The Emperor Has No Clothes Online Version

8/3/2019 The Emperor Has No Clothes Online Version

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The Emperor Has No Clothes!

Democratic Creativity & theEmancipated Creator

Adam Clark Young - I.D. 33238037 - 12/04/11


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Contents

Introduction p3

Beginnings p4-7

Words p8-9

The Birth of Eclecticismp10-16Duchamps ready-made to Fillious unknowing

Alastair MacLennan p17-21

The Paradox of Performer/Audience

A Case for live art p24-37

Take away the capital

Final Word p38Audio CD Are you alone?

Images

Figure 1 Original Fountain (top left) plus 3 reproductions

Figure 2 Photo Documentation of Alastair MacLennan 'Slow No'

Figure 3 Issue #12 Performance Magazine (1981) uses term Live Art

Figure 4 Evidence of Live Art in use by 1979

Figure 5 Kira O'Reilly on front cover of TDR Magazine

Figure 6 Visualisation of NPO funding with Yorkshire & Humber highlighted

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Appendices p40-51

Bibliography p53-57

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Firstly, hello!

Welcome! And thank you for joining me here!

Its just us!

The past me and the present you!

I have you (the reader) in my thoughts always as I write

this.

Are you willing to be my

audience/collaborator/contributor/conspirator to these

printed words?

Are you willing to have me in your thoughts?

Are you present? Good!

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Beginnings

Let us begin things with the statement that;

All art is live because art is not dead.

Let us also state that;

Any and all human acts can be artistic. You/we are creating

art right now.

And finally;

You dont have to agree with the previous two statments as

every truth is also inherently untrue.

This is a collection of essays that seek to frame a deeper

understanding of the implications of the terms Live Art & live art. It

is a snapshot of a continuum in the vast history of art writing and is

by no means conclusive. I, with willing and forethought, have

skimmed over much of the historical context of my subject matter in

order to present a broader view that exists outside of the confines of

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a linier structure. I do not want to get bogged down by the canonical

narrative of live/living art history but instead interoperate my own

understanding on what I see as an eternal theme of humanity. Some

call this Ontology.

I would like to believe that we are on the crest of a new wave of

thinking in the art world away from the Art Market towards a

democratic and emancipatory field of creativity and expression.

Process has replaced product as the driving force in creative

research. We do not need answers in our development anymore,

just the space for possibilities. At times I wish to highlight this by

pointing to the performative nature of reading and the playful

nature that writing can take.

I have read that any attempt to tell a story in its entirety is failed

from the outset (Heathfield 2004). Instead of perpetually trying to

push the proverbial rock-up-the-hill as Sisyphus was condemned to

do in Greek mythology, I will present a creative work of writing

where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I want to

rejuvenate the notion that; art is in essence, a live act. As Alastair

MacLennan (personal communication, 25 March 2011) says Art resides

in consciousness and it is with this consciousness that we

communicate with the external world.

I have chosen to write in the first person, largely because of the

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themes I am considering here, but also because I feel that my voice

is worthy of your attention. Who is this third person anyway? The

collective us?

In this writing I do not want to suppose that any art sector is better

than another e.g. Performance Art vs Theatre. Instead I hope to

lasso the whole arts tribe and make the distinction that all are

permissible and equal as creative acts. Furthermore I will show you

how it is possible to consider (as eastern philosophy does) the act of

life itself as being artistic.

My only attack will be on the art market and the monetizing of art. It

is my belief that art essentially exists in the human, so it is in stark

contrast to suggest that art can be sold. Only commodities can be

sold be they wall decorations (paintings) or ornaments (sculpture)

or moving image (DVDs) or sound (CDs) these are not living so

simply cannot be deemed to be art. These are merely

representations or products or even by-products of art. The Dadaists

called this anti-art (Goldberg 2010).

Considering my moral compass for this work of writing I am aware

that by attacking art as capital I appear to be anti-capital but I wish

to make it clear that arguments of Capitalist vs Communist do not

interest me. I find these to be archaic, singular terms in the

complexities of contemporary thinking. I do not wish to appear nave

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however so let me put forward the words of John Cage (1963, quoted

in Goldberg, 2010, p.126) to shine some light on my thinking In Zen

Buddhism nothing is either good or bad Art should be no different

[from] life but an action within life.

One rule still seems to hold true today as it ever did Do unto

others as you would have them do unto to you unless that is

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...youre a masochist

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Wordsare awful, messy things. I look at words like identityand performance and liveness and art and I think to myself,

where do you start? These words mean a great number of things

and their meanings have changed over time. To read a book written

40 years ago and see such words How, do I, as a 27 year old, have

the capacity to understand the authors true intentions? How, even,

am I to understand the intended use of such words in todays

writing? Worse! is the opposite end of the scale, where words such

as post-structuralism and constructivism, attempt to explain an

ever-narrowing field of view on thoughts and ideas. These words are

so abstracted from the natural experience of daily life that I almost

feel inhuman when I approach them. Many words overlap in their

meanings, and I find myself in a constant dialogue with online

dictionaries obsessing over the exact meanings behind these words.

I fear that in my attempts to fully understand the authors true

intention I am missing the grand vision, like watching a film one

frame at a time. There is no way around this issue of mine. The two

words I focus on in this writing are perhaps the most ambiguous

available to us, they are sacred and unknown yet integral to our

relationship with the world beyond the tip of our nose.

