I recently showed a video of my first and almost last performance work to someone I trusted to give honest feedback. I myself hadn't seen the work for nearly ten years.
The effect of the work on this person was to turn them away from me. I hadn't thought through the implications of the work to someone out of the context it was being performed in and the body of work I was doing at the time.
In 2005 for my post-grad study I had been exploring art as an abusive communication or intervention. It was part catharsis (after a major life upheaval) part existential crisis built up around the abusive use of the word SORRY. Other works involved almost suffocating myself by taping my head to a wall with gaffer tape, getting my friend to drink 3 litres of cask wine in under an hour as a mock video recorded experiment, and yelling at nothing.
The performance work was called the Pigman cycle and involved me unsuccessfully trying to get the audience to gratify me. It involved me starting off naked on a stage infront of an audience of about 50 people who had come to see a performance art event called "Safety Razor". Pigman was just one of many works performed that night that also included poetry and musical pieces. Pigman was performed in 4 parts.
The first part involved me standing naked on stage for a minute and saying nothing then saying"sorry" and walking off. Subsequent parts involved me getting more clothed and revealing my inner existential conflicts and my lack of being able to ejactulate due to the ant-anxiety medication I was on. I then asked a member of the audience to come back stage and help me ejactulate. This was a painful and abusive request of the audience and no-one took up the offer. I never thought anyone would.
So by turning the audience into the subject of my anxiety was I wrong? Is this the idea of using the "audience as therapy" wrong or even outside the bounds of performance art? Was I even trying to use the "audience as therapy" in this work? (I won't say whether the work was in good taste as that is redundant in the context). These are questions I will unpack further with some research.
The effect of the work on this person was to turn them away from me. I hadn't thought through the implications of the work to someone out of the context it was being performed in and the body of work I was doing at the time.
In 2005 for my post-grad study I had been exploring art as an abusive communication or intervention. It was part catharsis (after a major life upheaval) part existential crisis built up around the abusive use of the word SORRY. Other works involved almost suffocating myself by taping my head to a wall with gaffer tape, getting my friend to drink 3 litres of cask wine in under an hour as a mock video recorded experiment, and yelling at nothing.
The performance work was called the Pigman cycle and involved me unsuccessfully trying to get the audience to gratify me. It involved me starting off naked on a stage infront of an audience of about 50 people who had come to see a performance art event called "Safety Razor". Pigman was just one of many works performed that night that also included poetry and musical pieces. Pigman was performed in 4 parts.
The first part involved me standing naked on stage for a minute and saying nothing then saying"sorry" and walking off. Subsequent parts involved me getting more clothed and revealing my inner existential conflicts and my lack of being able to ejactulate due to the ant-anxiety medication I was on. I then asked a member of the audience to come back stage and help me ejactulate. This was a painful and abusive request of the audience and no-one took up the offer. I never thought anyone would.
So by turning the audience into the subject of my anxiety was I wrong? Is this the idea of using the "audience as therapy" wrong or even outside the bounds of performance art? Was I even trying to use the "audience as therapy" in this work? (I won't say whether the work was in good taste as that is redundant in the context). These are questions I will unpack further with some research.