Drama360/Introduction Continued: Why You, Why Now, Why Here? ***

INITIAL RESPONSE: PING YU

Goulish, Mathew. 39 Microlectures: In Proximity of Performance. New York: Routledge, 2000. (Pages 77-85 & 105-111)

Mathew argued that there were no significant differences whether the performers were women or men. He thought that it was a correct way to view ourselves not only ourselves but becoming everything about life. He mentioned “slow thinking” which he thought it was not about slowing down speed of thinking but it focused on the repeating, rotating and repeating; therefore, the scene would be stayed and replayed in your mind. Mathew also mentioned that beauty were existed somewhere and it needed to be found by lends itself to “more-self” by using the example of the actor who thought himself a better ghost instead of human while near-death from Bergman’s film The Magician. At the end of his discussion of women and directing, Mathew asked questions on how to divide the body and dream from each other. He said that as a performer, he could act his and other people’s body and as well as dreams. DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD In the Kaleidoscopic self topic, Mathew brought up the definition of barbarian and explained “who is excluded”, included and “who has no beard.” He stated the kaleidoscopic self into three questions that indicated questions or deep thinking occurred to audiences from performance. For instance, one of the questions was called woman or dress which the scene changed brought audiences questions such as where the women stopped, the dress started, and the red went on, end and so on. Mathew used Constantine Cavafy’s poem ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’ which described what people worn, how they act and so on to show indirectly they were waiting for the barbarians coming. Finally, Mathew mentioned the world including race and rice theme.

Response: Brittany Kozloski

One aspect that Mathew Goulish focuses on is the common mistakes people make while watching and performing. Philosophy allows us to believe that personality derives from owning not only your body, but the thoughts and emotions that are carried through it. Goulish argues that this intrinsic mentality is inaccurate as we have the ability to become a numerous amount of diverse entities through performance. Furthermore, Goulish believes that answers become uncovered through the experiences of the performer. By taking the time to search and repeat, a performer and those who witness have the ability to experience non-reproducable material which is quite the experience in its own.

Response: Jeremy Verkley

Goulish, when speaking about self as a contained unit, refers to nations as separate and distinct areas defined by birthplace, or by common history. He then uses outsiders or barbarians to show that in fact there can only be a "Self" or "Nation" if barbarians or outsiders exist. There can be no "I" without "Others". In the poem, "Waiting for Barbarians" he shows the steady decline of a nation, and at the end of it it turns out that with out a nation there are no barbarians. One could assume that the opposite is also true, and that with out the Others the distinction of "I" disappears.

INITIAL RESPONSE: ZOE WANG

Chengyao, He. "Fragmented Words." China Live. Ed. Daniel & Yang Brine, Sue. London: Chinese Arts Centre, Live Art UK, Live Art Development Agency, Shu Yang, 2005. 42-61.

The author of this article, Chengyao He narrated the realizations and incidental events in his life. He begins by noting the phrase: everyone takes what they can; which refers to the funding for an artist’s expenses is made through performances at commercial events. Conversely, the business gains publicity. However, He perceives these performances to mock the artist like a clown show. Another topic in the article “cadging a meal” notes the incidences at exhibitions, and how artists are perceived to make an appearance for a free meal. He describes his experience of being kicked out and prohibited for such reasons. He is outraged but realizes that artists, such as himself, lack the power to change the current state and perceptions of society. Third, the topic of “age” discusses the lack of boundaries for making and enjoying art. “Happiness” is another topic brought up, which the author identifies those happy moments in life can be established through the simplest events. Lastly, the author notes an ordinary day of events in his life. This includes careful details of his day, such as the items of his dinner and the ingredients in it, and he makes connections to the creation of problems in life due to “uncontrolled desires” (hunger being one of them). He makes the point that uncontrolled desires become problems, and people need time to resolve these problems in their life. Thus, time is ultimate savour for us all. At the end of the article, He refers to several international news stories to conclude.

Response: Abaigeal Skjenna

I felt like this article by He Chengyao was trying to get across the idea of how living through simple, ordinary, everyday occurrences is what makes a person 'happy'. However there are many rules and prohibited actions that may prevent this from happening, as noted in the example of being kicked out of the art exhibition. Who's to say that he wasn't there for the socializing aspect and wanted to surround himself with people who also had an appreciation of art? Socializing could be considered an 'ordinary aspect of life' but in this situation, social norms would not allow this at the 'high class gallery'. I was a little confused about the reason for all the pictures of He Yunchang doing obscure and crazy performances. Was this perhaps to back up the author of the article by saying that people should be able to do what they want to be happy, and it just so happens that He Yunchang will do ridiculous things because it makes him happy and doesn't care about what society will think of him?

