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through each segment, afraid that should the objects "stay" for longer durations, they will accumulate in meaning (or participate in a desiring visual field) both for the audience and perhaps for Sherman himself. He further moves the objects after a quick glance at each one, conveying the sense of his own fear to appropriate the object in question, but a sufficient look to make each object a "perceived object" in its own right. And not only must the element of time be reduced since its accretion may result in "involvement," but memory of an object in time must also be discarded. To do this, Sherman refers to a card prior to each act as if to "remind" himself of what is to be done next; he wants us to believe that he has no recollection regarding his objects and his artistic practice. The gesture not only adds to our seeing Sherman as a subject without desire, but as a subject without time, without history. He, together with his objects, becomes an object in turn. Sherman-the-performer is reduced to Sherman-the-presence or, at best, a pure self-reflexive mind, a mind reflecting on what the mind can do, thought reflecting on thought, perception reflecting on perception. And since the audience, too, is left in a self-reflexive stage, Sherman's entire theatrical encounter operates in a realm of "pure" and "total" objecthood. Ultimately, it is this participation in objecthood that aligns him, more than other performace artists, with the aesthetic of minimalism in art. And although accomplishing this in a performative situation is a radical experiment, it is not enough to sustain a career, especially if one wants to conduct that career in a theatrical format. Perhaps this is what led Sherman to make short films and his adaptations of Hamlet, Oedipus Rex, and Faust, three pieces that have yet to be shown here. 38 -MM1an V 06J an RI Stuart Sherman's Eleventh Spectacle (The Erotic) Gautam Dasgupta is co-editor of Per- .forming Arts Journal. by david ieff Robert Anton has been performing his pieces publicly for more than a decade, although his appearances have been infrequent and his audience has consisted almost entirely of invited guests and people informed by word of mouth. Each performance can be seen by no more than eighteen people and, indeed, the ideal way to see the work is to sit as close as possible to the waist-high, semi-circular stage from behind which Anton and his "cast" of exquisitely-crafted hand puppets enact their drama. The subtlety of the faces of the puppets, the details of the many props Anton uses during a performance, and most of all the interaction of gesture and facial expression between Anton, the animator, clad in black velvet, and the finger puppets, his subjects, his children, his victims, can only be fully appreciated from up close. The performance is solemn. Anton seems almost in a trance, his attention riveted on the puppets. He has said that his characters take him in unknown or unexpected directions and that he views himself as both the creator of his piece but also as a kind of privileged spectator to it. This is certainly the impression one gets watching a performance , an impression that is underscored by Anton's use of alchemical props -beakers of fluid, smoking pots of water, burning incense-which punctuate the piece. The spectator is witnessing a kind of rite, a mystery at which Anton presides but which he does not fully control. The effect is shattering, and intentionally so. The work begins in a tragic register, in tears, and for an hour and a half only becomes more painful, more despairing, more tragic. Anton leads his puppets through a series of archetypal situations. Sometimes he watches, sometimes he intervenes , but in every case what the puppets undergo is the experience and the penalty of their frailties, vanities, and helplessness. A finger puppet with an egg for a head tries to remove it. Unable to extricate himself the egg-puppet begins to bash his head against a metal plate, harder and harder. In the end, the shell cracks to reveal a face of...

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