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These words are Live

These words are Art

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The Birth ofEclecticism

Duchamps ready-made to Fillious unknowing

Because of a lack of imagination most people do not even

experience their own life, let alone their world. Otherwise reading a

single newspaper would be enough to bring humanity into unrest.

Stronger means are therefore necessary.

Erwin Piscator(1927, p.5)

There has been much digestion, reflection and critique of Marcel

Duchamps impact on the art world over the past hundred or so

years. He has been associated with every major arts movement in

his lifetime and his reach and influence carry on to this day.

His seminal work (exhibited near the beginning of his career)

entitled Fountain (1917) is not only regarded as one of the most

influential works of art of the twentieth century but is also credited

with being the catalyst for provoking conceptual art into being.

Duchamps Fountain is playful and provocative. It not only

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proverbially defecates on the authority of the institution of the day

but more importantly it makes the statement that this is art

because I say it is. Duchamp refused his audience any other

explanation, and by this, left the individual with the task of

deciphering the works meaning, thus making art highly subjective

and personal to anyone who encountered it. He called his Fountain

a ready-made.

Figure 1 Original Fountain (top left) plus 3 reproductions

All the fetish and adoration for the craft of an art object was brought

into question with one gesture placing an upturned urinal in a

gallery space with the signature R. Mutt inscribed on it. It was quite

possible to conclude thereafter that to accept the ready-made

meant all that was left was the idea of art. As contemporary artist

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Alastair MacLennan puts it Art resides in consciousness (personal

communication 2011). Art is the intention or the experience of

engaging with the world through the eyes of art. To experience the

beauty or vulgarity of something could be recognized as an artistic

act. Some have called this quality.

Duchamp had setup a situation where, in the ready-made we have

a do-it-yourself democratizing aesthetic towards the art object.

There is no hierarchical value, no fetish of celebrity or adoration of

the object. Each individual is free of course to have their own

opinion/taste, but this is opposite from the unification of what art

can and should be. We do not see a narrowing of, or distillation of

what is possible to consider an art object but an explosion of

possibilities. Suddenly the main question becomes..

What isnt an art object?

This avant-garde approach of exploration without answer

manifested itself most prolifically in Fluxus. By the time the Fluxus

movement was in full flow ready-mades had found their way out

of the gallery space and into the real world. Artists such as George

Brecht were in the practice of creating fluxkits full of found

objects and ready-made instructions called event scores. One

such instruction informed the prospective participant to

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go to a mailbox, close your eyes, choose a letter,

rip it up, open your eyes(Higgins 2002, p84).

These kits were given to friends and distributed widely. Fluxkits

differentiated from ready-mades in that they were designed to be

experienced at the primary level (the senses) and not the secondary

(conceptual (non)understanding).

It is perhaps little understood or understated that in these ready-

made (at the point they are received) instructions we have a

situation similar to the written word. Once published, they remain

dormant until a person decides to engage with them and to act

upon them. Fluxus-style ready-made instructions may be likened to

archive paintings that enjoy only brief exhibitions before being put

back into storage. Are we to believe that once put away, to collect

dust, that art is somehow happening behind the closed door of the

archive? [Or] are we to come to an understanding that it is only

when the painting is on show to the public that it becomes anything

more than an assemblage of wood, canvas and paint. Surely it is the

human that brings life to art. It is us that bring art into being.

The Fluxus movement (still alive today) is a great example of

eclecticism in art. Whilst Fluxus was undoubtedly an attack on the

domination of white European ruling class art (Higgins, p73 2002)

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the individual members certainly did not agree on any framework

from which to move forward as a whole. As arts historian Owen

Smith describes Fluxus, anyone seeking to learn about the

historical nature of Fluxus and its conceptual framework, it might

more readily seem to be just plain frustrating rather than radical.

One commonality in the movement is the confidant use of ready-

made objects and ideas as a point of departure.

Over the course of his life Duchamp expressed his art through many

mediums but it is his introduction of ready-mades to the art world

that has endured. In the ready-made we have the ability to do-it-

yourself, to assemble objects, to make new meanings. In Duchamps

journals it was found that he intended to place a plaque on the

newly built Woolworth Building (at the time the worlds tallest

skyscraper)(Naumann 1999). His plan never came to fruition but what

it does show is that anything could be considered a ready-made.

In an interview with Joan Bakewell for the BBC in 1968 (the year of

his death) Duchamp expressed that; to him Art had been

discredited and that he would like to see society do away with it,

just as many had done with religion. For Duchamp the fetish of art

objects and the resulting monetary value this gave them was vulgar

and unnecessary. When Bakewell asked for his opinion on the

happenings of people such as Alan Kaprow, Duchamp became

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extremely complimentary towards their efforts and later pointed to

the fact that Art meant activity of any kind and in some way art

was dead because it has become so singularized instead of being

universal. Duchamp believed that art should be a human factor in

anyones life (Erlhoff 1984).

For Duchamp Art means to do, and by that he makes the leap that

as soon as anyone does something (anyone at all) they are an artist.

Instead of this view of art being inherent in human action we

prescribe art to a small group of people who we call artists. If we

then combine this understanding with Robert Fillious notion of Art

is what makes life better than art (Huberman, 2009) we suddenly

see what Filliou calls permanent creation: well made, badly made,

not made.

