Performance Art theory..... through practice??: 2006-03-05

Diane Torr at the National School of Drama

Diane gave a two hour presentation at NSD comprising of a presentation on the development of her practice in New York, Europe and England over the last 25 years, a video of her 'Drag King Workshop' and concluding with a performance and a Q&A session. Diane will be conducting a Drag King Workshop at NSD on Sunday Feb 11th and 18th for students of NSD. The workshop is an intensive 10-12 hours where the participants enact and become 'Men for a Day'. Drag King Workshop (for women only) presented by Diane Torr "Have you ever wanted to dress like a man, try on the male guise and enter the male domain? The drag king workshop is a unique experience in which women take on the role of men, and live as men for a day. Each woman is responsible for the identity of the male she conceives of for herself, and is required to provide the clothes she will need for her male persona. In the workshop, women will learn how to walk, talk, take up space, and assume the sense of privilege and entitlement that goes along with the male gender. They will practice interacting with other participants in the workshop in their new personae. The workshop culminates in a visit to a public space - a strip joint, a sports bar, an art opening, or perhaps a dance club, where we can test our new identities."

a lot has been happening

a lot has been hapening over the last two weeks....new dynamics unfolding between between our resident artists. Oreet Ashery led an workshop......and we forgot to get in the translators for wu and paulo. thank fully perfomance happens more with body than with the spoken word (welllll not really....but valid for the workshop). Sonia Khurana could not join the workshop and Sushil Kumar came in late....he was not well....but stii tried for a token participation. good enery....but somehow did not really come together......still enabled the artists to explore their bodies and minds...................................hmmmmm all for now

not exactly a concept note

Re-visiting Performance

Poetic Terrorism?

Performance art is a concept metaphor usually used to tag avant-garde/conceptual art which grew out of visual art practice and locates the body and space as the as the subject and the actual material for the artwork. Traditionally it is viewed as a interventionist challenge to Painting and Sculpture, and located in the realm of ephemeral artistic practices which resist the “commodity status” of art products. However Performance Art is also a resistant to main stream practices in theater, and has enacted the resistance through positing the performer as an artist (as against a character) and working in the margins/outside of the traditional understanding of plot or narrative and often actively subverting them.

Over the last two decades performance art has largely gained from trends towards dienchanments about the objecthood of art. There has been a significant growth in the and a growth in interest towards the process; performance art often highlights ‘process’ as an anti-thesis to the ‘celebrated finished hood’, often situating itself in an anti commodity protest. However it has also diversified into being a ‘new art’ which transcends boundaries of recognized media, encompassing those that have not been previously identified as artistic media....especially within fine art practices.

Although performance art claims a inter media status, it is still claimed from within a particular framework of visual arts practices. In its workings to create an ‘other’ vis-à-vis performing arts, performance art tend to become more comfortable with it’s another ‘other’ i.e. ‘fine arts. The KHOJ 2004-5 November December residency was a step towards discovering, locating and showcasing newly emerging practices in an attempt to challenge the concept metaphor called ‘performance art in India’. We had been exposed to various possibilities in performance through the various KHOJ worhshops where over the years a number of artists have worked with performance art. Even outside KHOJ artists like Nalini Ramani, Rumanna Hussain, Sharmila Samant, Pushpamala and Monali Meher [1] had been exploring possibilities and re defining performance art. In 2004 we decided to put it all together in a residential ‘process and display’ format and give performance art a new critical impetus through practice. The residency was a significant exploration of ‘performance’ within visual arts.

There is a need to challenge the ‘trans media’ claims of performance art and to interrogate the comfort it enjoys with a certain kind of ‘high’ within visual art practices. If performance art has to engage with allegations about it being a derivative practice, it has to it has to constantly rejuvenate it self ....possibly through pushing boundaries of performing and video. The KHOJ 2005-2006 residency is curated towards putting together artists from across the board in an attempt to rejuvenate the concept and practice of performance art in India.

For 2004-2005 November December residency: http://www.khojworkshop.org/database/residencyatkhoj/residency2004/novdec04/index_html/

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/07.18.02/activist-0229.html

http://www.guerrillagirls.com/

http://www.encyclopedia4u.com/f/fluxus.html

http://www.zazi.com/search/search.php?browse=/Arts/Visual_Arts/Performance_Art/

http://www.chennaionline.com/ArtScene/newsmakers/anita.asp

www.sniggle.net

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_art

AM NOT PERFORMING