The archived photo collection of performance art housed in CSU's art gallery is a culmination of expressions amassed over 12 years, not intended to "be" art or merely "look" like art, rather it's the historical documentation of the artists' processes of development, an exhibition pointing out its accomplishments. These images were not placed on display to qualify as art, which is the core of Ms. Jack's misunderstanding. Its installation never intended to be art in the first place: performance art is not a one-dimensional aesthetic limited within conventional forms of fine art (where one can breeze in, eye it indifferently and judge), instead, it is a limitless world utilizing the unlimited canvas of human body and fathomless resources of the mind. It requires and asks much of its audience by engaging them, the viewer, into its predominantly symbolic and task oriented realm, engaging psychology of the viewer in order that they may enter a place where questioning, learning and feeling is tantamount to living and breathing.
Performance oriented art has never sought to make audiences feel good, but to cause discomfort; remove us from the realms of comfort that we may see farther, more deeply than what can be expressed in words, canvas, or sculpture. To touch upon the personal, psychological realism via symbolism are statements I heard when interviewing many of the performers I spoke with at the festival. The performances provide a complex web of lessons in culture, psychology, community and politics, and despite popular belief, performance artists and their craft are not assemblies of the sensational. Many of these artists sacrifice their own comfort and in many cases, dignity (i.e. nudity) to share and direct their journey of lessons to the audience. Audiences may or may not be primed to receive these "moments of enlightenment" or artistic satori, however, it is offered freely whether or not the audience chooses to embrace it or not. Performance art cannot be discounted as mere sensationalism as its components delve into multi-dimensional factors involving emotions, community, memory, politics, sexuality, social commentary and identity, as it's comprised of all our faculties of reasoning to interconnect our profound human qualities, joined to launch an intellectualism, its theories of which ancient Greeks fervently sought in hopes of reaching elevated levels of existence. We should be grateful for these challengingly, difficult and hard-won epiphanies; it is by which we experience our own growth.
Performance art as it exists in the 21st century maintains its own respected art movement, with classes taught throughout universities from Chicago to England, it's recognized as a valuable resource in the arts community in relation to development of the artist. Curriculum assists in guiding artists' expressions to simultaneously instruct the audience, surpassing the boundaries of more traditional & limiting mediums of fine art; performance art is the ultimate multi-media expression in the form of the unending, ever changing human body. And its tightly knit, formed community of artists is strong enough to support these festivals for the past 12 years, returning to Cleveland for over a decade, we've welcomed performers from as far away as Estonia and Russia, all in the name of art, if only to share their journey and the craft of its evolution.
Understanding performance art is to enter, humbly, its world, winding and intricate, with hopes of obtaining its shared lessons where enlightenment is its own reward. Should one venture, (like Ms. Jack has) to attempt critiquing this evasive aesthetic, I suggest these critics follow the example of Cool Cleveland.com's own art critic: get a degree in art history with a minor in psychology, immerse yourself in the artistic community and then we can get together and talk about "what performance art is." by Cool Cleveland editor Tisha Nemeth
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