Robert Filliou was a leading thinker in the Fluxus movement. His

contribution to art philosophy stemmed from his belief in what he

called the genius of creation and not in the skill of creation. We

could also call this play. Filliou worked as an economist for the

United Nations in the 50s where he was deployed to Korea to help

write their constitution. Nam June Paik (1984 p.196) joked that the

economic downturn in Korea of the 70s was by Fillious hand.

The artist has moved from being artistic craftsman to director and

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source of impulse for publicly relevant events.(Pagnes, 2010, p.16)

Filliou was a great proponent of art as a social activity because he

did not see the distinction between his art and his life. He

recognised the similarities to Zen Buddhism and also warned of the

dangers of art; art is not worth doing unless it is a total

commitment to art some of us fall repeatedly time after time

some of us die there is the danger of alcoholism and drugs.. there

is the danger of dire poverty and being unable to take care of

ones family there is madness and finally as a great danger

there is success. (Filliou, 1982, p.192)

What is most revealing about Fillious admission is the distinction

between life and art. Life and art seem to be bound in an epic

struggle of acceptance, dependence and ultimately romanticism

and even lust. Art surely is the corrupting force in this relationship!

Parallels with Zen Buddhism are manifested in the Taoist symbol

Ying Yang, in this we see the light and dark swirl against each

other, but also with a part of themselves in each others domain. By

recognising the life in art we must conclude that art is human and

that it lives in us.

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Cubism begat Dada

Dada Begat Pop Art

Pop Art begat Fluxus

Fluxus begat Performance Art

------- AND LETS HOLD IT RIGHT THERE

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Alastair MacLennanThe Paradox of Performer/Audience

As weak as my voice may be in the internal domain of art, I insist

on manifesting a choice under the pressure of events. Pure or

impure, fiction is logical. It still remains to be discovered whether

art exists in another form and in another place than at the level of

negation.

Marcel Broodthaers(quoted in Dickhoff, 2000)

You may have noticed that I have neglected to use the word

performance up to this point. And there is good reason. For me

performance is a contentious word indeed, as it tacitly implies that

there must be an audience present. Contemporary artist and

member of Black Market International, Alastair MacLennan

performs without an audience in what he has termed as

Actuations. Nikki Milican (2008) reminds us that in Wave to Water

at the National Review of Live Art (2007) Alastair MacLannan was

without an audience during the twilight of his 24 hour work due to

health and safety concerns. This did not stop him from seeing his

work through to its conclusion.

Like myself, MacLennan seems at odds with the idea of the term

performance as evident in his own terminology. An actuation

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sounds more intentional somehow, more real! Performance on the

other hand reminds me of cars and monkeys and Shakespeare and

the FTSE 100 index and perhaps worst of all inadequacy. Things that

perform are capable of failing (in its negative sense). Things that

perform are able to perform badly!

Conflict features heavily in Maclennans work and the titles to his

actuations can at times appear to be quite brutal (often just two

words e.g. Bled Edge). He seems to find unification in contrasting

themes. I recently asked him a number of questions by email (March

2011);the last two of which I wish to present as an example of how

MacLennan can inhabit (counter intuitively) opposing spaces at

once.

Where does the 'art' lay in an art object?Art resides in consciousness.

Can there be 'art' without there being anaudience?

Does 'beauty' exist outside of awareness of

it?

Am I to take the last answer to be rhetorical? If answer two means

yes then logically, MacLennan has made his bed in two camps.

This creates a paradox. Nineteenth century mathematician Henri

Poincare once commented that the aim of science is not things

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themselves as dogmatists in their simplicity imagine but the

relations between things; outside those relations there is no

knowable reality.(1905 p.24). A paradox is the relationship between

two points of information that contrast to the point where both are

at once true and untrue.

In conversation with Gray Watson, MacLennan delighted in the built

in ambiguity of the title of his piece Healing Wounds. If their roles

as noun and verb were reversed then the implications would be far

more unsettling (2003, p.9).

MacLennan studied Zen Buddhism in Vancouver during the 70s and

this has been a guiding principle to his creative approach ever since.

For MacLennan the process is far more important than the product

within the sphere of art. He does not hold art on a pedestal and

even acknowledges that when art is not present people do not

miss it. (1988 p.8, p.30) MacLennan is a master of duration and his

actuations often last between 8-12 hours non-stop. He has been

known to stretch to 120 hours as in Slow No a work that also

existed at times without an audience. Perhaps his training as a

painter in art school has played some part to his patience and ability

to look and appreciate the minutiae of the moment.

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As Alastair MacLennan commented in the interview I conducted with

him;

There are as many diverse ways to manifest

the how/what of 'live' art as there are

persons to fabricate it

Figure 2 Photo Documentation of Alastair MacLennan 'Slow No'

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To go back to George Brechts Fluxkits. When someone acts out an

instruction from one of Brechts event scores, does this then

become a performance? There is no guarantee that there will be an

audience there to witness the event. Is it enough that it is being

experienced by the doer? In this do they simultaneously become

performer and audience? In many ways the idea of performance is

redundant and dysfunctional to our furthering of critical theory of

art. This dichotomy of audience/performer is not a just case of

them and us anymore as the performer can also be audience. It

is also the case that the audience/spectator/witness has the

capacity to perform. It could even be said that the act of viewing is

performance in itself as Barba (quoted in Bogart, 2007, p.75) says

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Viewing a

performance is

action.

