The 4th and newest Dr Great Art short art history podcast! "The 'Problem' with Performance and Video Art." Are performance and video art often really so bad? http://drgreatart.libsyn.com/episode-4-the-problem-with-performance-and-video-art
------------------
Here is the script (NOT a transcript, as I change lements while recording).
Dr Great
Art Podcast Four
"The
Problem of Performance and Video Art"
Hi this is
Mark Staff Brandl, with the fourth "Dr (Great) Art" brief podcast. I
hope you enjoy it and come back for each and every one.
Because the
last podcast was bit longer than I intended,
today we have a very short question concerning two so-called "newer media" artforms.
today we have a very short question concerning two so-called "newer media" artforms.
I have a question I posed to myself, and students new to art
often ask me, and I THINK an answer of sorts. This is not art or world-shaking,
but a small insight I believe anyway. let's see what you think.
The question: What is the problem with Performance Art and
Video Art.
And you know what I mean by these, not dance or theatre or
video clips or music videos, but those creative artworks made by fine artists,
usually for a museum or Kunsthalle or gallery, where either the artist and
his/her live presence is the main component of the piece (Performance Art), or
second, TV-Video filmed productions made to exist, often be only really discernable,
in a museum or Kunsthalle or art fair, etc. (Video Art).
As most of us know, and will joke about with other artists,
but hate to admit, most seem to be quite horrible. AND to top that off, you are
forced to sit through them, as they are temporal, and will not allow quick,
repeated or lengthy viewings as art objects do.
I believe it is the problem of the AVERAGE, the largest
portion of these works in relation to the average art object. Most Paintings,
for example are mediocre to OK. With some great work and some worthless work.
Most Performance and Video works, on the other hand, are
bad. Let's admit it. If many-a-work were a painting, it would never have
achieved the level of discussion and acceptance it has. Its caché is a relic of
the addiction to newness of Late Modernism.
And YET --- there
are great Performance pieces:
examples include anything by Karen Finley, the Dancing Sculpture by Gilbert and
George, Eurasia or How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare
(German: ''wie man dem toten Hasen
die Bilder erklärt'') by Joseph Beuys. And more.
And there are wonderful video artworks, often of the
installation variety, such as Heaven and
Hell by Bill Viola, any projected video loop by Hubbard and Birchler, The
Clock by Christian Marclay. And more.
It is NOT that we viewers do not "get" the works, it is often
that we indeed DO get the works. And they are not much.
So --- the average, the majority of Performances and Videos you will
run into are bad, but there are many, many amazingly great ones. The majority
of paintings and drawings you will run into are middling, good enough. But
there are real stinkers and many great ones. Both perceptions thus create
illusions, due to our human tendency to fall for the fallacy of the "law
of averages."
The methods whereby we are accustomed to viewing such works comes into
the mix as well. You can rush in and out of painting, sculpture, even most
installation exhibitions, if you are not quickly intrigued. And/or go back
repeatedly and later, with ever lengthening viewings, to become intrigued. Not
so with the "forced" specific length of viewing in most temporal
works.
In short, I feel this is one of the least discussed virtues of object
art (which has been so criticized as being merely elitist collectables), it
allows a personal democracy of viewing. Yet, it also points out that
Performance and Video are less democratically charged than theoreticians
assert, making it necessary to give many the benefit of the doubt, the benefit
of your time.
Look for the great ones.
Thanks for
listening. That was "Dr (Great) Art" podcast number 4. If you wish to
hear more cool, exciting and hopefully inspiring stuff about art history and
art, come back for more. Also I, Dr Mark Staff Brandl, artist and art
historian, am available for live custom
Performance-Lectures. In English und auf Deutsch.
I take
viewers inside visual art and art history. Entertainingly, yet educationally
and aesthetically, I analyze, underline, and discuss the reasons why a work of
art is remarkable, or I go through entire eras, or indeed through the entirety
of art history. The lectures often take place with painted background screens
and even in my painting-installations.
You can
find or contact me at
www.drgreatart.com/ (spell)
www.drgreatart.com/ (spell)
book me at
www.mirjamhadorn.com (spell)
or Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, under drgreatart