WPerformance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be live, through documentation, spontaneously or written, presented to a public in a Fine Arts context, traditionally interdisciplinary. Also known as artistic action, it has been developed through the years as a genre of its own in which art is presented live. It had an important and fundamental role in 20th century avant garde art.
WThe 5th Passage Artists Limited, commonly known as 5th Passage or 5th Passage Artists, was an artist-run initiative and contemporary art space in Singapore from 1991 to 1994. As a registered, artist-led non-profit organisation, it was one of the earliest of its kind for early-1990s Singapore, with its initial space located at Parkway Parade, a shopping centre in the east of the city. The "meteoric existence" of 5th Passage has been noted alongside other art collectives and alternative spaces existing in 1990s Singapore, such as The Artists Village, The Substation, Plastique Kinetic Worms, and Trimurti.
WArtist trading cards (ATCs) is a conceptual art project initiated by the Swiss artist M. Vänçi Stirnemann in 1997. He called it a Collaborative Cultural Performance. Artist trading cards are 2 1⁄2 by 3 1⁄2 inches in size, the same format as modern trading cards. They are self-made unique works or small series, signed and dated on the reverse by the artist/producer, exchanged and collected by the people who participate in the collaborative performance.
WBoogaloo is a freestyle, improvisational street dance movement of soulful steps and robotic movements which make up the foundations of popping dance and turfing; boogaloo can incorporate illusions, restriction of muscles, stops, robot and/or wiggling. The style also incorporates foundational popping techniques, which were initially referred to as "Posing Hard". It is related to the later electric boogaloo dance.
WCHASOS was a satirical art activism project, launched 2011 by Andreas Heusser. It consisted in creation of the fictitious charity organization "Christian Humanitarian Asylum Self-Aid Organization Switzerland" (CHASOS) and several actions performed by its president, pastor Wilfried Stocher.
WCritical Run is an art format developed by Thierry Geoffroy / Colonel. A critical run consists of a group of participants debating whilst running. The aim of a critical run is to debate so-called "emergency topics" - problems and issues the world faces at the present time often focusing on topics that are hard to address and unpleasant to acknowledge. Such topics include climate change, xenophobia, wars, hypocrisy, and apathy, and can be very challenging within the context of the host city. The format has often been activated in correlation with the exhibiting of Geoffroy's Emergency Room, an art format where Geoffroy invites artists to respond to the news of the day with ultracontemporary art. Each run lasts roughly 25 minutes and is set at a pace accessible for all fitness levels.
WDrag kings are mostly female performance artists who dress in masculine drag and personify male gender stereotypes as part of an individual or group routine. A typical drag show may incorporate dancing, acting, stand-up comedy and singing, either live or lip-synching to pre-recorded tracks. Drag kings often perform as exaggeratedly macho male characters, portray marginalized masculinities such as construction workers and rappers or they will impersonate male celebrities like Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Tim McGraw.
WA drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, most drag queens have been men dressing as women. In modern times, drag queens are associated with gay men and gay culture, but they can be of any gender and sexual identity.
WEndurance art is a kind of performance art involving some form of hardship, such as pain, solitude or exhaustion. Performances that focus on the passage of long periods of time are also known as durational art or durational performances.
WExtreme ironing is an extreme sport in which people take ironing boards to remote locations and iron items of clothing. According to the Extreme Ironing Bureau, extreme ironing is "the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt."
WHigh Performance was a quarterly arts magazine based out of Los Angeles founded in 1978 and published until 1997. Its editorial mission was to provide support and a critical context for new, innovative and unrecognized work in the arts.
WDavid Datuna is a Georgian-born American artist living in New York City. His Viewpoint of Millions series explores the sources and meaning of cultural identity from different points of view.