It is work.

The audience, just

like the actors,

must be active

during a

performance

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Oh Art, what are you? You

are so strong and powerful,

so beautiful and moving.

You make us walk around

and around, pacing the city

at all hours, in and out of

our Art for All room. Why do

you have so many faces and

voices?..... Are you a

branch on natures fantastic

network or are you an

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invention of some

ambitious man?

(Gilbert & George, 1997,

p.29)

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A Case for live art:Take away the capital

Live Art is a dynamic and exciting area of practices that range

across the visual arts, dance, theatre and music. It is commonly

agreed that its origins are in the Dada and Surrealist movements of

the early twentieth century and Performance Art of the late 1950s

through to the 1970s. It arose as a common term in the 1980s to

describe Performance Art, but its meanings have continued to

evolve. Like many contemporary terms used in art, there are in fact

a multiplicity of uses of the term Live Art and rigorous debate

about its definitions and applications.

Scottish Arts Council (2007)

The first traces of the term Live Art in the public domain can be

traced back to 1979 with the emergence of Performance Magazine

in the UK, who by issue #12 embraced the term to the point of

placing the slogan A regular Review of Live Art in The UK on their

front cover [see fig 3]. It was also used in the original title of

Roselee Goldbergs first edition of Performance Art: From Futurism

to the Present [see fig 4].

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Figure 4 Issue #12 Performance Magazine (1981) uses term Live Art

Figure 5 evidence of Live Art in use by 1979

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When the term Live Art was adopted in the UK some thirty years

ago it was largely out of necessity. Margaret Thatcher had just come

to power and punk was in full swing. This resulted in alternative

youth culture coming under intense scrutiny. Across Britain young

artists were busy mixing disciplines and the rapid progression of

new media technologies brought new possibilities of engagement

and communication in the live setting. The Midland Group had set

up a performance platform in Nottingham, Roland Miller was making

national headlines for civil disobedience in Leeds, the People Show

were closing in on their 100th performance and Rob La Frenais was

asking the age old (conservative) question will we see an end to

government funding in favor of American style patronage?

Today Live Art has its own representation in the National Portfolio

funded Live Art Development Agency. David Cameron is in power

(punk is dead!), youth culture has been pacified by Facebook, young

artists have more technology to play with than they know what to

do with (operation manuals are a thing of the past), The Midland

Group is now New Territories and resides in Glasgow, Leeds has a

degree course based on Live Art aesthetics (now in its third year),

the People Show is still on tour and Richard Eyre is musing the age

old (conservative) question what are the implications of patronage

in the arts?

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In 2003 the Tate Modern commissioned Live Culture, a four day

program of events, the aim of which was to consider the expansion

of Live Art practices and the spaces it inhabits as well as in the

words of Guillermo Gomez-Pena, draw the new outline of the 21st

century context for Live Art. So on after came Adrian Heathfields

book Live: Art and Performance also funded by the Tate Modern.

This year has seen Spill Festival expand its venues to include the

National Theatre. Manchester International Festival has forged a

relationship with perhaps the most famous Live Artist living today.

Live Art has never had such a high profile.

The likes of Tim Etchells, Bobby Baker and Franco B enjoy cult-

celebrity status among performing arts students such as myself,

and in truth seem distantly out of reach. On a recent trip to the Live

Art Development Agencys Study Room I was quite shocked at the

amount of books that have been written on the subject of Live Art,

the majority of which were published in the last ten years. Marina

Abramovic has been parodied on US TV soap Sex In The City and

boasts Hollywood A-listers as her friends and fans.

Live Art is sexy Live Art is cool

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We used to think of Live Art as a British phenomena but it is

inescapably global today. Exchange Radical Moments! for instance,

is a Live Art festival taking place in over ten European Countries in

one day (11/11/11). Australia Arts council regularly funds live art

and even American journal The Drama Review features Kira

O'Reilly on their latest cover page (spring, 2011).

Figure 6 Kira O'Reilly on front cover of TDR Magazine

This is all very encouraging as I begin my journey as an artist

leaving university. My intention is to spend the rest of my life here

in the Live Arts landscape. My only worry is that, with the success of

Live Art comes all of the trappings of that success the same

success Filliou has warned us of.

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Are we seeing the canon of history unfolding?

Whilst the big names (the giants) of Live Art have moved onto

bigger things there seems to be a disproportionate opportunity of

exposure for the next generation. In the north of England it is

difficult to see how the Live Art sector is sustainable. In the recent

allocation of funding by the Arts Council England (Rogers 2011),

Yorkshire made up just 78 of the 688 National Portfolio

Organizations (NPO), whos combined funding came to 25,000,000.

Thats just 8% of the overall funding for the country and the

majority of that money will go to institutions whos primary function

is to keep alive the classics of Ballet, Opera and Traditional Theatre.

In my home city, Leeds, we have seen the consolidation of theatre

funding, go to West Yorkshire Playhouse. Their track record for

programming Live Art based theatre is grimly poor. East Street Arts

is the other Leeds based NPO in a position to facilitate and invest in

Live Art in the region. Since November 2010 East Street Arts has

partnered Compass Live Art an 18month program of events aimed

at stimulating the growth of Live Art in the region. I have personally

benefited from this initiative but what is not clear is what will

replace Compass (if anything) after the 18 months is up.

