What Is Performance Art?

Cleveland Performance Art Festival+Archives

In this short video clip, against a dazzling montage of video and still images from the archives, Performance Art Festival+Archives founder Thomas Mulready describes the history of the Festival, it's growth and development in Cleveland, Ohio, and the cultural importance of this controversial and provocative art form.

Highlighting the challenges of archiving such an ephemeral genre, this video showcases excerpts of over 2000 hours of video and 6000 photographs collected in the Performance Art Festival Archives over 12 years, documenting more than 1000 performance artists from 24 countries worldwide.

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Performance Art Festival+Archives
Video Compilations

Women Performance Artists (53:46)
1) Clara Crockett, Columbus Stick Dance 5/14/88 (2:30)
2) Kathy Rose, New York interview 3/17/93 3:52
3) Julie Laffin , Chicago 5/26/90 11:06
4) Rebekah Windmiller, Madison Broken 4/16/89 3:00
5) Nancy Adams, Boston Parlor 4/3/93 6:41
6) Dana Bryant, New York 3/20/93 3:48
7) Lorena Wolffer, Mexico City Mexican Territory 5/11/97 8:11
8) Thea Miklowski, Cleveland The Real Test 4/22/99 15:34

Performance Art As Controversy (57:32)
1) Ray Langenbach, Cleveland 5/15/88 (2:13)
2) News Clips on PAF ‘97, Cleveland 5/1/97 3:19
3) Keith Hennessy, San Francisco Heat 2/27/94 (2:54)
4) Annie Sprinkle, New York Post-Porn Modernist 4/13-14/91(9:23)
5) John Fleck, Los Angeles Snowballs Chance in Hell 4/3/94 (3:43)
6) Kate Bornstein, San Francisco The Opposite Sex is Neither 3/13/92 (11:17)
7) National Endowment for the Arts, Wash DC Solo Theatre Panel 3/21/92 (6:33)
8) Reno, New York City Citizen Reno 3/7/91 (17:08)

Music & Media Based Performance Art (52:57)
1) Die Audio Gruppe, Berlin Audio Ballerinas 3/11/92 (:58)
2) CRISUS, New Orleans 4/20/94 (1:54)
3) Matt Heckert, San Francisco 3/6/94 (2:26)
4) Danny Mydlack, Boston 4/4/93 (7:44)
5) Fred Chance, Cleveland Cut 4/22/89 (2:26)
6) Jordan Davis, Cleveland Shades 5/6/88 (1:57)
7) Robert Sirovica, Cleveland Powersucker 4/24/99 (17:34)
8) Blue Man Group, New York 4/13/90 (17:32)

Task & Durational Performance Art (56:20)
1) Bill Gordh & John Malpede, New York Dead Dog 3/20/94 (3:28)
2) Zygmunt Pio Trowski, Poland 4/25/89 (1:48)
3) Mel Someroski, Cleveland Lazarus & Narcissus 5/6/88 (2:01)
4) Rob Bliss, Cleveland Black Coal 5/14/88 (2:29)
5) Erica Blue, Oakland The Harpy 4/17/99 (5:23)
6) Sam Hubish & Marcia Stuermer, Cleveland The Test 5/15/88 (2:31)
7) Kain Karawahn, Berlin Why Don’t Cities Have Forest Fires? 4/18/93 (5:58)
8) Caroline McIntee, Scotland Baby Boy Blue 5/6/97 (3:24)
9) Robert Sirovica , Cleveland Powersucker 4/24/99 (4:53)
10) Ivan Rados, Bosnia Self-Sacrifice 7/26/96 (13:38)

Movement Based Performance Art (44:33)
1) Keith Hennessy, San Francisco Heat 2/24/94 (3:01)
2) Kathy Rose, New York Syncopations 3/17/93 (3:52)
3) Doug Cooney & Karen Stephens, Tampa Tom & Sally 3/21/93 (3:25)
4) Mark McCusker, Iowa City Sweet Unconcern 5/7/88 (3:00)
5) Eliot Fintushel, Rochester Ludd, The Machine Wrecker 4/20/89 (3:00)
6) Clara Crockett, Columbus Stick Dance 5/14/88 (2:30)
7) Jeff McMahon, New York Discontents 4/14/89 (3:00)
8) Seiji Shimoda, Tokyo On The Table 3/27/90 (9:10)
9) James Slowiak New World Performance Lab, Akron Traditional Values 5/11/90 (14:17)

International Performance Art (59:14)
1) Zygmunt Pio Trowski, Poland 4/25/89 (1:48)
2) Ping Chong, Toronto Undesirable Elements 3/7/93 (5:21)
3) Ivan Rados, Bosnia Self-Sacrifice 7/26/96 (6:16)
4) Guillermo Gomez-Pena & Roberto Sifuentes, New World (B)Order 3/23/94 (4:00)
5) David Alexaner Jones, Brighton, England The Ebb 5/5/97 (3:02)
6) Alexander Harvey, Scotland 4/1/94 (6:05)
7) Lorena Wolffer, Mexico City Mexican Territory 5/11/97(3:50)
8) Raphael Montanez Ortiz, New Jersey You Can’t Make An Omelette Without Breaking Some Eggs 2/10/84 (12:35)
9) Kain Karawahn, Berlin Why Don’t Cities Have Forest Fires? 4/18/93 (16:39)