Kristine Stiles’ chapter in “Critical
Terms for Art History,” begins by stating that performance art has been
difficult to analyze through the lens of traditional art historical methods of
analysis. Stiles claims this is because the artist acts both as the subject and
the object/work of art (p. 75). Additionally, performance art is situated at a
juncture of intentionality, presentation and representation (p. 95). Stiles uses the
term commissure to describe how
performance art acts as a connector between subjects, objects, and viewers. She
employs the work, The Smiling Workman,
by Jim Dine as an example of this. “…it could be said that Dine presented
himself as a commissure, working between action (his performance) and its
object (the action painting itself). His performance operated as a commissure
between his enactment as a subject and viewers as witnessing subjects,
announcing his social contingency and his personal need for communication and
interpersonal relationship (p. 83).”
I overall enjoyed Kristine Stiles’
chapter and how she briefly explained the history of performance art, how the medium is situated in the framework of art history and scholarly discourse, and
her exploration of the connection between subjects, objects and viewers. But
what I found most interesting was her discussion of how performance art reveals
“the interrelationships of private, biographical experiences and public, social
practices” in the creation of art (p. 76). Stiles claims that these experiences
situate artists “as a cultural force in and for social change (p. 76),” performance
is therefore seen as inherently activist (p. 94).
I especially enjoyed Stiles’
discussion of female artists in the 1970s and their contribution in developing the
medium. According to Stiles, female artists used performance to bring awareness
to women’s issues and abuses by the patriarchy (p. 86). Not only does Stiles note
the importance of women in performance, she suggests “…people of color, gays,
lesbians, bisexuals, and trans-gender individuals have been especially
instrumental in the developing discourses of alterity that emerge from
consideration of gender, sexuality, race, class and nationality. These topics
have been explored in performance art more than in any other visual art medium.
In fact, performance provides a unique domain wherein the fixed identities
dictated by social mores have been challenged (p. 94).”
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