PERFORMANCE ART.

The expression that ‘’art is life’’ which many people without the artistic sense think of it as irrelevant actually has a gratuitous meaning in that it expresses us. Art has the ability of telling whom and what we are and helps us freely express ourselves. Even though sometimes it is boring and weird, it comes with a concept and relevance backing it; meaning every art that is expressed has a meaning no matter how absurd, abstractive or meaningless it looks like. Moreover, every artist has an inspiration from which he gets his ideas to bring out that beautiful or ugly meaningful or meaningless piece as you perceive in your eyes and thought.

Art as explained by Kofi Antubam; a Ghanaian symbolic artist is ‘’any expression of emotional conceptions or ideas which a people possess about what is beautiful or ugly, wise or foolish, pleasant or unpleasant to them of the decent or indecent in all things in their environment and of all they do in their everyday life’’, This definition is based on concept and ideas; thus, depending on what is in your mind and what you feel inside is what you bring out. It could be to either address issues or just for pleasing the eyes but most importantly, it must be meaningful. In J. H. Nketiah’s article about Kofi Antubam, he expresses that Kofi believed that ‘’art was vital only when it reflected the values and ideas of a society and that in old traditional utilitarian approach of art which made it an integral part of society. This goes to say that the acceptance and meaning of art depends on the belief and norms of the people.

Consequently, performance art as a discipline of art as it is now has a stand in the world. This is so because of the direct appeal and appreciation of the audience. Performance art is however explained generally as ‘’the expression of art in the fine art form’’. This is where art moved from being still to live which artist did by involving human beings. It has various forms of which dwells on the movement of the body in different posture in time and space with or without any specific venue. Most at times, the actions are made with the help of other art forms like paintings, statues and other objects that have a relation to the concept of the artist. Also, performance art connotes more aesthetic value because of the connection between the body involved and the objects at which the art denotes. They might have the same color, shape or style in order to get the audience wonder and marvel at their performance as to how these objects move. Moreover, it sometimes borrow things outside the artistic work; death, rituals and other social and behavioral acts.  It can be done with the audience or not, in the same way can either be chronological or be done in any sequence, it just has to have a meaning and concept. Performance art can be done solely by an artist or he can collaborate with other artist or performers. It is done anywhere; thus, it does not necessarily need a special space such as the art gallery or one of the great halls. This also constitutes one of the reasons why it is most embraced by the youth since with the little resources they have, they can put up a great performances without any major hindrance.

Considering, the great artist, Leonardo da Vinci works, it is in the framework of fine arts. If in one of his works, he does a painting on a wall; mosaic and then employs a performer to make known his concept then it moves from being just art to performance art, a disciplinary in art. Here, he costumes the performer in the same colors as the painting and makes him position himself in a way that will fit that of the mosaic in order to avoid the audience from seeing exactly a human being involved. From there, they involve movements using any of the forms of performance art that befits the concept very well. The art then ceases to be still but live.

           According to the scholar, Miriam Griffin, history of performance art stretches further than one might think of. She elaborates that it started in the sixteenth century where in Iberian Peniasala and in America's new colonies. Poets throughout those provinces found live art, a new way they presented their works. It cut across visual arts, music and literature. They usually presented them in the parks, markets and other open areas for the audience as they pass by.

Historically, performance art started in the nineteenth and early twentieth century’s having its roots in experimental art where it was largely practiced

After the Second World War, artist thought it right as a useful tool to express philosophical and psychological questions about human existence. The body is now used as a powerful medium to express and communicate physical and emotional feelings about issues pertaining to us as humans. This is where the advancement came in and technology was introduced to the board. In the twentieth century, the performance s were made thin in order for the audience to keep the memory of it.

Allan Kaprow staged these arts on humors and irrelevant events from performance art. He did these performances consciously and others unconsciously in the year 1927.Most importantly, it only required the art of the artist expressed fully to the audience.

