Reading and Response #4
“Performance: A Hidden History”
As I read this article, I began feeling inspired and also a little sad. Reading about redefining what performance art means made me realize that I’ve been putting myself into an artistic bubble. This line in particular stood out to me, “It occurred to me that the dancers could do the gestures that they did ordinarily. These were movements accepted in daily life, why not on stage?”. What they were doing at Black Mountain College was pushing boundaries for the rest of us. The pure shock factor of their performances (particularly ones that involved organic materials likes bones or dead rabbits) was a part of the art itself. The excitement they created with their “happenings” (which, labeled puts it back into the box it tried to get out of) perhaps could not occur again. What they did at that school I believe almost set a maximum of how outrageous art can be. I think we would need to do something extremely out there to be recognized for being different. This could be a limiting factor, or perhaps it can just push artists to explore areas that one might not have thought to be considered “art” before.
“The other history of Intercultural performance”
I was not surprised by the reactions people had to the artists performing in the cages. They had noticed that typically, it was the white Americans who expressed their disapproval of their performance, while the “Others” found enjoyment in participating in the show, or approval by sharing the feelings of appropriation being represented. I only say I wasn’t shocked by that because I have watched videos where people, let’s say, wear stereotypical Mexican garb and ask people if it is cultural appropriation. The white Americans will say yes, 100%, but when asking Mexicans, they laugh and tell them they look good without taking any offense to it. I enjoyed reading about the irony they found in it all. While performing in museums, the curators of the museums were shocked and awakened by watching people react in the same way to their supposedly accurate representation of indigenous people as they did to this satirical performance of a fake people. It was upsetting to read about how they both faced gross sexual advances, bringing to light the fetishes people have of different people, especially in cages. This performance I think had a bigger impact after it was finished, as they were being told that they didn’t have the right to their own documentation of it, another ironic outcome of this performance.
