In this important new survey, Catherine Wood proposes performance
not as a genre of art separate from object-making but as an attitude
that has infiltrated the entire terrain of contemporary art. From
the musical-theatricals of Marvin-Gaye Chetwynd to the public
encounters created by Tino Seghal and the social activism of Tania
Bruguera, a hugely divergent set of practices has emerged in the past
twenty to thirty years which embrace the worlds of sculpture and
painting, spectacle and protest.
Examining in turn individual, social and object-based approaches
in the field, Wood first examines the influential performance art of
the 1960s to 1980s: the body art of the Viennese actionists; the raw
performances of Yoko Ono and Chris Burden; and the experiments
of the Japanese Gutai group among others. She then explores
how these sources have been revisited, reformed or rejected by
contemporary artists in the twenty-first century. This impressive book
encompasses international artists who fall outside the traditional
European and North American focus, giving the reader the broadest
and most up-to-date insight into the subject yet published.
