Live Art In The Uk

Since entering the performance lexicon in the 1970s, the term Live Art has been used to describe a diverse but interrelated array of performance practices and approaches. This volume offers a contextual and critical introduction to the scene of contemporary Live Art in Britain. Focusing on key artists whose prolific body of work has been vital to the development of contemporary practice, this collection studies the landscape of Live Art in the UK today and illuminates its origins, as well as particular concerns and aesthetics. The introduction to the volume situates Live Art in relation to other areas of artistic practice and explores the form as a British phenomenon. It considers questions of cultural specificity, financial and institutional support, and social engagement, by tracing the work and impact of key organizations on the UK scene: the Live Art Development Agency, SPILL Festival of Performance and Compass Live Art. Across three sections, leading scholars offer case studies exploring the practice of key artists Tim Etchells, Marisa Carnesky, Marcia Farquhar, Franko B, Martin O'Brien, Oreet Ashery, David Hoyle, Jordan McKenzie, and Cosey Fanni Tutti.

Drawing together all kinds of writing about and around Live Art, The Live Art Almanac is both a useful resource and a great read for artists, writers, students and others interested in the field of interdisciplinary, performance-based art. The Live Art Almanac Volume 4 is? a collection of ‘found’ writings about and around Live Art that were originally published, shared, sent, spread and read between January 2012 and December 2014. Selected through recommendations and an open call for submissions, Volume 4 reflects the dynamic, international contexts that Live Art and radical performance-based practices occupy. Live Art is experiencing a huge ?surge in interest with major museums embracing this disparate area of practice, formerly cult artists becoming household names, and everyone from Shia LaBeouf, Lady Gaga and Jay Z trying to get in on the action. Reflecting the diversity of approaches and key developments from the last few years, Volume 4 is grouped into seven loosely themed sections: Locating Performance; Performance Under Attack; Speaking Up/Speaking Out; Show Me the Money; High Art in Low Places; Reviews; and Dearly Departed. This volume includes writings by,? and about: Ai Weiwei, Pussy Riot,?Tim Etchells, Karen Finley, Vaginal Davis, Ann Magnuson, Shaheen Merali, Jennifer Doyle, Marilyn Arsem, Guy Brett, Nigel Charnock, Claire Bishop, Bryony Kimmings, Matthew Barney, Coco Fusco, Stuart Hall, Miley Cyrus, Petr Pavlensky, Reverend Billy, Ron Athey, Mike Kelley, Oreet Ashery, CHRISTEENE, Marcia Farquhar, Morgan Quaintance, Adrian Howells, Amelia Abraham, Brian Boucher, Rose Finn-Kelcey, Mat Fraser, José Esteban Muñoz, Kembra Pfahler, Hennessy Youngman, Joan Rivers, Mykki Blanco, Monica Ross, Wu Tsang, boychild, Wendy Houstoun, the vacuum cleaner and many more. The Live Art Almanac Volume 4 is published by Live Art Development Agency and Oberon Books.

Leading artists and thinkers assess the relevance of Live Art now and its impact within the visual arts and the broader cultural sphere.

David Gentleman has lived in London for almost seventy years, most of it on the same street. This book is a record of a lifetime spent observing, drawing and getting to know the city, bringing together work from across his whole career, from his earliest sketches to watercolours painted just a few months ago. Here is London as it was, and as it is today: the Thames, Hampstead Heath; the streets, canals, markets and people of his home of Camden Town; and at the heart of it all, his studio and the tools of his work. Accompanied by reflections on the process of drawing and personal thoughts on the ever-changing city, this is a celebration of London, and the joy of noticing, looking and capturing the world. 'David has spent a lifetime depicting with wit and affection a London he has made his own' Alan Bennett 'He delivers a poetry of exultant concentration ... The surface fusion of the sensuous and the sharply modern is echoed by Gentleman's imagery' Guardian 'The artist and illustrator has been responsible for some of the most-seen public artworks in this country' The Times 'Perhaps the last of the great polymath designer-painters' Camden New Journal

Notoriously difficult to define as a genre, Live Art is commonly positioned as a challenge to received artistic, social, and political categories: not theatre, not dance, not visual art, and often wilfully anti-mainstream and anti-establishment. But as it has become increasingly prevalent in international festivals, major art galleries, and university courses, it is ripe for a reassessment. Including almost 50 contributing artists and scholars, this collection of essays, conversations, provocations, and archival images takes the twentieth anniversary of the founding of one of the sector's most committed champions, the Live Art Development Agency in London, as an opportunity to consider not only what Live Art has been against, but also what it has been for. Through the work of this particular 'Agency', the book explores the idea of agency more generally: how Live Art has enabled the possibility for new kinds of thoughts, actions, and alliances for diverse individuals and groups.

In this dynamic collection a team of experts map the development of Live Art culturally, thematically and historically. Supported with examples from around the world, the text engages with a number of key practices, asking what these practices do and how they can be contextualised and understood.

Situated at the crossroads of performance practice, museology, and cultural studies, live arts curation has grown in recent years to become a vibrant interdisciplinary project and a genuine global phenomenon. Curating Live Arts brings together bold and innovative essays from an international group of theorist-practitioners to pose vital questions, propose future visions, and survey the landscape of this rapidly evolving discipline. Reflecting the field’s characteristic eclecticism, the writings assembled here offer practical and insightful investigations into the curation of theatre, dance, sound art, music, and other performance forms—not only in museums, but in community, site-specific, and time-based contexts, placing it at the forefront of contemporary dialogue and discourse.