In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • Evolutions of the Performance Aesthetic
  • John Kelly, Liz Magic Laser, David Levine, Alix Pearlstein, and Paul David Young (bio)

On October 14, 2010, John Kelly, Liz Magic Laser, David Levine, and Alix Pearlstein joined moderator Paul David Young at the apexart gallery space in New York to discuss the engagement in their work with the idea of theatre and the evolution of the performance aesthetic. The use of theatre within the art world raises a host of questions about the identity and body of the performer, the relationship of performance to the written text, the institutional and social conditions of performance, the relevance of the history of theatre and theatre criticism, and the political nature of art. The discussion continued by e-mail after that evening; these later questions and answers are appended at the end of the conversation.

John Kelly is a performance and visual artist, who has received numerous awards including two Obies, two Bessies, and a CalArts Alpert Award. Fellowships and residencies include the American Academy in Rome, Guggenheim Foundation, Radcliffe Institute, Civitella Ranieri, and the Sundance Theatre Lab. His visual art has been exhibited at Alexander Gray Associates, ICA Philadelphia, MIT List Visual Arts Center, and The New Museum for Contemporary Art. He recently starred in The Clerk’s Tale, directed by James Franco. A revival of his work based on the Viennese Expressionist Egon Schiele, Pass The Blutwurst, Bitte, was performed at La MaMa E.T.C. in December 2010. He is currently an Armory Artist in Residence at the Park Avenue Armory.

Liz Magic Laser lives and works in New York City. She attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) Workspace residency program. Her 2010 solo show at Derek Eller Gallery (NYC) was chase. Laser’s work is currently included in Greater New York 2010 at MoMA PS1 where her performance Flight also debuted. She is continuing to develop Flight with the award of a Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art grant. Her work has been shown at New York venues including Southfirst, Sue Scott, Smack Mellon, and The Art Production Fund. Laser has also exhibited internationally at NT art gallery (Bologna), Karlin Hall for the Prague Biennale 4, the Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv, and the Georgian National Museum for Artisterium 2009 (Tbilisi). [End Page 1]


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Left to right: Paul David Young, Alix Pearlstein, David Levine, Liz Magic Laser, and John Kelly at apexart, New York, October 14, 2010. Photo: Courtesy apexart.

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David Levine’s work examines the conditions of spectacle and spectatorship across a range of media. His performance work has been seen at MoMA, Documenta XII, GBE@Passerby, PS 122, the Watermill Center, and HAU2 Berlin, and his non- performance work at Cabinet Magazine’s exhibition space, Townhouse Gallery (Cairo), and Galerie Feinkost (Berlin). As a theatre director, he has directed premieres at The Atlantic, The Vineyard, and Primary Stages Theatres, and developed new work at the Sundance Theatre Lab. He lives in New York and Berlin, where he is director of the Studio Programme at the European College of Liberal Arts.

Alix Pearlstein’s work in video and performance has been widely exhibited. Selected solo exhibitions include On Stellar Rays (New York), Contemporary Art Museum (St. Louis), The Kitchen (New York), MIT List Visual Arts Center (Cambridge), Salon 94 (New York), Lugar Commun (Lisbon), The Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), and Postmasters Gallery, New York. Selected group exhibitions and screenings include MoBY (Tel Aviv), Internationale D’Art De Quebec (Quebec City), EV+A (Limerick), BAM/PFA (Berkeley), SMAK (Ghent), The Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Biennale de Lyon, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington D.C.), and The Museum of Modern Art (New York). Pearlstein lives and works in New York.

YOUNG:

I’d like to thank apexart for agreeing to host tonight’s panel and PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, under whose auspices the panel is occurring. The beginning point for this panel was the reference to traditional theatre by visual artists, which in my reading of art history is something that was largely excluded from the...

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