In addition, German Expressionism brought about the rejection of formal conventions of traditional art in painting and sculpture and brought about concept in artwork leading to Dada and Surrealist movements, Futurism, Conceptual art, assemblage and construction, installations and happenings, all of intellectual origins of performance art. In this period, it was known as body art because art was basically focused on the body. Joseph Beuys, a German artist liked to call it ‘’action painting’’ because the arts were no longer two dimensional but involved the use of bodies terming it as live; three dimensional.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Americans solely elaborated on feminism where the women were able to confront social injustice, gender discrimination and other problems they are facing through performance art. This made them to be heard and they did not let lose this opportunity. In this same era, Chris Burden and Joseph Beuys used performance art to criticize and reject US imperialism as well as question political motivation, a material significantly provided from the Vietnam War.

            Notwithstanding, performance art has so many features that distinguishes it from theatre even though people mistaken one for the other. It has no strict rules governing because artist say, ‘’art is experimental’’ and hence even mistakes do form part of their works. Another feature is that, it is live and can be made of forms such as theatre, music, dance, dialogue, sculpture and so on as it is with artist. They differ from each other in terms of concept, style and forms.

                Everything in this world no matter great or small, relevant or irrelevant as u perceive it has an importance. Performance art accepted by many of us in the world today has a great benefits to us.

We are able to express ourselves very well through performance art. Assuming we live in a corrupt country and the president is the gear in it, you cannot just go and address him just like that because you could be either arrested and imprisoned or better still killed. The best thing you can do is to put up a performance through which you can draw attention to the source, causes and consequence of their actions.

Moreover, we are able to explore beyond what is around us. Performance art provides an avenue for us to look beyond what we see. Certain theories are sometimes employed and best explained through performance art. Discoveries and understanding of them are also known through performance art.

Also, performance art brings about cohesion and unity amongst us because it serves as a platform for socialization. Here, both commoners and intellectuals from all walks of life come together and enjoy the art putting aside their differences and having a common motive for the performance to go on well and after leave peacefully to their various destinations.

Performance art again serves as a facilitating material and a therapy. It helps in educating the public about issues as well as helping in the physical, emotional, spiritual and mental state of the people especially with the handicapped

              Performance art is moved by various art forms which include theatre, dance, music, illusion, mime and puppetry and amongst others. Depending on the style of the artist, he chooses the medium through which he expresses his art. Performance art does not stay in a particular trend for a long time but moves in due time. Modernity and technology has made it possible to view such performances over and over again because the rate at which the art flows is continual that the interest of the audience becomes intense as the show goes on. Moreover, these forms can be put together and used in one piece.

With music, the performers move with rhythm and tempo. They always make sure they are able to relate with the music very well because even though they can communicate their actions and movements without it, the music rather enhances their performance to the very best. The music could be either orchestrated or from recorded music.

Also, for theatre, it should be three dimensional such that, it should have a plot, dramatic actions and most importantly, tension. Performers should also be able to adapt to change faster. With this, they relate more to the props and most at times take the features of the props in which they work with especially their color.

However, with dance, it is usually accompanied with music. Much of these arts are dwelt on various and exclusive body movements. Dance has come to stay longer possibly than other form of art and hence contain much of the culture of the people making performance art have an importance in their lives.

Moreover, with mime and puppetry, the artist remains quiet throughout the whole performance and tells his story through movements. It is a cross between stage play and dance. It is found amongst the medieval Europe and in China. In contemporary times, mime is done by painting the face white usually done in open areas like the park as a form of practice or as a source of living.

Nevertheless, spoken word is also another form of performance art. Performers can also use words to relate to the concept from which the artist is coming from and relating to the props involved in the performance.

Finally, performers use illusions commonly known as magic to skillfully deceive audience. They use large props in order for their tricks not to be visible. The more and harder the audience watch with anxiety and curiosity, the less they see.

All these come together to make up performance art with various styles and diversity.

In the life of performance art over the years, many ideas and concern have been employed by artist and performers through which it has attained its firm grounds. .

