Performance Art: A Different Type of Art

Class Date: February 28, 2011

Lady Gaga always puts on some type of performance

In class we discussed the difference between performance art and performance arts.  There is a difference between the two and I am sure that not many people are aware of the difference.  Performance art is a type of art in which a performance is presented to an audience.  This can be a range of acts such as eating an apple or doing a sort of dance. Lady Gaga performs some aspects of performance art.  People never see her outside of a costume and she always has to be seen in the same persona, even when she goes out to run errands.

We watched a couple of videos in class that included one artist in particular who created performance art.  The artists name is Matthew Barney and he was in the process of working on a video that was filmed at Saratoga Race Track in Saratoga Springs, New York.  I personally found the video to be weird at first because I didn't see how the difference scenes were supposed to be brought together.  I couldn't really put together the pieces and figure out the meaning behind the video.  This type of work is definitely new to me and I never considered it to be art in the past.  I guess it could be said that directors are artists as well when they direct a movie.  After seeing this video I now feel that all types of directors are artists when they create a film.

Lastly we talked about Joaquin Phoenix's type of performance art he pursued when he was on David Letterman's show.  He came out with a documentary called "I'm Still Here" where he pursued a rap career.  It later came out that this documentary was actually false and Phoenix was acting the entire movie.  He was just living in the idea that he was someone or something different then he actually was.