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Figure 7 Visualisation of NPO funding with Yorkshire & Humberhighlighted

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Philanthropists wanting to invest in the future culture of Britain

might be put off by the non-commercial and ephemeral nature of

Live Art. It is a high risk investment that could lead to the old

chicken and the egg situation that has plagued Live Art from its

beginnings. A company or individual struggle to get any funding

until they have some work to show, but cant make the work without

the funding. The work is often challenging by conventional

standards and probably inhabits a space outside of the traditional

gallery or theatre.

So how does one sustain a live art practice in contemporary society?

The reality is that most live art practice goes on quietly in the

background and is either self or non-funded. Grassroots live art is

commonplace today. These events can be seen on the streets, in

clubs, at house exhibitions, music festivals or any other space you

care to think of. There is little pretence at these events or the

obsession to properly document them. You arent likely to overhear

conversations of the ephemerallity of the live act and the name

Franco B isnt necessarily one that people will have heard of. There

is no sense of elitism or over engineering. This is what you could call

the long tail of the live art world.

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In my research for this essay I turned to social networking site

Twitterfor some instant opinion on what live art means;

Live art is the illogical progression from sculpture,

dance, acting, painting, writing, fucking and praying

(26th March 2011)

nkilby9932

art that forgrounds the relationship between performer

and audience(27th March 2011)

Hannanicklin

it is what we once knew as 'performance art' (28th

March 2011)

East Street Arts

It means a creative exploration at a deep and

sometimes singular level(29th March 2011)

Dartford

For all the good that organizations such as the Live Art

Development Agency has done and continues to do, we are also in

danger of condemning the term live art to the same fate as the

terms that have gone before it. As Nikki Millican (2008) reminds us

performance art as a phrase became problematic because it had

strange connotations, or preconceptions in the minds of some. Live

art rose out of the embers as a means of emancipation. Framing

work as live art opened up a dialogue in to new territories. More so,

live art became a radical new concept where anything was possible.

I fear we are losing sight of this! To quote Nikki Millican again; I

think the confusion in the term live art emanates from this, it has

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become a convenient way of describing an arts world that is no

longer interested in placing itself in boxes. Rather perversely of

course, I now feel that live art itself is becoming too much or a

convenient packaging tool.

I wander if live art will ever truly find its place within popular culture

or if it will suffocate itself as performance art has done? Is the

problem that no matter how much time is spent (un)defining live art

it is still so difficult to discuss and thus be understood. We are still

building the vocabulary from which to engage it with. But surly

these two small words (4 characters + 3 characters) shouldnt

require such an endeavour. How does this help the layman?

Because the term live art has so much built in ambiguity and any

definition from funding organizations seem to fudge around this

issue, I find it very helpful to compare the term live art to the term

live music (music of course being a branch of art in itself). Imagine

a friend invited you to go see music show by an act you had not

heard. You would naturally ask them what type of music it was. How

would you react if their response was that it was Live Music? What

extra information would you take from this and how would this help

inform your expectations of what you may encounter by attending

this event?

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Just as in the art world, music has over the twentieth century

experienced an explosion of possibilities. The emphasis has shifted

from that of originality in music into that of eclecticism. To ask what

a contemporary band sounds like today may be just as futile as to

ask a contemporary artist what his practice is. All you can describe

is the form there will be guitars and drums and electronics and

lights and dancing and that is just describing the contemporary

artists work!

So the answer live music given by your friend in our imagined

situation earlier might very well be the answer of the age. The spirit.

The zeitgeist.

As a spokesperson for the virility of live art I am clear and

unequivocal in my belief that it is ok to not have answers. To be

unknowing and to embrace this nonknowlage. We must attend the

live event without worry for categorization. This is our message to

popular culture!

Live Art in its proper noun sense it seems has become little more

than a branding tool (as Millican suggests). If we are to carry on the

ideas set forth by the likes of Duchamp and Filliou, (the same ideas

that MacLennan holds dear today) I suggest we make a conscious

effort to always think of the term as a simple noun live art.

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This frees live art up because nouns are not so fixed as their

proper noun big brothers. All the grandeur is removed and we can

begin to think of art again outside of the realms of hierarchy and

funding and branding.

Because of its nature live art is forever contemporary. The live art

experience is in the here and now and now and now. As

Duchamp says, art is doing, it is the act and the experience of it.

No matter if you are viewing Picassos Guernica, climbing the steps

of Winter/Hrbelts Basket #7 at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, re-

performing Brechts Yam Water scores (or anything else) the fact

remains that if you want to think of it as art then it is art. You could

be sat alone staring into a cold bowl of porridge for all I care. If that

is art to you then that is art to you.

ART = LIVE ART

In live art we are able to distance ourselves from any monetary

values of the art market and place the emphasis on the

holistic/social value of art. As Rob La Frenais puts it Anyone can do

it but once money changes hands their value is under scrutiny.

(1979, p.5)

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ART IS DEAD!

It is the martyr to be paraded round the streets for all to see. We are

emancipated in its presence because it has quite loudly proclaimed;

the emperor has no clothes!

LONG LIVE LIVE ART!

There is no hidden meaning, no agenda. The term is part of the

evolutionary spectacle that we call life. If it is not live art then it

must be dead art.