Juliana Emilia Fusco Miayers, born in New York on June 18, 1960 is a Cuban-American interdisciplinary artist and writer. She had her Bachelor’s degree in Literature and Society in 1982, Brown University. In Stanford University, she furthered her education again for a Master’s of Art degree in Modern Thoughts and Literature, 1985 and a Doctorate degree in Visual Culture from the Middlesex University, England in 2005. Coco Fusco takes her inspiration from women and society, war, politics and race.

She started her career with teaching as an assistant professor of visual arts in Temple University. Due to her marvelous work in the field of teaching, she had so many transfers and promotions which all helped build her up in the art industry. She went out for both single and collaborative works. Some of her works include; the last wish, rights of passage, stuff and a room of one’s own, all have their central part from women, society, war, politics and race.

One of her best performances, In the Last Wish, she expresses her emotions about her grandmother’s death and relates it to the way and manner at which she died. As she performed the piece, it denoted the theme as that of death. Also, she was able to put across the wish of her grandmother and that is for her to die in her hometown. Coco lied beneath a black light in a long white dress surrounded with flowers indicating a coffin.  As the saying goes that ‘’two heads are better than one’’, collaboratively, she also did the Year of the White Bear and Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit to the West(11992-1994), Dolores from 10 to 10(2001) and the Incredible Disappearing woman(2003) which she did with Ricardo Dominguez depicting death, sex, art and immigration between United States and Mexicans. With these, she was able to contribute massively to performance art by relating it to the things that go on around us.

Another great scholar in this field is the Legend Robert Wilson. It is said that he pioneered performance art as well as experimental art in the 60s and 70s; for which he is known internationally today as the director and creator of series of hallucinatory, elegant artworks and theatrical works including Einstein on the Beach.

In 1968, he started a performance group by name Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds, to pay tribute to the dance instructor in her 70s who taught his sister ballet. Performance in those days were done in the streets, alleys and other open space areas because it was expensive to hire theatrical spaces. It was exciting been done in parks, streets, alleys but it was done ones and you had to enjoy it to the fullest and keep it in memory. With determination to build up this industry, Robert spent all his savings in getting a space that would bring artist from all walks of life together. He purchased an abandoned telecommunication laboratory on Long Island in Water Mill. Water Mill has grown from a meagre table to larger ones. There now, most of the artist present their works

Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman (January 7^, 1949-May 16,1984), an American entertainer, actor and performance artist even though people thought of him as a comedian, he did not consider himself one instead, he considered himself as a ‘’song-and-dance man’’. He was born in New York and grew up in a middle-class Jewish family in Great-neck, Long Island, New York and began performance at age 9. He attended Graham Junior College, Boston and graduated in 1971 after which he started performing stand-up comedies in clubs.

He caught the attention of the audience with a character, Foreign man. He characterized Foreign man to be from Caspiar; a fictional island on the Caspian Sea. He cited the line, ‘’here I come to save the day’’ with great enthusiasm as he plays a theme from Mighty Mouse cartoon. He then begins to tell a number of jokes as well as impersonating other characters on television shows and famous people. With his weak imitations of famous people, the character Foreign Man then changed Latkas Gravas for the ABC’s Taxi sitcom, appearing in 79 of 114 episodes from 1978 to 1983. Other characters he also worked on are Tony Clifton, Fridays Incident, Andy’s Funhouse, amongst other.

Hannah Wike, an American artist with professional skills in painting, sculpture, photography, video and performance art was born in March 7, 1940 and died in January 28, 1993. She was born in New York City to Jewish parents. In Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Philadelphia, she received her Bachelor of Fine Art degree and Bachelor of Science in Education. After which she took up her teaching career mainly in several high schools and later joined the School of Visual Arts, New York teaching sculpture and ceramics in the year 1974 to 1991.

