Retyping as art

Performance artist Tim Youd retypes famous novels word for word on old typewriters. The only change he makes is that he leaves out all the spaces between the words, producing page after page of unbroken text. He does this as performance art events at museums, art galleries, coffee shops, etc.

I figured that since typing was his thing, he'd probably be a pretty good typist. But as can be seen in the video, he turns out to be a two-finger, hunt-and-peck typist. Although a relatively fast one.

More info: TimYoud.com, StraitsTimes.com

Posted By: Alex - Tue May 01, 2018 - Comments (3)
Category: Art, Performance Art

Breadwoman

Breadwoman is a character who wears rags and a loaf of bread on her head while she dances to electronic music. She was created in the mid-1980s by performance artist Anna Homler, apparently having emerged from Homler's "background as an anthropologist and her inexplicable desire to wear bread." Although Breadwoman's mask was originally a hollowed-out loaf of bread, it's now made out of latex.



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Posted By: Alex - Sun Jan 14, 2018 - Comments (1)
Category: Food, Performance Art

Cherophobia

Back in September 2017, artist Noëmi Lakmaier lay still for nine hours as a team of balloon assistants and a "bondage engineer" attached 20,000 balloons to her immobilised body. Eventually she achieved lift-off, but since she was inside the Sydney Opera House, she didn't float away.



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Posted By: Alex - Wed Jan 03, 2018 - Comments (4)
Category: Performance Art

Chained to a 4-ton block of marble

Belgian artist Mikes Poppe recently chained himself to a four-ton block of marble and then attempted to free himself by chiseling away at it. His goal was to demonstrate how the "inescapable burden of history" imprisons artists.

Nineteen days later he gave up and asked to be freed, admitting that he had "underestimated the marble." Despite this, he said, "I don’t see that as a failure... On the contrary. I have been able to communicate with the public. I am now going to read the many comments in the guestbook and take a warm bath.”





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Posted By: Alex - Tue Dec 05, 2017 - Comments (6)
Category: Performance Art

I Like America and America Likes Me

In 1974, German artist Joseph Beuys arrived in America for the first time. Upon landing at the airport, he was transported by ambulance directly to the Rene Block Gallery in New York City. He emerged from the ambulance wrapped in a grey felt blanket and was then placed in a room with a wild coyote where he spent the next three days.



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Posted By: Alex - Mon Jul 03, 2017 - Comments (0)
Category: Performance Art, 1970s

Artist Lays Egg

Poincheval hatching eggs

Chuck mentioned a few weeks ago that French performance artist Abraham Poincheval would soon be sitting on a dozen eggs until they hatch. He's now well into the process of doing that and has hatched nine eggs already.

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Posted By: Alex - Sat Apr 22, 2017 - Comments (0)
Category: Publicity Stunts, Performance Art, Farming

A Minute of Dance Per Day

There is just as much of this as you can take--and possibly more than you can take--at her page:



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Posted By: Paul - Wed Aug 24, 2016 - Comments (4)
Category: Avant Garde, Performance Art, Europe

Cabbage Walking

Artists in Kashmir have started walking cabbages (and other vegetables) on a leash, as a way to protest the ongoing military conflict over the region. One artist explains: "What I wanted to do basically is juxtapose the absurdity of this performance with what was happening around—the structures of violence that I was seeing around me."

These Kashmir artists cite the Chinese artist Han Bing as inspiration, because he was the first to "walk a cabbage."

This reminds me of how, according to legend, the French poet Gerard de Nerval used to walk his lobster through Paris.

Image source: Shahid Tantray via Vice.com

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Posted By: Alex - Sat Apr 16, 2016 - Comments (13)
Category: Performance Art, Surrealism

Chicago’s Acro-Theater

Plays that also featured acrobatic & gymnastic stunts. I'm thinking Shakespeare should be performed this way. Hamlet's soliloquy delivered on a trampoline.



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Posted By: Paul - Tue Apr 05, 2016 - Comments (9)
Category: Entertainment, Exercise and Fitness, Regionalism, Sports, Performance Art, 1940s, 1950s

Man grows ear on arm

Australian artist Stelarc is growing an ear on his arm. It's been a project of his years in the making. He first got the idea back in 1996, and it took a while to find doctors willing to do the work. But the ear is pretty well formed now. His final goal is to insert a microphone into his arm ear, and then connect the microphone to the internet, so that people around the world can hear through his arm ear.

He says, "People's reactions range from bemusement to bewilderment to curiosity, but you don't really expect people to understand the art component of all of this."



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Posted By: Alex - Tue Aug 11, 2015 - Comments (5)
Category: Body, Body Modifications, Performance Art