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In the exhibition catalogue for The Blind Man In The Dark Room

Looking For A Black Cat That Isnt There at St Louis Museum of

Contemporary Art (2009) Anthony Hubberman relates two

wonderfully insightful stories regarding artists and their cats. For

me, these two stories placed side by side perfectly depict the main

title of my paper.

The first story sees Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers interviewing

his cat in hope of gaining insight into his painting

Marcel Is this a good painting?

Does this correspond to what you

expected?

Cat Meaow!

The second story centers around an incident where a Swiss art

museum asked to buy an artwork of Urs Fischer to display in their

permanent collection. Rather than offer an existing work Fischer

proposed to them a new work.

A living cat.

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Final Word

http://www.youtube

.com/watch?

v=Q_sJ6-4C_Ws

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..live

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Appendices

Interview with Alastair MaclennanThis interview was conducted via email - 25th March 2011

1. Do you consider yourself to be a live artist? I'm not a 'dead'artist (yet)!

2. What does live art mean to you? Has it ever gotten in the wayfor you or how has it helped you? What art isn't 'live', be it

painting, sculpture, or performance, etc?

3. Has the agenda for live art practices shifted in recent times and ifso where do you see the focus being? Agendas are always in

transition. Nothing is permanent. There are as many diverse

ways to manifest the how/what of 'live' art as there arepersons to fabricate it.

4. Where does the 'art' lay in an art object? Art resides inconsciousness.

5. Can there be 'art' without there being an audience? Does'beauty' exist outside of awareness of it?

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Twitter conversationsbetween 26th and 29th March 2011

Ralph Dartford is Relationship Manager, Combined Arts and Touring,Arts Council England, Yorkshire.

I asked him specifically a) what he considered Live Art to beb) where he first encountered Live Art

c) to name three artists/companies that he felt represented Live Art

Ralphs answers can be found below

Nick Kilby is an emerging artist living in Leeds. He is also curator ofbody based live art festival Glorious Trauma. Nick responded to the

provication What does the notion, Live Art mean?

Nicks answer can be found below

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Jon Wakeman is co-founder of East Street Arts. ESA has become acenteral facilitator in Leeds for contemporary artsists, providing

studio and rehearsal space as well as hosting regular events andexhibitions.

Jon responded to the provication What is Live Art?His two answers can be found below

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Hannah Nicklin is currently a PhD student studying Theatre andDigital Technology at Loughborough University. Hannah is in her

own words a brightly coloured theatre artist, tech-enthusiast,blogger and academic. Particular interests include theatre, social

media, open-source art, the politics of identity and the

democratising power of the wiki-ethic.

Below is a timeline of our conversation about live art

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Live Art Mantra7000 meditations on Live Art

I undertook this task during my research for a conference paper thatI delivered on the 15th of March 2011. I hoped to better understandmy subject matter by speaking the word out of any meaning thusfreeing them. I found it difficult to actually read the words line byline so half way through the text I just closed my eyes and let therest take care of itself. Apart from the fact that these pages givemore weight to my thesis, I have added the text in my appendix inhopes that it will be used again some day. Maybe you want to give ita go now?

To be read aloud in its entirety..

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Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art

Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art

Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art

Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Keidan Live Art

Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art

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Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Heathfield Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art

Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art


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Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Ono Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live

Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live

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Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live

Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art LiveArt Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Beuys Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art


Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Huberman Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art


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Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtSofaer Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art



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Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Duchamp Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art


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Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Brecht Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art




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Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live ArtLive Art Live Art Live Art Live Art Live END

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Conference paper delivered at House 14, QueensSquare, Leeds on the 15th March 2011

(to) Live ArtBy Adam Clark Young

My dilemma as a practitioner of the arts is how to describe mypractice. If I am to take myself seriously, more importantly if otherpractitioners, curators, funding bodies, and the public at large are totake me seriously, I have to be capable of explaining what I am andwhere I stand in the creative spectrum.

So it is with deep personal interest that I come to topic of this talk. I

was recently asked by Gillian Lees of Proto_Type Theatre if Iconsidered myself a Live Artist. In truth I didnt have an answer soinstead evaded the subject by turning attention back to theparticularities of the work I was presenting to her. Whichsubsequently would defiantly be considered as Live Art.

My problem is that I feel by associating myself as being a Live Artist;with that implies a predetermined view of the kind of work I make.Academically it is considered that the Live Artists of the 1980s camefrom either a visual arts or theatre based backgrounds. This stillholds true in many cases today, however I personally come from a

music background. I never did drama at school and took littleinterest in art. In fact since the age of 13, I barely attended schoolat all.

My first encounter with live art was when I stepped into AEP littleover 2 years ago.

So what can an attendee of a live art event expect to encounter andexperience?Live Art can incorporate anything, be held anywhere and happen at

any time.All that must be present is the human.

So I did my home work. I found that as Lois Kiedan says The termLive Art is not a description of an art form or discipline, but acultural strategy to include experimental processes and experientialpractices that might otherwise be excluded from establishedcuratorial, cultural and critical frameworks.

In a recent meeting with Lois she elaborated, the Live ArtDevelopment Agency definition of how to think about Live Art is not

directed to practitioners but to institutions and to bodies outside of

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the arts sector. They are not concerned with categorization butinstead representation both financially and in terms of recognitionof artists practices in the live space.

Live Art is line of enquiry, a method of research through action. It is

the liminal space outside of the mainstream standards of distinctdisciplines within arts practice. It defies definition by its paradoxicalnature. It is the ephemeral, the immeasurable quality of thesubjective passing through time. To define it is to take away itspower.

