artist and printmaker best known for his 1952 composition 4’33’’, which is silent but encourages concentration on the noises of the immediate environment. Cage embraced random elements and the effects of chance on his work. Alexander Calder Alexander Calder (1898-1976) was a US artist who worked with kinetic sculpture, painting, lithograph, tapestry, jewellery and household objects. As well as his mobile sculptures, he is known for creating large-scale public works, including 125 for JFK Airport in 1957, La Spirale for UNESCO in Paris 1958 and Man (L'Homme), commissioned for Expo 67 in Montreal. Lord Chamberlain The Lord Chamberlain, or Lord Chamberlain of the Household, is one of the chief officers of the Royal Household in the UK. The position of Lord Chamberlain dates from the Middle Ages, when the King’s Chamberlain often acted as spokesman in Council and Parliament and is generally responsible for the conduct and general business of the Royal Household. Tommy Cooper Tommy Cooper (1921-1984) was born in Caerphilly, Wales, and became a famous performer known for his red fez and catch phrase ‘just like that’. Cooper was given a magic set by an aunt when he was eight, which inspired him to become a magician. His first routine at the age of 16 proved to be a disaster and, when people began to laugh at him, he ran off the stage in tears. In retrospect he realized that the combination of magic tricks and laughter could be a very good act, but he never totally overcame his stage fright. Merce Cunningham Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) was a US dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of the US avant-garde for more than 50 years. He is notable for his frequent collaborations with artists of other disciplines, including musicians John Cage and David Tudor, artists Robert Rauschenberg and Bruce Nauman, designer Romeo Gigli, and architect Benedetta Tagliabue. Vivian Van Damm Vivian Van Damm (1895-1960) was a prominent London theatre impresario from 1932 until 1960, managing the Windmill Theatre in London's Great Windmill Street. Inspired by the Folies Bergère and the Moulin Rouge in Paris to introduce nudity to the acts, Van Damm exploited a legal loophole that naked statues could not be banned on moral grounds. This led to the legendary Windmill Girls, who had to remain motionless due to the Lord Chamberlain's ruling, 'If you move, it's rude’. Gene Detroy and Marquis the Chimp Gene Detroy was an animal trainer active in the 1950s and 1960s and who cared for the Marquis family, a trio of chimpanzees who starred in the US sit-com The Hathaways in 1961-2. Valie Export Valie Export (1940) changed her name from Waltrud Lehner and is an Austrian artist associated particularly with the feminist movement and whose work includes video installations, body performances, computer animations, photography, sculpture and books. Lola (Lolo) Ferrari Lola (Lolo) Ferrari (1962-2000) was a French performer best known in the UK for appearing on Eurotrash with presenters Antoine de Caunes and Jean-Paul Gaultier. Ferrari is documented as having the world’s largest breasts, surgically enhanced to a speculated bust size of either 58F or 54G. Fischli/Weiss Peter Fischli (1952) and David Weiss (1946), often shortened to Fischli/Weiss, are contemporary artists who have been collaborating since 1979. The duo utilise a large number of artistic forms, including film and photography, art books, sculptures made out of different materials, and multimedia installations. They adapt objects and situations from everyday life and place them into an artistic context – often using humour and irony. Jane Fonda Jane Fonda (1937-) is a US actress, political activist and fitness guru who originally achieved fame through films such as Barbarella. She was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam war and advocate of the rights of women, starring in Nine to Five with Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton in 1980. In the 1980s Fonda released 23 workout videos, famously depicted in skin-tight leotards and leggings. Cato Fong Cato Fong is a fictional character from the comedy film series The Pink Panther, featuring the French police detective Jacques Clouseau played by Peter Sellers. Cato is Clouseau's houseboy and an expert in martial arts and a running joke throughout the series sees Cato unexpectedly attack Clouseau at various points, to keep his combat skills and vigilance sharp. Unfortunately, Cato takes these instructions far too seriously, repeatedly ambushing Clouseau in his own house, with hilarious results. Cato was played by Burt Kwouk (1930-), an English-born actor of Chinese descent who most recently starred in Last of the Summer Wine. Lucio Fontana Lucio Fontana (1899-1968) was an Argentinian/Italian artist who founded Spatialism in 1946 in New York, a visual art initiative concerned with capturing movement and time. He is most famous for a series of slashed canvases. Gilbert and George The Italian artist Gilbert Proesch (1943-) and British George Passmore (1943) have worked together as a collaborative duo since 1967. They have become famous for their distinctive, highly formal appearance and manner and their brightly coloured graphic-style photo-based artworks. Gilbert and George first met in 1967 while studying sculpture at St Martins School of Art in London. The Singing Sculpture (1970) is an early, important, performance which sees both artists coated in metallic make-up standing together on a table, dancing and singing Underneath the Arches – the 1930s music hall song by Flanagan and Allen, which describes the experiences of homeless men sleeping under railway arches during the Great Depression. Although they gave up such ‘living sculpture performances’ in 1977, Gilbert and George adopted the identity of ‘living sculptures’ in both their art and their daily lives, becoming not only creators, but also the art itself. Since the early 1970s their work has consisted mainly of large photo works, known as The Pictures. The images are often drawn from the street life of the East End of London in which they live and the artists themselves frequently feature in these works. Gilbert and George have become one of the most famous British avant-garde artists of their generation. Their work has been shown worldwide and in 1986 they won the Turner Prize and their 2007 retrospective at Tate Modern was the largest of any artist held at the gallery. Peggy Guggenheim Marguerite ‘Peggy’ Guggenheim (1898-1979) was a US art collector, born in New York, who inherited a small fortune when her father, Benjamin Guggenheim, died on the Titanic in 1912. She mixed with, and supported, Europe’s avant-garde artists and commissioned the Yorkshire born art critic Herbert Read to establish a Museum of Modern Art in London.