Performance Art vs. Theater Art
Performance art is different from traditional theater because of the dismissal of a formal narrative. There is a use of random structures defined by the artist to perform, which is open ended to how the audience interprets it. There is a clear narrative and aim to please the audience’s intention when performing theater art, where the audience's interpretation could be very open ended in performance art. Sculptures can be a part of the performance in the work being performed to try to help whatever message the artist is trying to convey. It is more involved than the prop though, because if the theater doesn’t have the prop, the narrative still isn’t lost, but if the sculpture is lost within the performance, the audience can convey the artists message in a completely different way.
The audience can be a part of the performance too in the art piece.
The Cirque Calder’s art forms can be an example of “Gesamtkunstwerk” because all of the sculptures in his setting he creates, also his wife changing the vinyl songs in the back were all conveyed as the whole art piece in one synthesized performance. It’s a one of a kind piece because people can’t really replicate the characters completely constructed by Calder, and perform it like he did. The circus character sculptures in motion convey the people performing the acts at the circus. That is why this performance is shown as a whole art piece and conveyed as one.
This reminds me of the artist Matthew Barney. He is a living American contemporary artist that explores sculptures, film, photography and drawing. In the Cremaster Cycle films, which there are five, he makes sculptures and hires actors to show actions through his sculptures he makes for the film. That is why this reminded me of “The Cirque Calder.” All of the films are very unique and surreal. Each one has their own different characters and setting made by Barney to convey a mysterious dreamlike reality with very artistic allusions depicting sexuality and pureness. I personally haven’t seen all of them fully unfortunately, because they are hard to access. He sells them as art pieces themselves. It’s also very clear that Matthew Barney has a big budget for these films because of the amount of details and sculptures that go into them. In that way, that is where “The Cirque Calder” and the Cremaster cycle films differ, because it looks like Calder found random miscellaneous objects in his basement and assembled the circus characters all together.
Seeing these pieces have inspired me to make some artistic films of my own!
THE CIRQUE CALDER
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MATTHEW BARNEY- THE CREMASTER CYCLE (SOME IMAGES)