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Performance Art

Module description

Performance Art will explore post-war artists’ use of performance, live art and theatre, including aspects of installation, photography, scores for performance, documentation, and video. The module will identify connections between work in North America and Europe that shares a lineage in the development of time-based art. Study will be supported by screenings and a visit to online exhibitions, as directed. The module requires no prior knowledge or skills and is open to anyone with an interest in recent and contemporary performance art.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The principal aim of this module is to introduce you to the key themes and practices of performance art since the late 1960s, their nature, significance, interconnections, and relevance to debates within visual art practice. The module aims to strengthen your skills in historical and contextual analysis and research of this field. Teaching will alternate between lectures and accompanying seminars introducing key concepts and artists and two-hour in-depth seminars incorporating your presentations and close reading of texts and documentation. Classes will also provide guidance on further independent research supported by a field trip. Seminar presentations will give you the opportunity to develop your own approaches to the syllabus texts and other materials.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. demonstrate an informed understanding of the history, nature, significance and influence of recent and contemporary performance art
• 2. demonstrate an informed understanding of a variety of modes of performance art practices employing diverse media emerging since the late 1960s
• 3. articulate key critical and theoretical issues surrounding the emergence of performance art and its relevance to on-going debates in art history, theory and practice

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. demonstrate an advanced ability to analyse artworks of various forms and genres and to relate aesthetic concerns and expressive modes to relevant cultural, social and art historical themes
• 5. demonstrate the capacity to research aesthetic, art historical and cultural questions and to utilise the knowledge gained to explicate the artworks under consideration
• 6. demonstrate an advanced ability to articulate and analyse relevant theoretical and critical ideas, and to apply these to performance artworks

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. demonstrate an advanced capacity to articulate complex ideas independently and to engage others in rigorous but respectful debate
• 8. demonstrate a capacity to work independently and in groups to identify key questions for analysis and an advanced proficiency to locate and evaluate relevant secondary materials and to utilise these in analysis of primary materials

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Why Performance Art?
• Close reading of selected texts and documentation.
• Body- object: Vito Acconci, Chris Burden, Dennis Oppenheim
• Close reading of selected texts and documentation.
• Social performance: Marioni, Knowles, Brecht, Tiravanija.
• Close reading of selected texts and documentation, including student-led presentation.
• Identity and environment: Hershman Leeson, Bonnie Sherk, Eleanor Coppola’.
• Close reading of selected texts and documentation, including student-led presentation.
• The artist is present: Marina Abramovic and Ulay, Marina Abramovic
• Close reading of selected texts and documentation, including student-led presentation.
• Media performance: Nam June Paik, Tony Oursler, Joan Jonas.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Beisenbach, M. (2010) Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present. New York: MOMA.
• Creed, M. and Eccles, T. (eds) (2014) Martin Creed: Works. London: Thames and Hudson.
• Giannachi, G. and Kaye, N. (2011) Performing Presence: from the live to the simulated. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Goldberg, R. (1998) Performance: Live Art Since 1960. London: Thames & Hudson.
• Heathfield, A and Glendinning, H. (eds) Live: Art and Performance. London: Tate Publishing.
• Heathfield, A and Jones, A. (eds) Perform, Repeat, Record: Live Art in History. London: Continuum.
• Jones, A. (1998) Body Art. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
• Kaye, N. (1996) Art into Theatre: performance interviews and documents. London and New York: Routledge.
• Kaye, N. (2000) Site-Specific Art: performance, place and documentation. London and New York: Routledge.
• Kaye, N. (2007) Multi-Media: installation – video – performance. London and New York: Routledge.
• Kaye, N. (2016) Dennis Oppenheim: body to performance, 1969-73. London and New York: Skira.
• Marioni, T. (2001) Tom Marioni: Sculpture and Installations 1969-1997. San Francisco: Crown Point Press.
• Marioni, T. (2004) Beer, Art and Philosophy. San Francisco: Crown Point Press.
• Montano, L. (ed.) (2001) Performance Artists Talking in the Eighties. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• Morgan, R.C. (ed.) (2000) Gary Hill. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.
• Schmidt, J-K (ed.) (2000) Joan Jonas: Performances Film Installation 1968-2000. Berlin: Hatje Cantz.
• Tromble, M. (2005) The Art and Films of Lynn Hershman Leeson: Secret Agents, Private I. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11118

Key words search

Performance, Art, live art. theatre installation, photography, video, post-minimalism, 1960s