WI miss you, Jew! was a nationwide performative action organized by Polish artist Rafał Betlejewski, aimed at expressing the longing of Poles for Polish Jews, who have largely disappeared from the country following the events of the Holocaust. As part of the initiative Betlejewski painted the slogan "I miss you, Jew" on public walls and encouraged others to copy this gesture. Places where this slogan showed up included Piotrkowska Street in Łodz, as well as along Brezeska Street in Warsaw and in the town of Jedwabne. All of these sites have significance to the once-vibrant Jewish community in Poland; Piotrkowska Street in Łodz was the site of roundups and pogroms during the Holocaust, while Brezeska Street in Warsaw once formed part of the boundary for the Warsaw Ghetto. Jedwabne was the site of a pogrom perpetrated by the local Polish population in 1941.
WThe Invisible Generation was a contemporary art project conceived by artist Per Hüttner and Curator Daniele Balit and organized by Vision Forum and created new meeting places between art and its audiences. A great number of projects were realized in Melbourne, Shenzhen, Beijing and Kyiv in 2009-2010. For each city the program and artist list was totally new. No project was ever repeated twice. The project always allowed the audience to meet art in new and unexpected situations and played with or confused the audiences’ expectations about what art is, where it normally appears and what shape it should take.
WKEH was a satirical art project, launched 2009 by Andreas Heusser, Christof Nüssli and Christoph Oeschger. It consisted in the creation of the fictitious charity organization "War Development Aid" (KEH) and several actions performed by its representatives, Dr. Alois B. Stocher and his assistant George Klein.
WLive Arts Week is a project by Xing, born in 2012 out the fusion of the experiences of the two Bologna festivals (2000>2011): Netmage - International Live Media Festival and F.I.S.Co. - Festival Internazionale sullo Spettacolo Contemporaneo. Live Arts Week takes place in Bologna, Italy, once a year, and it is developed throughout one week in different locations and settings in town.
WLive painting is a form of visual performance art, in which artists complete a visual art piece in a public performance, often at a bar, music concert, wedding reception, or public event, accompanied by a DJ or live music. The artwork which is created live may be planned or improvisational. This live art form is often contrasted with more studied fine art compositions from the same artists, which are generally executed in an artist studio or other private space.
WLove is in the Bin is a 2018 art intervention by Banksy at Sotheby's London, with an unexpected self-destruction of his 2006 painting of Girl with Balloon immediately after it was sold at auction for a record £1,042,000. According to Sotheby's, it is "the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction." The painting has been on permanent loan to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart since March 2019.
WThe Mannequin Challenge is a viral Internet video trend which became popular in November 2016, in which people remain frozen in action like mannequins while a moving camera films them, often with the song "Black Beatles" by Rae Sremmurd playing in the background. The hashtag #MannequinChallenge was used for popular social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. It is believed that the phenomenon was started by students at a high school in Jacksonville, Florida. The initial posting has inspired works by other groups, especially professional athletes and sports teams, who have posted increasingly complex and elaborate videos.
WMentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precognition, psychokinesis, mediumship, mind control, memory feats, deduction, and rapid mathematics. Mentalists perform a theatrical act that includes effects that may appear to employ psychic or supernatural forces but that are actually achieved by "ordinary conjuring means," natural human abilities, and an in-depth understanding of key principles from human psychology or other behavioral sciences.
WAn open mic is a live show at a coffeehouse, nightclub, comedy club, strip club, institution or pub at which audience members who are amateur or professional may perform on stage, often for the first time, or to promote an upcoming performance. Typically, as the name suggests, the performer is provided with a microphone which is plugged into a PA system, to make the individual's performance loud enough for the audience to hear. Often the performers sign up in advance for a time slot with the host or master of ceremonies, typically an experienced performer or the venue manager or owner. The master of ceremonies may screen potential candidates for suitability for the venue and give individuals a time to perform in the show. These events are focused on performance arts like poetry and spoken word, music, and comedy. Less commonly, small groups, such as a small rock band duo/trio or a comedy duo may appear. Group performances are uncommon, because of the space and the logistics of loading in and soundchecking such a group. In strip club terms, amateur night is a contest for everyday women and men who compete for a cash prize by taking their clothes off just like professional strippers.
WPerformance poetry is poetry that is specifically composed for or during a performance before an audience. During the 1980s, the term came into popular usage to describe poetry written or composed for performance rather than print distribution, mostly open to improvisation.