Looking again at the problematic nature of aligning myself as beinga Live Artist I want to draw parallel with my own experiences withmusic. What would it tell you about someone if they proclaimed toyou that.. I am a live musician!

What music would you instantly have playing in your mind?Wagner? Lady Gaga? Pantera? Walt Shaw? John Cage?

In the world of music (which is in itself an art form) all weunderstand by the adage of live to mean is that we will encounterit at its point of creation.

Linguistically all we can reasonably say about Live Art is that it iswhat it says on the tin Live Art.

So there is a disparity between how Live Art is defined intellectuallyand how it is used in practice. For me the heart of the issue lies inthe cultural shift in our thinking towards Art itself.

The realization of Live Art brought about the problem laid out byRichard Layzell if we were live artists did that mean that weconsidered painters and sculptors and all the rest as dead?.

As Eleonora Belfiore states - A problem of definitions: what are weto understand by the words arts and culture? They are hardlycrystallised and fixed concepts, but rather, they have been

constantly evolving and changing over the centuries. Equally, whenwe talk about the distinction between various arts forms theatre,poetry, the novel and music we are, in fact, making distinctionsthat are the result of a process of cultural evolution and that are farfrom being valid for all historical times. How are we to account forsuch complexity?

Today in our post-modern thinking and at a time when Damien Hirstmade over 100 million pounds in a private auction at Sotherbys inthe same breath as the worst stock market crash since the great

depression we are compelled to ask the following questions.

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What is art? Who is art for? Who benefits from art?

Is art for the benefit of everyone and does that then infer it must besocially engaging?

Ricardo Basbaum states it is absolutely clear that after modernism,anthropology has replaced history as the main guideline for thetransformations on art practice. To search for the new has no longera historical quality the foundation of a new time but ananthropological aspect the investigation of the limits of how thehuman can be constructed or where it can be located in relationto the borderlines of man/machine, man/animal, andnature/culture.

Just as the first image of the earth rising from the horizon of themoon taken in 1968 brought into focus the fragility of life. Todaysecological and economic uncertainty further our thinking towards aholistic approach to the human condition.

What better space to be operating in as an arts practitioner than inthe live space,away from the idol fetish of the object. This radical human centeredapproach to art is by no means new. Duchamps conceptualfountain exhibited in 1917 is widely accepted as the point ofdeparture in art, away from the skill of the artist towards the

creative capacity of the unknown.

Duchamp (along with the rest of the Dadaists) pointed to the fact allart was resulting product of the human gaze. All art is subjective, itsworth is speculative and also relative to the socio-political time andspace it inhabits.

To put this more simply who has the authority to say what is andisnt art?

There are countless examples that follow Duchamps legacy of

questioning without need for answers but as Andria Pagnesputs it..it is also up to us to figure out whether we want to look at time ina narrative, sequential way, such as turning page after page in apre-existing order, or if we are better off sometimes just abandoningthat view and deciding that a reinvention of time space as acontinuum governed by its own set of rules can provide us with anexperience which allows us to return to the everyday reality with adifferent mind set and different clues to decipher its enriched layersof meaning

I like to think that good ideas exist outside the orthodoxies of

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history. Just as professor Noal Witts and Mathew Goulish tell us toread their texts without worry of the order in which we choose to doso, we are able to cherry pick the concepts that are relevant to uswithout the baggage of their historical context.

To go back and look at the linguistics of the term Live Art again andwe can see that it is being used in academia as both a proper nounand a common noun. To think of live art as a common noun affordsus the liberty of expressing it in different ways. It becomes unfixed.

What if live art didnt say live art at all? What if it were useful tothink of these two words as saying live art? How would this changeour understanding?

Alan Kaprow, Joseph Beuys and Robert Filliou were all pioneers ofthis notion. The notion of life-as-art. As Robert Filliou infamously putit Art is what makes life more interesting than Art.

Life is happening. Life is the event.

For me, this could imply that we are all artists and it is theexpression of life itself that becomes our art work. Gone is thedualistic notion of performer and audience. What emerges is adynamic understanding of processes and information exchangebetween autonomous individuals acting collectively in a sharedstate of becoming. We are all actors able to negotiate the outcome

of our collective circumstance.

Andy Miah supposes that when we talk about the need for radicalinterdisciplinary thinking in order to understand an environmentwhich paradoxically is increasingly created by our own activities, werarely think radically enough.

To go back to Lois Kiedan - Live Art is not in the business of closingdown possibilities. It is not a shallow branding exercise. Live Artchallenges our notions of what art is and can be but also how weengage with art.

Art and life converge into one single entity. One single notion thatlife can only be appreciated through the eyes of art just as art canonly be seen through the eyes of the live. Art is what defines usforemost from any other living creature.

To recap this notion;

If art is for everybody.If everyone is an artist.

The social implications of the democritisation of art cannot be

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ignored.

Not everyone is interested in the work of Marina Abramovic. Equallynot everyone would be able to accept the merit of say JustinBiebers practice as an artist. But I would argue that we cannot in

good conscience have it both ways anymore. Either we admit thefact that Art is an elite phenomena reserved for classification by theestablishment of the day, as history has shown us.

