Zhang Huan and Jonathan Keats- Performing Arts
Since I was not able to go to the exhibit with the class, I had to go to see this by myself. To be honest I was very uncomfortable, this is an experience that should only be with the company of friends. It’s not that I didn’t take this exhibit seriously but after Chelsea, I wasn’t prepared for the extremity of Zhang Huan, especially the film. I’m all for the freedom of nudity, but I feel his message went over my head. I am also aware that Zhang is from a different culture, so on top of the wild antics of performing arts, we had differences in perspectives. One of the performances that I especially appreciated was “Raise the Water Level in the Fishpond” and “To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain.” These pieces reached past cultural difference, everyone understands the need to make a difference, power of the individual. Prejudices aside Zhang Huan, exemplifies what performing arts means.
The performing artist that I chose to research is Jonathan Keats. I liked the fact that he was born in New York so that drove me to delve further. Some of his performing arts pushed the envelope for me and made me question whether his actions can be considered art. As I continued reading about his trying to create God in a lab and selling his thoughts as art, I was getting really frustrated at the term performing arts. “Performing” took on a negative conagtation for me, almost as if the artist does things for the shock value or attention instead of “art”. Continuing my research, I found some of his “shananagins” very clever. He choreographed a dance for bees by planting flowers in a certain pattern. One of his most recent works is trying to create a camera that can photograph time. He feels time can be captured but hasn’t be so far because pictures are taking in too much information and it exposure is for too fast. I happen to enjoy researching Keats, and enjoyed him a lot better than Huan. Perhaps, however, if I experience Keats’ work in person, I wold feel differently.
I think the role of a performing artist is a hard one to define and set boundaries for. For as limitless the criteria for art is, the sect of performing art is considered extreme. Performing art goes beyond the canvas and clay, to interactive, tangible peices that are in your face. They demand a response, it is so much harder to walk away from a person than a lifeless photograph.