Dissertation: From Anthropology to Performance Art/ ASensibility of Ritual, Douglas L Gordon, HCDIS1987/GOR
"ritual in essence is not a thing, like apiece of elastic. At its root is attitude of mind..."
Alister McLennan X
(from D.Gordon's dissertation)
Stuart Brisley X wiki
"the language of gesture and ritual, desire and the transgression
of tabboos: the secret, symbolic, carnal language of the body."
Gray Watson, "The word made Flesh" Performance magazine No.29, pg30
The essence of perfoprmance art, that which differentiates it from the other fine arts, and the reason why it it linked to ritual, is the presence of the artist and/or other bodies. The artist is conducting a sensory communication, is allowed the possibility of transcending traditional, conventional interpretations associated with still, two and three dimensional work.
"...for me performance is everywhere, it includes everything
and everyone - all response, all intends, all things related to the
individual and the world. Every momentis a performance,
every gesture, every single thought in time, every twitter
of one's eybrows. All human transactions, sleeping, fucking,
shitting, all is performed but unframed."
Charlemagne Palestine, "Performance by artists", Performance magazine No.15, pg.17
The performer seeks to communicate through feelings brought about by atavistic elements - symbols or characteristics which were common amongst our ancestors, but which have not occured in recent generations.
William Forsythe wiki Loss of Small Detail
Anthropology ++
two
"The context of communication changes with every performance, and performers must create their art anew each time."
"The context of communication changes with every performance, and performers must create their art anew each time."
four
While the book is heavily weighted towards Western art forms, Royce frequently draws on non-Western forms in her analysis and devotes an entire chapter (ch. 6) to the dance and ritual cycles of Tewa Pueblo communities of the American Southwest. Here, Royce takes up a familiar argument forwarded by early anthropologists working on the arts, namely, that non-Western artists are no less informed by coherent, sophisticated aesthetic ideologies than are Western artists—a position hotly contested by certain art historians and philosophers who would reserve "aesthetics" as a mode of thought unique to Western cultures. By elucidating the technical elements by which Tewa aesthetics are articulated (e.g., strict choreographic patterns, named dance steps, gender-specific postures and gestures, and recognition of virtuosic talent), Royce presents an unassailable case for Tewa dance as an artistic genre with its own codified technique, on par with the Western arts she explored in earlier chapters. Yet, since dance in this context is primarily linked to ritual cycles and only recently evolved to include staged performances for tourists, it raises questions about Royce's thesis that all art serves the function first and foremost of encouraging reflection. Functionality indeed was one of the reasons that art historians opposed the idea of non-Western aesthetics: whereas Western art was presented as "art for art's sake," serving no apparent purpose beyond evoking reflection on the sublime, non-Western arts were viewed as always being tied in form, content, or context to quotidian existence. Tewa ceremonial dance, in honoring agricultural and hunting processes and in highlighting the communal nature of the pueblo, serves the purpose of revitalizing the community. This certainly need not be viewed as contrary to the interpretive function Royce champions for the performing arts, but by not addressing the issue directly, the reader is left to wonder how Royce would answer on this front.
Royce again draws on non-Western performance in her chapter on cross-cultural rituals of healing entitled, "Artistry and Altered States" (ch. 11). Here, Royce applies her method of identifying codified technique and interpretative style to the artistry of shamans in different cultural settings: Isthmus Zapotec, Balinese, and Ju'hoansi. By identifying the established conventions (techniques) and individual styles associated with renowned shamans, Royce successfully demonstrates the existence of aesthetic judgments in a domain not normally associated with the performing arts (healing), but which nevertheless derives much of its performative efficacy from the careful application of music, dance, and theatrical [End Page 279] flourish. Although she does not address it directly, this chapter builds upon insights revealed in earlier chapters on the altered states in which artists perform. In discussing virtuosity, for example, Royce includes a quote from dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov on how he develops "double vision" when performing: "One part of me is dancing, the other observing from the side" (22). The question of consciousness and how conscious one is when performing or healing is an intriguing one, especially given popular tendencies to portray artists as being swept up in artistic ecstasy when performing.
