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TEACHER GUIDE Getting Started with Contemporary Art Artists working today often push the boundaries of traditional media like painting and sculpture. This guide is part of a series designed for high school teachers to use in conjunction with a visit to the Hammer Museum, where students might encounter a range of contemporary art forms. Use the information and discussion prompts below while engaging with performance art during your visit or in preparation for your visit using images available on the Hammer website. The post-visit activity is designed to extend student learning in the classroom after your visit. PERFORMANCE ART Performance art began in the early 20th century as a challenge to traditional, “motionless” works like painting and sculpture. Key Concepts • Time-based: A focus on ephemerality, or impermanence, as a result of actions performed live • Space: The site of the performance • Performer/audience relationship: Challenges traditional relationship between viewer and artist; the viewer may be a participant • The body: As the artist’s medium, it is the center of the performance and places emphasis on subjectivity, or the individuality of the performer Discussion Prompts 1. Consider examples of performances (e.g. concerts or sports). What are the elements of a performance? 2. What are the similarities and differences between performance art and a “traditional” performance? 3. “Live-ness” is a key component of performance art and yet images are integral to extending the life of a performance. Do you think this changes the work of art? Post-Visit Activity There are aspects of performance in everyday life: any decisions about how we dress, move, or interact with people are performative actions. Direct your students to: 1. Select a behavior that they perform in their daily life. 2. Alter the behavior in some way. For example, they could amplify it into an exaggerated behavior. Or they could draw attention to a specific action by slowing it down or repeating it. This will be their performance. 3. Describe how they will incorporate the four key concepts of performance art into their performance— time-based, space, performer/audience relationship, and body. For more guides in this series visit hammer.ucla.edu/teachers. 1 MUSEUM 10899 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles | hammer.ucla.edu | Hammer Museum hammer_museum.

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All These Post-1965 Movements Under the “Conceptual Art” Umbrella
All these post-1965 movements under the “conceptual art” umbrella- Postminimalism or process art, Site Specific works, Conceptual art movement proper, Performance art, Body Art and all combinations thereof- move the practice of art away from art-as-autonomous object, and art-as-commodification, and towards art-as-experience, where subject becomes object, hierarchy between subject and object is critiqued and intersubjectivity of artist, viewer and artwork abounds! Bruce Nauman, Live-Taped Video Corridor, 1970, Conceptual Body art, Postmodern beginning “As opposed to being viewers of the work, once again they are viewers in it.” (“Subject as Object,” p. 199) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IrqXiqgQBo A Postmodern beginning: Body art and Performance art as critique of art-as-object recap: -Bruce Nauman -Vito Acconci focus on: -Chris Burden -Richard Serra -Carolee Schneemann - Hannah Wilke Chapter 3, pp. 114-132 (Carolee Schneemann and Hannah Wilke, First Generation Feminism) Bruce Nauman, Bouncing Two Balls Between the Floor and Ceiling with Changing Rhythms, 1967-1968. 16mm film transferred to video (black and white, sound), 10 min. Body art/Performance art, Postmodern beginning- performed elementary gestures in the privacy of his studio and documented them in a variety of media Vito Acconci, Following Piece, 1969, Body art, Performance art- outside the studio, Postmodern beginning Video documentation of the event Print made from bite mark Vito Acconci, Trademarks, 1970, Body art, Performance art, Postmodern beginning Video and Print documentation
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Off Museum! Performance Art That Turned the Street Into 'Theatre,' Circa 1964 Tokyo
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Robert Morris, Minimalism, and the 1960S
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The Performativity of Performance Documentation
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WHAT IS ? – the WHAT IS–– IMMA Talks Series –––––––– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – ?
WHAT IS– – Performance Art – – – – – – –– – ––– – –––– – – – – – – – – –– – ? www.imma.ie T. 00 353 1 612 9900 F. 00 353 1 612 9999 E. [email protected] Royal Hospital, Military Rd, Kilmainham, Dublin 8 Ireland Education and Community Programmes, Irish Museum of Modern Art, IMMA THE WHAT IS– – IMMA Talks Series –––––––– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – ? There is a growing interest in contemporary art yet the ideas and theoretical frameworks which inform its practice can be complex and difficult to access. The What is_? programme, which is intended for a general audience, aims to provide an introduction to some of the key concepts and themes in modern and contemporary art and also to provide information about the materials and methodologies employed by artists in the creation of their work. 03 This programme acknowledges the inherent problems and contradictions in attempting to outline or summarise a wide-ranging, constantly changing and contested sphere of art theory and practice and also the limitations of employing summary terms to describe a range of practice, much of which emerged in opposition to such totalising tendencies. Taking these challenges into account, the intention of this programme is to promote information sharing CONTENTS and to encourage critical thinking, debate and discussion about art and artists. What is __? talks series page 03 Drawing on expertise and experience from lecturers, artists, curators Introduction: Performance Art page 04 and critical writers, the series offers a range of perspectives and is neither What is… Performance Art? - Amanda Coogan page 09 definitive nor exhaustive. Each topic is addressed by a talk and supported Bibliography and Further Reading page 22 by an information booklet which includes a summary, the presenter’s essay, Glossary of Terms page 23 a reading list, a glossary of terms and a resources list.
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