History Lesson - About The Table - Beijing

A Durational, Site-Specific, Performance Artwork / ‘Install-action’, as part of the ‘The 10th. Open International Performance Art Festival’ at the Open Realisation Contemporary Art Centre, 798 Art Zone, Beijing, China. October 2009I performed during the opening week of the eight-week festival and was Invited by Mari Novotny-Jones from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston & curated by Chen Jin a freelance curator and Performer.Travel funded by the University of Ulster Research Institute.http://www.britishcouncil.org/china-arts-dance-open.htm300 Word Statement:I have been making Performance Art works since 1994. After researching specific artist’s methods i.e Alastair Mac Lennan, Artur Tajber, and Roi Vaara, I eventually developed, established, and named a new field of art enquiry and practice known as ‘Install-action’. This area of practice has now come to be utilised by other artists and arts organisations as a developing field of enquiry within Performance Art /Fine Art.I was invited to participate in the ‘10th Open International Performance Art Festival’ in Beijing, (the major Performance Festival within China and one of the largest Performance Festivals in the World with contributions from over 400 of the most highly regarded international artists). I decided to develop a durational, site-specific ‘install-action’ work for the opportunity within the festival program. The resolution of the artwork therefore had to deal with and address the following issues: • How would I create new artwork utilising my past art experience, for an unknown context, event, and audience? • How would a differing cultural context effect my ongoing artwork and practice decisions? • What materials and concepts should I utilise in China that would be both coherent and readable to both the local and international audience? • How could I make site-specific durational performance artwork fit within the busy festival programme?Having viewed the context and considered my creative options in relation to the surroundings I decided to locate the artwork in a specific location outside of the festival building. I decided on working with both western and local materials and motifs, all of which in combination were recognisable for the local audience. I carried out an initial Performance test during the Opening of the Festival and the results of this test was utilised within the subsequent Install-action. The resulting unique site-specific artwork was created over the period of six hours for the festival audience and other artists attending during the first week of the festival. As the Festival has now been moved on by the Authorities there is little or no evidence of the artworks other than individual visual documentation and the festival program.