Body Acts:
Video Performance Art
Thursday, September 17th, 8pm
Location: Houston Center for Photography, 1441 West Alabama
$7 non-members, Aurora and HCP members free with RSVP
Please note that viewer discretion is advised due to nudity
In conjunction with the Houston Center for Photography exhibit "Artist as Performer," Aurora Picture Show will host a screening of early Japanese and American video and performance art at Houston Center for Photography (1441 West Alabama) on 8PM Thursday, September 17.
Beyond merely documenting performances, video was often exploited by artists as an extension of physical and or emotional gestures. The unique technical possibilities of video enabled performers to manipulate the framing and aesthetics of their documentation. In Animus II, by Mako Idemitsu, video superimposition is used to visually represent the Jungian concept of the male aspects within a female’s psyche. Similarly, Joan Jonas’ Organic Honey’s Vertical Roll is a work about costuming and gendered role-playing. Wearing a kimono and doll’s mask, Jonas self-consciously conjures emblems of feminine identity. Other performance works aggressively challenged the “passive” space of the video monitor. Image of Image – Seeing, by Saburo Muraoka, Tatsuo Kawaguchi, and Keiji Uematsu, show the artists willfully interfering with, and ultimately destroying, television monitors. The documentation of this destruction was broadcast live on Japanese television. Paul McCarthy structures aggressive actions within the frame of the camera, using his body as an essential tool in the art-making process. In one performance he drags himself and an open paint can across the floor of his studio, in another he violently whips the walls and pillars of his studio with a large paint-soaked sheet.
Vito Acconci Flour/ Breath Piece 1970 3:00
Paul McCarthy Black and White Tapes (excerpt) 1970-75 5:00
Saburo MURAOKA, Tatsuo KAWAGUCHI, and Keiji UEMATSU Image of Image - Seeing 1973 11:20
Joan Jonas Organic Honey's Vertical Roll 1973-99 15:15
Mako Idemitsu Animus 2 1973 10:50
Bruce Nauman Pinchneck 1971 2:00
Ante Bozanich I Am the Light 1976 3:57
Morihiro Wada The Recognition Construction (excerpt) 1975 10:00
Special thanks to Houston Center for Photography for their support of this program.