Words on Actions

By Surpik Angelini


Performance Art in Houston may seem to have sprung from nowhere, like an exotic weed growing om the margin of mainstream art, but Houston artists are not oblivious to its impact on the city’s collective memory.

It is precisely the ephemeral nature of Performance that seems to make it the most fitting artistic expression for a city in the making.

Houston thrives not on history but its constant making of industrial ruins, as Walter Benjamin would put it. No sooner is something new built than it is perceived as debris. In fact, we may say that Houston is a city in a perennial performative state.

Wanting to revisit homegrown examples of Performance Art in the past we hear echoes of the outrageous actions by the members of the Ant Farm in the seventies, Lawndale Annex work by William Steen, Mel Chin and Culturcide and the witty and whimsical performances of the Art Guys.

More recently, the traffic stopping Inversion of a Montrose cottage by Dan Havel and Dean Ruck and the provocative exhibitions and performances staged by Otabenga Jones have changed our perception of performance to include interactive artworks.

Taken as a whole, performances seem to counter any contrived desire to fit Modernist or Postmodernist canons. Instead, a unique atmosphere of artistic anarchy seems to fuel the present. Today brings one more group of work to the fore, a collective exhibition of performance facilitated by Elia Arce.

What is unique in recent memory is how Arce has taught successive groups of young artists to incorporate dynamics from their personal environment into ongoing bodies of work. Aspects of their lives become specific performance pieces, bringing depth to other bodies of work like painting and sculpture. Beyond experimental exercises, these artists demonstrate an interchangeable view of performance and life.

In fact, we must note students' productions spilling over into public spaces on several occasions: the civic square, the Mall, institutional spaces, private homes, blogs and web sites. Most striking is how the human content in each performance work becomes heavily invested with the city, while effecting a surprisingly contagious response in the audience.

The most recent group led by Elia Arce will be exhibiting at The Artery Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 from 6-8 pm. Extracted from the personal everyday will be rituals, allegories, social critique, interaction with the public, the body, specificity of site and multimedia.

Each performance is intensely personal while also orchestrated to fit a collective presentation unfolding in the unique environment of The Artery.