One major work she did in her early days include body art in the 1974 when she started with her work on photography body art piece. Her art piece, S.O.S meaning Starification Object Series emerged from her minimalist sculpture and her own body which she made from tiny vulval sculpture out of chewing gum and sticking it to herself. She then took photos of herself in different poses, style in glamour depicting tribal scarification. She termed this aspect of art as ‘’performalist self-portraits’’ to give honor not only to herself but also to photographers who assisted her including her father and sister. Some of her other works include Death and Intra-Venus (1992-1993) and Pose and Narcissism which expressed feminism; everything that had to do with women.

            With technology still on the go rising, performance art has a great future. Depending on the intensity of the use of the technology, performance art may lose its intimacy with the audience in that if the technology grows to the extent of making the movements themselves, then there is no need to involve humans. Moreover, if we as artist are able to maintain the balance between technology and our human effort, then the interest and intimacy of the audience will still be there.

On the other hand, technology can also make it easier for artist because with technology, they would not go through the stress of making and composing every little detail of the performance. Performers will be able to make movements simple since with the help of light, costume and other technological elements, they can improvise to bring out a quality and clean art form.

Again, because it has been held esteem mostly by the youth and have extreme and intense interest in it, performance art has got a strong stand in the world today. It has gotten a place to stay such that the youth now form groups mainly to undergo this activity.They believe that through this, they are able to put across their ideas and thoughts especially when the authorities are not ready to hear them out. They call these kind of their performances ''mob''; literally meaning ''a youth gang''.

Today, the works of artists especially women who showed their concerns on feminism are not shown any more in museums because of the thought that it did not fit into distinct genre or style in this generation than in the then generation. This tells us that before a performance can be staged, it should fit the concerns and mind of the world as it is in that particular time and if possible, follow to the trend in the past and specifically, the future.

            To draw the curtain down, performance art is a form of art that evolves movements of the body in time and space. It has gone above the ground and hence has been recognized as a discipline and a form of art since artist have gone beyond the art of realistic paintings and sculptures and have brought about the era of involving humans for there to be a greater intimacy between art and audience.

It started in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in America and has to stay and cherished more than the ordinary commodities in the world now; it is neither sold nor bought like other raw materials. Moreover, it is used as a medium for philosophical and psychological questioning and answering of human existence. Performance art was also influenced by the Dada, Futurism, the Bauhaus and the Black Mountain College.

Performance art uses art forms such as illusion, music, dance, theatre, mime and puppetry to enhance the performance. Sometimes, more than one medium can be used to express the art. Lately, technology has advanced and since artist like to use it in their works, it has also made performance art advanced.

Scholars such as Coco Fusco, Legend Robert Wilson, Andy Kaufman and Hannah Wike in spite of them having different inspirations and diversity do all express fully themselves in art. This helps them relate much more to the audience with their different styles in approaching their forms. They are also able to change the notion and insight of the world that art is irrelevant by connecting it to their culture. Art will always be meaningless to people if they do not understand and have the insight of it just as you would think of a song being full of noise if you do not know the inspiration behind it.

Even though, technology has set a boundary between traditional and the 21^st century art and has enhanced it, I strongly believe that the human effort; movements and other art forms and technology should be on the same scale to keep the intimacy and interest of the audience for them to feel their culture and their lives in the art.

Also, the fact that artists of this generation has the ability to merge the various forms of performance art, it makes it have a bright future in the world. This is because there will always be a variety in the works of artist with the forms they use.

Distinctively, performance art might share some of its features with theatre but genuinely, they are two different things together. It has become one of the respected art in the industry today.

In the world today, people are mostly and usually influenced, spoken to and addressed by performance art. With regards to what is pertaining, they educate both the young and the old, the leaders and the followers which leads to the reduction in chaos. No matter how irrelevant performance art may seem, it will always be with us and help us in the various sectors of our lives being it self expression, explorations, socializations, facilitation, therapy and amongst other importance of it. Even though art is not sold like other stuffs, it serves as a source of living for people who have passion for it; thus they have found a way of getting paid for what they love and have passion for but not what they are obliged to do. On this note, I say.                                                                                                                                                                                  ''Art will always be expressed as life; eat it, drink it, enjoy it and express it'