Response: peter wang Chengyao point out everyone takes what they can. some performance are going to make commercial profit. Audience like the performance, so the will pay tickets and support these artist. I do not think it is a clown show. audience are also artists who know what happen on the stage. They feel "happy" during the performance. this is a phrase "Every takes what they can" "happy" is very important thing which everyone want to take in our life. Everyone wish himself to be happy in the rest of life. If they are hungry, they are not happy. Therefore, they eat some food. If food is very delicious, they feel happy. There are some very simple happy events in our life. Eating is sometimes a uncontrolled desire. When people finish eating dinner, they taste some ice-cream. Although the kind of eating desire makes people happy, it is a creation problem which people need time to resolve. everyone need the different amount of time to solve problem. Everyone treat time as a different way. Wasting time is not bad thing in some case. for example, when you are in a vacation, you enjoy the " wasting time". Response: Ke Chai to Abaigeal Skjenna:

The thing about Chinese performance artists is that they are extremely poor. Some can not even sustain 2 meals per day. The reason for that would be in such an economically over capitalized country (even politically still very "conservative"), the baby boomer generation tried so hard to create a rich country for the future generations, and they had to ignore many things that are considered "not as productive to the economy", such as art. The development of art in China in recent decades were very slow, and performance art was very new to China (since China only opened itself to the world since 1978), the entire art industry was lagged behind so much due to the lack of support financially and socially.

As well you might have noticed that a lots of nudity and violence was included in He's own performance creations (and He YunChang's performance art projects), that is not identical to her style though. Lots of Chinese performance artists directly link nudity to performance art. To me the main reason is that the leading performance artists such as Zhu Yu and Shu Yong, used nudity and violent as the main theme of many of their creations; one of Zhu Yu's project that was argued and criticized the most was the "Baby Eating". By eating a real baby (dead) from surgical abortion (later let his dog ate one too), he tried to use such extreme violence to boycott the "one child policy" in China. Many argued that due to the political pressure and lack of public notice, such extreme performance arts were eventually created. Such performance arts affected many artists later on, and they all dimmed nudity and violence as a way to make the public pay attention and listen. The question is, does this mean that performance art in China had been led to a wrong direction? or maybe performance art in China is still not mature enough to survive itself? Only time can tell I guess.

The most I can relate He ChengYao's article to is a book written by one of the most famous performance artist Shu Yong. In his book "The Marketing of Performance and Art", he argued that performance artists should use the capitalized market as the platform for performance artists (2005). Just like He ChengYao said in this article:"However, as i see it, in China's present circumstances it is not the case that businessmen are taking advantage of artists. Rather, it is a mutually beneficial win-win situation...". To her it is about "the sponsors, curators and artists all taking what they can". Indeed, realistically, for the survival of performance art in China, this might be the only feasible way under current situation.

Due to the education everyone is having, many people including many artists believed that everything should be purposeful. Each art project should always represent something meaningful to the society. But the things and problems each and everyone can solve is still so little and so insignificant comparatively. Maybe everyone is just like a "grand of sand in the ocean"? And maybe just like He ChengYao said in this article: "People spend their lives going back and forth like this, using these problems to fill up their lives, until in the end it is time, only time, that resolves and rescues us"? Or maybe, after all, no matter to art or to life, the most important thing is what's called "the process".

Reference: Shu, Yong. The Marketing of Performance and Art. GuangZhou: GuangDong Economic Press, 2005.

Response: Yibin Wang

When I see these pictures, I think they are exactly art even though most of them are crazy and incredible. For example, Dialogue With Water and Beyond Mountains and Sky. Why did Yunchang He do these? I think there are two reasons. Firstly, artists do not care what normal behavior is. They just want to perform what they think at that time. In most cases, art is improvised. Secondly, artists want to escape the real life. They really hope to try something different even unacceptable. Art drives from these unusual thoughts. Like the extreme sports, people know they are dangerous, but they just want to take the high risk to experience themselves. Therefore, performance can be everything especially for those which are uncommon.

