Some Relations Between Conceptual and Performance Art – Summary
Frazer Ward’s essay,
‘Some Relations Between Conceptual and Performance Art’ seeks to dissect the
interplay between conceptual and performance art, with specific reference to
Ian Burn’s ‘Mirror Piece’ (1967) and Vito Acconci’s ‘Step Piece’ (1970). Frazer uses Burn’s work to demonstrate
the typically ‘conceptual’; the triumph of language and empirical method over
form in order to achieve rational analysis, whilst Acconci’s work is employed
as an extension of this in the sense that it conveys the ambiguity brought to
supposedly conceptual art by the inclusion of performative elements.
Although
performance’s denotation of the body as subject challenges the theoretical
rationality of Conceptualism, Frazer argues that due to performance’s high
prevalence throughout a wide variety of movements contemporary to
conceptualism, performance cannot be interpreted as a direct antithetical
reaction to conceptualism.
Frazer describes
Burn’s ‘Mirror Piece’ as ‘conceptual in its abandonment of aesthetic
authority’, asking the audience to look beyond the physical qualities of the
work and consider only the linguistic process undertaken by Burn, one which
having required no valorised mastery, can be easily repeated and imitated. However,
Frazer then refers to Mel Bochner’s criticism of Conceptualism as extending
this transparency to a point where the artist blatantly states not only their
experimental method, but also their entire intention, stripping the concept of
its expressive role as subject.
On the other hand,
the physical, performative aspect of Acconci’s ‘Step Piece’ seems to address
some shortcomings of pure conceptualism. Through the shift of subject to the artist’s
physical self, the work maintains the empiricism of a linguistic predetermined
plan, yet as the work itself does not emerge until the corporeal impacts of
this plan upon Acconci’s body are recorded and disseminated, the work gains a
tangible aspect instrumental in broadening the work’s reception and
appreciation.
‘Step Piece’
demonstrates not only a lack of opposition between conceptual and performance
art, but also the synergetic relationship that exists between them. This is
further demonstrated through a reversal; the analysis of performance works that
include conceptual elements, including Chris Burden’s ‘Shoot’ (1971) and Bruce
Nauman’s ‘Art Makeup’ (1967-8). References to conceptualism emerge
through the use of linguistic instruction to contextualise these performances
and the necessity of documentation to survive the work, both of which enhance
audience understanding.
The integration of
performance within conceptual art provides a reflexive critical analysis from
within a conceptual framework, highlighting the communicative limitations of
each of these practices in isolation. In conceptualism’s ‘striving to demystify
aesthetic experience and mastery through rationalism and democracy’, an
abstraction of content is utilised, which unwittingly alienates audiences even
further. However, through extended comparison and discussion, the inclusion of
performance within a conceptual context is shown by Frazer to be of valuable
assistance in extending the artist’s ability to convey and execute their triumph
of linguistic empiricism.
