Unravelling Modern and Contemporary Art: Performance and Live Art
Wednesdays 22, 29 February, 7, 14, 21, Thursday 29 March, 6.30-8.30pm
Whitechapel Gallery, 7-82 Whitechapel High St, Shadwell, London E1 7QX

Book now: bishopsgate.org.uk or call 020 7392 9200

From the lecture stand to the cabaret, the gallery to the street – performance and live art maintains a slippery relationship with the institutional structures that define the visual art world. Disrupting the conditions that shape the display and preservation of the traditional art object, performance throws up innumerable challenges for both art professionals and audiences. How does art history deal with performance art from the 1960s to today? What does it mean to be the audience of performance? How does performance exist in and draw from other realms of contemporary culture such as television, music and film? Led by artist Joshua Sofaer and guest speakers David Gale, Dee Heddon and the vacuum cleaner.

No previous knowledge is required.

Schedule

1. Wednesday 22nd February: Introduction, Performance in the context of Fine Art with Joshua Sofaer
2. Wednesday 29th February: Autobiography and Performance with Dee Heddon
3. Wednesday 7th March: Performance and Popular Culture with David Gale
4. Wednesday 14th March: Activism and Performance with James Leadbitter (the vacuum cleaner)
5. Wednesday 21 March: The Audience of Performance with Joshua Sofaer
6. Thursday 29 March: Performance Documentation and the Artwork (includes visit to Gillian Wearing exhibition) with Joshua Sofaer

In association with Bishopsgate Institute