Response: Xiaochao Ma

After I read this article, I thought I had a new understanding about performance artists. There are many people can not understand performance artists and their actions, they may think those performance artists were in a morbid manner or to a morbid degree. Actually, they were not. They were so brave to express their arts and not afraid of critical saying. Performance art is exactly the art. We should really respect those people who still protect the performance art. I really like what the article says about those people who know nothing about the performance arts: " Performance artists are not clowns, performance art is not an after-dinner dessert." Performance artists are people who put them self into the arts.

Response: Huibing Wu

In He Chengyao's fragmented words, she mentioned that "a so-called 'happy life' is simply living an ordinary life like an ordinary person". We can see that half naked is an very important part in many of her performances or artworks. Some people argues that she is using sex to capture people's attention. However, i think that her half naked performances are reflections of her childhood experiences. Chengyao's mother had mental illness shortly after the birth of Yao, and her mother always going around people with her body half naked. Therefore, many of her performances like "99 needles" were performed for her mother. She tried to tell her nightmares through her art performances. Yao's definition of 'happy life' is to live like an ordinary person, maybe this is the desire she always wants when she was a child.

Response: Jiachen Wu (ben)

if someone asked what is performance arts, i will say that i do not know. here is my personal understanding about performance art. human being is probably the most intelligent species on the earth. we are always expecting another people to understand what we express and behave in our daily life. it is easy to say, but it is hard to do in reality. Some people use language to express their idea, but others choose to performance. their final goal is the same. i still remember what we discussed about the clarification of performance in the class. performancing on the stage is called performance by people all the time. however, i think performance can expand to our daily life. that remind me that my parents used to say it to me that life is a performance and performance is a life. at that moment, i got the whole idea. the first time, i watch he chengyao's performance art, and i a m offended by it. you know her performance arts which are always related to nake. although China currently is very open, people still can not accept women without any clothes in front of the public. however, by a further reading of he chengyao's childhood and what she has been went through in her life, i can understand her performance arts better than before. if you have more time to search her childhood on the internet, you will get more information and then you will find more clue piece by piece from her performance. like i said in the previous paragraph, life is a performance and performance is a life.

Response: Sijin Chen

This article, which is called fragmented words, is written by He Chengyao. Actually, she is a performance artist, and she created many art works including installations, photographs, and performance art. For example, her famous photograph of performance is “99 Needles”, as a normal person, we feel like that this picture is a kind of crazy behavior, but it is a sort of art work. As we know, writers express their thoughts and emotions through writing; singers express their thoughts and emotions through sounds; painters express their thoughts and emotions through pictures. However, performance artists usually express their thoughts and emotions through some extremely behaviors, like He Chengyao. However, from a different point of view, these extremely behaviors express many significant meanings which are hard to understand. Performance artists just use their own performance to create art works which are called performance art. Therefore, we should respect performance artists, and try our best to know and enjoy their performance art works.

Response: Yuanyuan Li

Chengyao He, as the author of this article, states her several opinions from some real stories, which show Performance art is art ,where the actions of an individual at a particular place, and in a particular time constitute the jobs, it could happen anywhere, at any time, even the live performance happen by our side. As well, she tells us how is performance she feels in her real life. Indeed, as author's view, the Chinese present circumstances are not the cases that business are taking advantages of artists, and they are not clowns, and performance art is not an after –dinner dessert. The performance artists are extremely poor, but they sometimes use the brave ,and even unbelievable manner to show their idea of performance, so that they usually shake the whole world, such as He Chenyao' s 99needles in 2002, and He Chenyao Opening the Great Wall in Beijing in 2001, He Yuncgang’s Appointment With Tomorrow in Kunming in 1998, and even He Yunchang’s Dialogue With Water in 1999 in Yunnan. Although their performances look like extremely crazy, against the grain, I think they exhibit exactly their actions of an individual with their culture.

