[Xmca-l] Re: "cultivating Minds

[HENRY SHONERD]

Hi Annalisa, 
I think that Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman are apt narratives to evoke that counterculture of a certain time (late 60s especially) in the U.S. Regarding their bodies, their physical bodies, both died at 52 but: Jerry was run over by a car. Abbie took his own life with phenobarbital and alcohol. I am reminded of what the great Joe Walsh of the Eagles said: “When you’re living it, life is a mess, but when you look back, it’s a finely crafted nove.". For some. For Jerry, but not for Abbie. I was a grad student at UC Berkeley in the late 60s. For me, Jerry and Abbie were icons. As was Che, two years dead when I cut sugar cane with the Brigada Venceremos in Cuba. Cutting sugar cane in Cuba was a performance, well meaning, but with out too much “injection of art”. I will get a bit confessional here: I could have gone either way, Jerry’s way or Abbie’s. I don’t know what this has to do with performance art, but i just get this warm feeling how lucky I am to be part of this chat. Authenticity with style! I’m nobody. How about you?
Henry


> On Mar 3, 2015, at 4:36 PM, Annalisa Aguilar <annalisa@unm.edu> wrote:
> 
> David,
> 
> You are right. There will be on a listserv reiterations, which is always a good thing. Not sometimes.
> 
> And disagreements can also reiterate, which seems to be happening here. Is that a good thing? Not sure.
> 
> I stand by my original statement which was something like:  I am not able to group all performance artists into one group and reduce them as"doing" all the same things, and then call it stupid.
> 
> I cannot do that. I can't do that with painters, with musicians, with photographers, with filmmakers, with sculptors, with printmakers, with dancers. 
> 
> You can, and you are, and you are free to do that. 
> 
> I'd like to say that calling something NOT ART, or someone NOT AN ARTIST is a predictable process of dismissing people as unqualified to do art. Just like dismissing marginalized people has not having a voice in political process.
> 
> To comment about the argument about "What is Quality in Art?" is also a Very Old Theme in Art History, and Clement Greenberg is your guy for that. If you want to get into the conversations that have already been discussed on this you could perhaps visit Linda Nochlin's article "Why have there been no great women artists?"
> http://f.hypotheses.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/512/files/2012/01/whynogreatwomenartists_4.pdf
> 
> I might choose to replace "women artists" with any other kind of artist who doesn't adhere to what is a "viable" artist in the hegemony of Western Art history and the essay would probably work, because it too is dealing with "What is the Quality of Art?" but from the standpoint of asking "WHO IS IT who says what is quality and what is NOT quality?". This essay was published in 1971, by the way.
> 
> In any case, I actually see a value to what performance artists do. I will not change my position, no matter how much you try to discredit the art AND it's ok that you don't like it. That doesn't bother me at all. 
> 
> Performance artists are working in a space of non-commodification. I like that. They are using their bodies in their artwork, but they can elect not to do that. It's not a requirement. But I find that in the performance artists that do use their bodies there is a great deal of courage required and personal risk. It's not just about sensationalism, there is an activist mentality there. I like that too.
> 
> For example, Abbie Hoffman throwing real and fake money onto the floor of the NYSE trading floor, was a political act, but it could be easily be performance art. Much of what he did was not unlike performance art. 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbie_Hoffman
> 
> Much of activism _performed_ in a creative way IS performance art. Which means NOT ONLY artists in your so-called bourgeois venues can do it. Perhaps THE POINT that artists who literally masturbate in their performances IS to CRITICALLY COMMENT upon what you actually don't like about narcissistic performance. 
> 
> But see, one would have to read up on Art History to know this. 
> 
> Everything requires a context.
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Annalisa
> 
>