"Part of the creative process occurs in the moment of performance, which means that the performer does not have total control of the work" (ibid.). This, the ephemerality, unscripted nature of, and subsequent tension born of performance makes it a potentially powerful social force, as other performance scholars have argued (e.g., Fabian 1990; Schieffelin 1996, 1998; Askew 2002). Part of the tension arises from the unknown reaction to be had by the audience in attendance.
While the book is heavily weighted towards Western art forms, Royce frequently draws on non-Western forms in her analysis and devotes an entire chapter (ch. 6) to the dance and ritual cycles of Tewa Pueblo communities of the American Southwest. Here, Royce takes up a familiar argument forwarded by early anthropologists working on the arts, namely, that non-Western artists are no less informed by coherent, sophisticated aesthetic ideologies than are Western artists—a position hotly contested by certain art historians and philosophers who would reserve "aesthetics" as a mode of thought unique to Western cultures. By elucidating the technical elements by which Tewa aesthetics are articulated (e.g., strict choreographic patterns, named dance steps, gender-specific postures and gestures, and recognition of virtuosic talent), Royce presents an unassailable case for Tewa dance as an artistic genre with its own codified technique, on par with the Western arts she explored in earlier chapters. Yet, since dance in this context is primarily linked to ritual cycles and only recently evolved to include staged performances for tourists, it raises questions about Royce's thesis that all art serves the function first and foremost of encouraging reflection. Functionality indeed was one of the reasons that art historians opposed the idea of non-Western aesthetics: whereas Western art was presented as "art for art's sake," serving no apparent purpose beyond evoking reflection on the sublime, non-Western arts were viewed as always being tied in form, content, or context to quotidian existence. Tewa ceremonial dance, in honoring agricultural and hunting processes and in highlighting the communal nature of the pueblo, serves the purpose of revitalizing the community. This certainly need not be viewed as contrary to the interpretive function Royce champions for the performing arts, but by not addressing the issue directly, the reader is left to wonder how Royce would answer on this front.
Royce again draws on non-Western performance in her chapter on cross-cultural rituals of healing entitled, "Artistry and Altered States" (ch. 11). Here, Royce applies her method of identifying codified technique and interpretative style to the artistry of shamans in different cultural settings: Isthmus Zapotec, Balinese, and Ju'hoansi. By identifying the established conventions (techniques) and individual styles associated with renowned shamans, Royce successfully demonstrates the existence of aesthetic judgments in a domain not normally associated with the performing arts (healing), but which nevertheless derives much of its performative efficacy from the careful application of music, dance, and theatrical [End Page 279] flourish. Although she does not address it directly, this chapter builds upon insights revealed in earlier chapters on the altered states in which artists perform. In discussing virtuosity, for example, Royce includes a quote from dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov on how he develops "double vision" when performing: "One part of me is dancing, the other observing from the side" (22). The question of consciousness and how conscious one is when performing or healing is an intriguing one, especially given popular tendencies to portray artists as being swept up in artistic ecstasy when performing.
"Part of the creative process occurs in the moment of performance, which means that the performer does not have total control of the work" (ibid.). This, the ephemerality, unscripted nature of, and subsequent tension born of performance makes it a potentially powerful social force, as other performance scholars have argued (e.g., Fabian 1990; Schieffelin 1996, 1998; Askew 2002). Part of the tension arises from the unknown reaction to be had by the audience in attendance.
etc...
Rachel Walton - who is developing Palm, Third Angel's upcoming performance at Home - says that one-to-one performances give power and responsibility to audiences in a way that traditional theatre or performance can never hope to do. "I've been to one-to-ones where people have just waited for the experience to happen to them and been disappointed that it is over before they are even aware that it is happening. But if the audience put the work in and are prepared to invest as much in the experience as the artist, it can be the buzziest, most exciting thing in the world."
It is the idea that anything - or indeed, nothing - might happen during these encounters that makes them so charged and interesting. "Perhaps it's a disarming of audience (you) and of artist (I) by the sharing of a tender moment or a series of moments," says O'Reilly of her NRLA piece. "Or an unmaking and remaking of what happens between us as we explore the possibilities of where I end and you begin, and what might happen between us if I ask you to do something for me. Or perhaps it's about what happens when we sit for a short while in a space where not a lot happens."
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Nobuyoshi Araki X
