Today we had a visiting artist named John Wood who specializes in performance art. I found this really really interesting because the way they performed it was in a fun way.
They showed us several different pieces that they have put together over the last few years, one of them was called:
Board
This was interesting because they had to rely on each other so they don't injure themselves. This was good because it was all about communication but the strange thing was they didn't talk all the way through the piece so it was like using their senses. what they had to do is use a piece of wood during their act and balancing it on themselves and letting it drop in different ways. They even let it drop on top of themselves sometimes!
He mentioned something about an artist named 'Samuel Beckett' which I will have a look at.
When they first started with this performance art they got slated, this is because people said that it was not art but just a performance.
Three Legged
This was another piece of performance art that they produced. They still looked at the ideas of decision making.
He also mentioned something about an artist named 'Philip Decoufe' which ill have a look at.
In this piece they strap their legs together and stand against a wall while a tennis ball shooter fires balls at them (sometimes they did get caught by the ball). This piece was also about working together and relying on each other for direction!
When they were explaining on how they got the ideas for these pieces of art, they said that they just went into the studio and messed about and had a bit of fun. Most of their performances are to do with timing, they try to produce work an like a how to do guide, eg. how to dodge a ball or how to do an Olympic dive.
Before they created each of the videos they started the ideas off by sketching them on a piece of paper, them they would make that into 2D, then finally turn the 2D piece into 3D which was the performance!
Twenty Six
Another piece that they created that I thought was really good was 'Twenty Six'. In this piece of art there are twenty six different performance videos. One which was interesting was where a person stood against a wall and then heavy balls on strings swung and fell either side of him (this could have been dangerous if he moved a bit to the left). Another that they showed us was using a leaf-blower to keep a piece of paper up against a wall, I can remember trying to have a go at they with a fan which was really fun! There was a really funny one where a person was standing on a table and another just came past and broke one of the table legs and the person on the table fell off, as the person who kicked it supported his fall. The most amusing one was when they created a thin tube, long enough and wide enough for people to fit down, then 1 person slid down on his back and went down fine the first time but the second time he wore a life jacket and opened it on the way down and got stuck (i can imagine it being claustrophobic). Because I am interested in exploring paint this semester, they did a piece of performance art in 'twenty six' where they covered a ball in paint and dropped it onto a piece of paper making a pattern (the camera had an arial view). John Wood mentioned that in this piece where a guy opened the door and a plank of wood fell on his head, he made him do it more than a couple of times for fun (must have hurt). Finally during the performance of 'twenty six' they showed us a human book shelf where two people stood on one end and the opposite end gave way and one of the people slid off (a bit like a book would do if it collapsed on them).
John Wood said that when they started off they didn't have much money at all, plus when he did the 26th video on 'twenty six' he broke his neck.
Notebook
This was a further piece of performance art that they showed us and also consisted of more than one video. They said that they showed this video in the center of Middle borough. This idea originated from trying to find something to do when they were on the dole. They started this by placing a match between a books pages and lighting it and seeing how long the book would last being open! (some people didn't like the thought of burning books). I can remember doing this one in high school where you put a long bit of paint and see how long it takes for it to rise up a piece of paper, was really fun! One of the ones they showed us is getting a funnel and filling it with the right amount of sand which when they let it out would fill the circle area they drew on the piece of paper. The one that i really liked is the illusion one, this is the one where they put a piece of string with a load of balls on it and dropped them one by one at the end of the table, but the viewer couldn't see the string which left the balls looking like they were stacking up on top of each other perfectly!
When he was explaining about these videos he mentioned that his intention was not to use these objects in the way that they are intended to be used.
An interesting fact that they said was that they us to work in the studio from 10pm till 5am in the morning and the studios weren't soundproof either (I bet that was loud!).
The reason why they have performed all of these is because they thought about what they would do if they were stuck on the moon and bored!
10x10
At the end he showed us a video called '10x10'. This was where they go down in a lift and you can see different performances in each room like throwing a paper aeroplane etc.
I really liked the idea of illusional art which ill definatly have a look at!
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