Or we accept that the very notion that art is subjective, speculative,paradoxical and relative only to the sociopolitical landscape at thepoint it is received.

To conclude I want to bring things back to me and my concerns asan arts practitioner of labels and the inherited associations thatexist within them. If I am to consider myself as a live artist I must beunequivocal in my belief that life itself must be seen as art. I mustbelieve that due to the subjective nature of art as a principle ofaesthetics, it follows that all human beings must be artists, whetherthey know it or not. I must accept that in acknowledging all of this Iam active in homogenising the notion of art itself. I claim noauthority over art nor do I admit to any art being of greater meritthan any other. The only thing I can say for sure is that for live art totake place the human must be present.

With this in mind I stand under the provocation and declare myself a

live artist. Of course all things being equal the paradox is that I amat once and instantaneously both true and false in my claim.

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Bibliography

Cited Texts

Bogart , A. (2007)And Then You Act: Making Art in anUnpredictable World: Oxen, Routledge.

Ed. Heathfield, A. (2004) Live: Art and Performance: New York:Routledge.

Ed. Schrag, A. (2008) Its Not Hard: Explorations of Live Art:Tramway.

Ed. Watson, G. (2003)Alastair MacLennan: Knot Naught:Belfast: Omeu Baths Gallery.

Erlhoff, M. (1984) The Eternal Network Presents: RobertFilliou: Paris: Musee DArt Moderne.

Goldberg, R. (2001) Performance Art: From Futurism to thePresent: London: Thames & Hudson

Higgins, H. (2002) Fluxus Experience: London: University OfCalafornia.

Huberman, A. (2009) For The Blind Man In The Dark RoomLooking For The Black Cat That Isn't There: Contemporary ArtMuseum St. Louis.

MacLennan, A. (1988)Alastair MacLennan: Is No: Bristol:Arnolfini.

Naumann F, M, (1999) Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Making Artin the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: 1ST Edition: Harry N.Abrams.

Obrist, H, U,. Violette, R. (1997) The Words of Gilbert andGeorge: Thames & Hudson Ltd.

Pagnes, A. (2010) Faul of Faust: Contradictions onContemporary Art and Art Action: Florence: VestAndPage

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Further Reading

Allen, J., Caronia, A., Dickinson, R., Quaranta, D and Verwoert, J.(2009) Re-Akt! Reconstruction, re-enactment, re-porting:Domenico Quarantina

Bolt, B (2004)Art Beyond Representation: The Performative

Power of the Image: I. B. Tauris.

Buskirk, M. (1996) The Duchamp Effect: The MIT Press.

Dezeuze, A. (2010) The 'Do-it-Yourself' Artwork: Participationfrom Fluxus to New Media (Rethinking Art's Histories):Manchester University Press.

Dickhoff, W. (2000):After Nihilism: Essays on ContemporaryArt(Contemporary Artists and their Critics): Edition.Cambridge University Press.

Ed. Brine, D. (2008) The Live Art Almanac: Live Art DevelopmentAgency.

Ed. Heathfield, A. (2003) Live Culture: Live Art Developmet Agency

Ed Heathfield, A. (2002) Small Acts. Performance, theMillennium and the Marking of Time: Black Dog.

Ed. Kaye, N. (1996)Art Into Theatre: Performance Interviews

and Documents: Amsterdam: Routlege.

Ed. Milevska, S. (2010) The Naming Machine/ The Book:Ljubljana: P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E Institute

Ernst, T (1927) Das Programm der Piscatorbuhne. Nummer 1:Berlin: Piscatorbuhne.

Goulish, M. (2000) 39 Microlectures: In Proximity ofPerformance: Routledge.

Henderson, L, D. (1998) Duchamp in Context. Edition. Princeton

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University Press.

Miessen. M. (2006) Did Someone Say Participate?: An Atlas ofSpatial Practice:The MIT Press.

Mike Sell. (2005)Avant-Garde Performance and the Limits ofCriticism: Approaching the Living Theatre,Happenings/Fluxus, and the Black Arts Movement: Edition.University of Michigan Press.

Morgan, J. (2009) Urs Fischer: Shovel in a Hole: JRP|Ringier.

Munroe, A (2000) Y E S Yoko Ono: Harry N. Abrams.

Online Media

European Council Of Culture initiative to promote live arts:A Space For Live Artswww.aspaceforliveart.org [accessed 10th April 2011]

Australia Arts Council: Hopscotch Touring Initiative funding liveartwww.australiacouncil.gov.au/grants/grants/hopscotch_touring_initiative [accessed 10th April 2011]

Dan Rebellato critiques theatre critics reaction to Arts Cutswww.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2011/apr/08/rightwing-theatre-critics-cuts [accessed 10th April 2011]

Transcript ofJoshua Sofaers short film What is Live Art?www.joshuasofaer.com/texts/exhibit_wila.html [accessed 10th April2011]

Anthony Huberman considers the Legacy of Performance Art

through the eyes of the newwww.saatchigallery.co.uk/blogon/view_essay.php/154/the_legacy_of_performa nce_art [accessed 10th April 2011]

Commission to research Live Art development in Scottland this isthe Reportwww.scottisharts.org.uk/resources/publications/research/pdf/Development%20of%20the%20Infrastructure%20and%20Support%20of%20Live%20Art%20in%20Scotland%20.pdf[accessed 10th April2011]

A poll of artists, curators among other industry experts declare

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