WPiano burning is the act of setting on fire an acoustic piano, most commonly an upright, as either a ceremony or a form of performance art. Although piano burning ceremonies are now popular in the Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force and the United States Air Force, there is little or no evidence to suggest that descriptions of its origin have any historical authenticity. According to one version of its origin, pianos were set alight by RAF pilots to avoid piano lessons aimed at improving their dexterity and general level of culture. Another version is that piano burning began in World War II in remembrance of fallen RAF pilots. Several contemporary musicians, including Annea Lockwood, Yōsuke Yamashita, and Diego Stocco, have composed for and performed on pianos which have been deliberately set alight. A burning piano was also the centrepiece of Douglas Gordon's 2012 video installation, The End of Civilisation.
WPlastique Kinetic Worms (PKW) was a Singapore-based artist-run space and contemporary art collective, co-founded in 1998 by Singaporean artists Vincent Leow and Yvonne Lee. PKW was one of the few artist-run spaces in Singapore when it opened in the late 1990s, with the 1990 closure of the Ulu Sembawang site of Singapore's first artist colony, The Artists Village, and the disbanding of artist-run space and initiative, 5th Passage, after 1994. Originally organised around a collective of 10 artists, PKW's membership would vary, with around 15 to 20 members at various points of its active years.
WPsychogeography is an exploration of urban environments that emphasizes playfulness and "drifting". It has links to the Lettrist and Situationist Internationals, revolutionary groups influenced by Marxist and anarchist theory, and the attitudes and methods of Dadaists and Surrealists. In 1955, Guy Debord defined psychogeography as "the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals." As a practice and theory, psychogeography has influenced a broad set of cultural actors, including artists, activists and academics.
WRock balancing or stone balancing is an art, discipline, or hobby in which rocks are naturally balanced on top of one another in various positions without the use of adhesives, wires, supports, rings or any other contraptions which would help maintain the construction's balance. The number of rock piles created in this manner in natural areas has recently begun to worry conservationists because they can misdirect hikers, expose the soil to erosion, aesthetically intrude upon the natural landscape, and serve no purpose.
WSand animation is the manipulation of sand to create animation. In performance art an artist creates a series of images using sand, a process which is achieved by applying sand to a surface and then rendering images by drawing lines and figures in the sand with one's hands. A sand animation performer will often use the aid of an overhead projector or lightbox. To make an animated film, sand is moved on a backlit or frontlit piece of glass to create each frame.
WSignalism represents an international neo-avant-garde literal and art movement. It gathered wider support base both in former Yugoslavia and the world in the late 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s.
WStreet performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is practiced all over the world and dates back to antiquity. People engaging in this practice are called street performers or buskers in the United Kingdom. Buskers is not a term generally used in American English.
WThangyat is a Burmese performance art that blends traditional folk verse performances accompanied by the beat of traditional drums or a hsaing waing ensemble, and interspersed with song, dance and chant routines, and performed during festive occasions, particularly during Thingyan in the lead up to the Burmese New Year.
WThe Tree of Life is a large three-dimensional mural by artist Manav Gupta, located across the interior staircase of the Bharti Airtel office building in Gurgaon, India. Covering approximately 5,000 sq ft of facade space and 10,000 sq ft of total painted surface, it is the tallest and largest indoor staircase mural. While deploying site specific collaborative art practice of allowing more than 1000 employees of the office building, to participate in the experience of painting in the initial phase, the artist conceptualised the creation as a public art project.
WUnsilent Night is a musical composition and participatory performance art piece by American composer Phil Kline which, since its creation in 1992, has been performed around the world annually in December. In the performance of this composition, volunteers carrying boomboxes and other music players parade through the streets of the participating city, presenting an ambient cacophony of recorded bells, harps, and electronic instruments composed by Kline. Considered Kline's most popular work to date, performances began in the New York City neighborhood of Greenwich Village and have since spread to 124 cities around the world, including the United States, Canada, Europe, Oceania, Africa, and Asia.