Some Relations between Conceptual and Performance Art

Some relations between Conceptual and Performance Art

This article by Frazer Ward explores the connections between conceptual and performance art. Ward examines this by analyzing the inter-relations between the two, as well as exploring the audiences’ reaction to conceptual art.

Conceptual art can be considered the underlying condition of the aesthetics experience in relation to performance art, and is explored further through language and the use of the body as a mechanism of communicating the artists’ intentions.

Ward uses the definition; “Performance art is a form of art that happens at a particular time in a particular place where the artist engages in some sort of action, usually before an audience.” This illustrates the main difference between performance art and conceptual art as being that performance art is temporal, whether as conceptual art can be physically everlasting.

In the late 1960’s and 1970’s there became an interweaving of both conceptual and performance art, thus, it has become a common thought that performance art has ultimately challenged the foundations of conceptual art.

Conceptual art can be grouped into two main categories and are illustrated through Ian Burns Mirror Piece (1967), which demonstrates a “typical” conceptual piece, and “ambiguously” conceptual explored through Vito Acconci’s Step Piece (1970). Step Piece, illustrates an ambiguous piece of performance art as it is both an obsessive piece and has aspects of humor in it, and therefore can be interpreted on multiple different levels.  This opposed the rationalistic, more serious elements of conceptual art. Performance art has progressed through time. The earlier works demonstrated aspects of rationalistic pieces, and the latter explores obsessional performances, once again demonstrated through Step Piece.  Ward also examines how some performance art challenges the limitations of conceptual art and the notion of rationality. This results in a constant interchange between conceptual and performance art, sometime negative and sometimes positive.

Another interesting point in which this article explores is how conceptual art has been intended to discredit the circumstance of traditional art and remove the “elite” factor from it. This introduced hostility from within the non-art community, as they struggled to comprehend the rationalistic aspect of conceptual art. The conceptual artists underestimated the difficulty they would face in trying to persuade an audience who was highly fixated on the aesthetic aspects of more traditional work.