However, sometimes I could understand what some actions of performance artists are, but I usually do not understand what are at all. In my option, in order to understand the works of performance artists, we have to try to know the feeling and idea of performance artists when they are planning their works, their philosophy and their value of life, even some special experiences and stories in their life. Such He Chenyao’s 99needles in 2002 as an example, I understand He Chenyao, even her works after I researched some information form the internet. Zhang, Nan as an interview to talk with He Chenyao“Let’s talk about your99 Needles. I want to know why you used such a painful and cruel way to express your ideas?”And He Chenyao answers “Before making this piece I had always felt a lot of pain, a sense of powerlessness. In my memory, my mother had to go through acupuncture once in a while. It was therapy, but forced therapy. When they needed to put the needles in her, they would press her against a board; watch her being pinned, screaming and struggling. This scene has impressed me so much that I can never erase it from my mind. I fainted during99 Needles, but afterwards I felt like I was reborn. I was no longer in so much pain. Putting the needles in myself was a kind of punishment for not being able to help Mother, but only watch her suffer. I did this piece because I love my mother but cannot help her. Of course these pieces have nothing to do with Mother because I cannot change her. She lives in her own world and does not know what I am doing.”

All in all, due to the passion of performance artists in the live performances, they usually use their body languages, even some accessorial objects to tell people what they would like to say, and that actually should be their sounds from their deep hearts .In other words, as my views of the live performance, that is the different way to relate an event, a real story,or event indignation from someone. Face to some live performances, we may know that, perhaps we do not understand at all, even puzzle that, but what we need to do is just trying to appreciate because nobody could say they agree their works or not.

http://blog.artintern.net/blogs/articleinfo/christy/10618/op/1

Response: Siliang Li

Performance art is different from other art forms. It conveys artists’ emotions through some actions which can happen anywhere, at any time, in any situations. Usually, artists’ thoughts and emotions are related to experience, and performance artists vent their emotions through their own ways which cannot be understood by ordinary people. The author of this article, Chengyao He, most of her art works are related to her childhood. Since unmarried 19-year-old mother gave birth to Chenyao He, her mother was despised by others because unmarried women cannot be accepted in the traditional China. Thus, her mother became mad, and she always ran with a naked body. She cannot forget the situation which has a big effect on her art works. At this time, her art thoughts are gradually formed. Therefore, she has many photographs which show her naked body, for example, “opening the Great Wall”, which is one of her representative works in order to show her dissatisfaction with the traditional China, is related to her experience in the childhood.

Response: meng shi (helen)

From these pictures of the article "FRAGMENTED WORDS", I thought that the performance artists are very shocked,crazy,amazing and incomprehensible.However, after I read the article and got some information about the author who is HE CHENGYAO,I sank into melancholy and confused that what is human nature.Then, I have a new impression and understanding that why they do the performance.Firstly, some of artists are not rich enough, so they do some extreme and provocative actions which the nomal artists would not do.Actually,they love arts,but they also want to become famous in order to earn more money.Moreover, performance artists is the most real and freedom people in the normal lives because they just want to express what in their mind to other people, and they really want to get understanding from the world.I think they are a group which as naive and brave people. At the end of this article, there is a news regarded as an conclusion for this article.In addition, the news means that people can not control anything which must happen in the future such as natural disaster,and tears could not solve problems.

Response: Nathan Hunt (Response to Huibing Wu)

I find a significant amount of conflict between the artists acts and words. Within the article when she talks about living a happy life equating to being a normal person I really wonder if that is what she meant. As you pointed out she states that her version of a happy life is one in which she lives like a normal person. If this was the case why doesn't she live like a normal person and/or does she consider herself a normal person? I find it strange if one associated one thing as happiness and decided to reject it. When I think of this I wonder if this is a statement on the emptyness of the happiness grasped at. Is she attempting to rebuild the value structure of her nation in order to create and foster a more enlightened form of happiness, and is the medium used to bring this about in her performance art?

Response to Yibin Wang : Jingyi Chen

I think art is a process to create new things. If people just repeat the thing that we already have, that is not art. When most art had been created, people did not know how to enjoy those new staff. After a period of time, people found they could enjoy those arts that been created. The process to create new thing of art is not a high risk to experience, artist try to let people to enjoy their own art which the understanding of their own about art. In different period, people have different understanding of art. For example, if artist could bring modern artwork to thousands years ago, do you think people who live in that age could enjoy those artworks? The answer is no.

Response: Chao Jiang

The performance that He Chengyao did was very sexual, such as 99needles and Opening the Great Wall. In the performance the surrealism was expressed very well by her confidence. When I see The 99 needles, me as an audience was shocked and I can almost feel the pain on her chest. I also like He yunchang’s performance very much, he’s trying to express the potential of human body thru some heavy lifting actions. He also uses surrealism performance style to impress the audiences. In my opinion, I think both Chengyao and Yunchang is true performer because when they have an idea they ignore the cost and price. I think this is something that we should learn.