Proposal for an Essay on Vito Acconci and Joseph Beuys: Controversial and Dangerous Performance Art
Marina Abromovich, a renowned performance artist, clearly elucidated the big difference between performance art and theatre. Unlike theatre, where a show can be repeated over and over in almost the same manner, performance art is a one time show. What’s more, whereas, in theatres, the knives and the blood are fake, in performance art, everything is real. The one question that often arises when it comes to performance is the limits the artist is willing to stretch. The above includes how gruesome or outrages the return will be in front of the audience. However, the range of performance art is extensive, and not all shows take it to the extremes. Vito Acconci and Joseph Beuys are two artists who were willing to subject themselves to outrageous and dangerous zones to open our eyes and speak to our consciousness.
Vito Acconci, an American performance artist, is perhaps popularly known for his 1972 “Seedbed” performance. A performance that has left tongues wagging for decades. The artist set up a wooden ramp that was close to a meter high and slipped under it. As the visitors walked over the more upper side of the ramp, Acconci would loudly narrate his fantasies while he masturbated. Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York owns the actual photographic evidence of the performance.
Joseph Beuys, a German artist from Acconci’s generation, was another artist who took his visual and performance art to the extremes. His outstanding performance, “I Like America and America Like Me,” came only two years after Acconci’s “Seedbed.” Beuys got carried from the airport to a Gallery in Manhattan, where he imposed himself in a gallery with a wild coyote for hours over three days.
Both performances drive us to witness danger, something that is considered unethical, or outright stupid things. Many would agree that it is ridiculous to perform shows which threaten the artist’s life. Or it is not smart to perform shows which violates the general society’s norms and taboos. Besides, such performances may get termed as valueless or mere publicity stunts considering the amount of controversy arising from challenging the existing moral codes.
On the flip side, performances expand our limits and those of the artists and open our eyes to things we have never seen before. Although such performances challenge the preexisting norms, maybe it is something that ought to get done.
One factor shared among various outrageous, and dangerous performance art is the way they all bring manifestos against all facets of the society, be it political, economic, or social. Further, it challenges the bounding limits of us as human beings. It is, therefore, necessary to keep performance art in existence for the way it directly speaks to our consciousness and for its explicit way of sharing views. The performance art of dangerous and outrages limits is arguably the simplest way to connect with the audience in a very profound emotional way. The audience need not have a sophisticated interpretation to get what the artist is trying to convey. It is, therefore, essential to examine the values of delicate art and why it is vital to keep it — the importance of not losing our explorations to the world of danger and fear.