On Edge: Performance at the End of the Twentieth Century

by C. Carr, Cynthia Carr

Overview

The state of performance art in the 80s and 90s, documented by the form's leading critic.

Through her engaged and articulate essays in the Village Voice, C. Carr has emerged as the cultural historian of the New York underground and the foremost critic of performance art. On Edge brings together her writings to offer a detailed and insightful history of this vibrant brand of theatre from the late 70s to today. It represents both Carr's analysis as a critic and her testament as a witness to performances which, by their very nature, can never be repeated.

Carr has organized this collection both chronologically and thematically, ranging from the emphasis on bodily manipulation/endurance in the 70s to the underground club scene in New York to an insider's analysis of the Tompkins Square Riot as a manifestation of the cultural and social conflicts that underlie much of performance art. She examines the transgressive and taboo-shattering work of Ethyl Eichelberger, Karen Finley, and Holly Hughes; documents specific performances by Annie Sprinkle and Lydia Lunch; and maps the development of such artists as Robbie McCauley, Blue Man Group, and John Jesurun. She also describes the "cross-over" phenomenon of the mid-80s and considers the far-right backlash against this mainstreaming as cultural reactionaries sought to curb the influence of these new artists.

CONTRIBUTORS: Linda Montano, Chris Burden, G.G Allin, Jean Baudrillard, Patty Hearts, Dan Quayle, Anne Magnouson, John Jesurun, John Kelly, Shu Lea Changvv, Diamanda Galas, Salley May, Rafael Mantanez Ortiz, Sherman Fleming, Kristine Stiles, Laurie Carlos, Jessica Hafedorn, Robbie McCormick, Karen Finley, Poopo Shiraishi, Donna Henes, Holey Hughe, Ela Troyano, Michael Smith, Harry Koipper, John Sex, Nina Jagen, Ethyl Eichelberge, Marina Abramovic, Ulay.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780819568885
Publisher:	Wesleyan University Press
Publication date:	08/26/2008
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

C. CARR is a staff writer for The Village Voice. She also writes about performance art and culture for ArtForum, LA Weekly, Interview, and Mirabella.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Leaving Terra Firma
Foreword to the Revised Edition
Roped: A Saga of Art in Everyday Life: Linda Montano, Tehching Hsieh
Before and After Science: Stelarc
This is Only a Test: Chris Burden
A Great Wall: Marina Abramovic, Ulay
The Hot Bottom: Art and Artifice in the East Village
Country Clubbing 8BC's Pig Phest
To Thine Own Self Be True: Ethyl Eichelberger
Sex Gods, Ekstatic Women: John Sex, Nina Hagen, Dancenoise
The Revolution That Won't Be Televised: Michael Smith, Karen Finley,Harry Kipper, et al.
R.I.P. 8BC The end of the never-ending talent show
Art Crimes Cinema of Transgression, Outlaw Parties, et al.
Loisada Talking Pictures: Ela Troyano
The Queer Frontier: Holly Hughes, Carmelita Tropicana
Disenchanted Evening: Donna Henes
Big Bang Theory: Poppo Shiraishi
Bad Company at the Love Club: Karen Finley, Carlo McCormick
Help Thou Mine Unbelief The Church of the Little Green Man
Nightclubbing The Tompkins Square Riot
The Triumph of Neoism The Millionth Apartment Festival
Don't Make Me Over: Slaves of New York, Darius James
Just Revolting: Missing Foundation
Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts: The Taboo Art of Karen Finley
The Lady Is a Dick: The Dyke Noir Theater of Holly Hughes
Body Beautiful: Frank Moore
Lydia Lunch Faces the Void
Learning to Love the Monster: Jon Moritsugu, Johanna Went
The Kipper Kids in Middle Age
Life is a Killer: Joe Coleman
Is That You? Fiona Templeton
Deconstructing: Dixie Laurie Carlos, Jessica Hagedorn, Robbie McCauley
A Crash of Symbols: Sherman Fleming, Kristine Stiles
Two Birds with One Stone: Dancenoise
A Public Cervix Announcement: Annie Sprinkle, the Smut Fest
Revisions of Excess: The V-Girls, Blue Man Group
An Artist Retreats from Rage: Rafael Montañez Ortiz
Beauties and Beasts: Salley May, Ms. Make-Believe, David Lynch
Radical Shriek: Diamanda Galas
Simulacra Stops Here: The Border Arts Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo
Redicovering America: Guillermo Gómez-Peña
Talk Show: Robbie McCauley, Jeannie Hutchins
A Cinema Against the Vérités: Shu Lea Cheang
Am I a Camera? John Jesurun
Am I Living in a Box? Ann Magnuson
The Vanguard Moves to Melrose Place: Mel Chin and the GALA Committee
The Heart of the Web: Nina Sobell, Emily Hartzell
Call Her Ishmael: Laurie Anderson •An NEA Timeline (Just the Lowlights)
Portrait of an Artist in the Age of aids: David Wojnarowicz
The Sexual Politics of Censorship: Targeted Artists and the Wrathful Dads
With Mapplethorpe in Cincinnati: "The Perfect Moment" on Trial
The Adventures of Andre Serrano: in Pursuit of the White Supremacists
Gross Indecency: The NEA Four Decision
The Bohemian Diaspora
In the Discomfort Zone: William Pope.L
Dancing in the Streets: Yoshiko Chuma
The Pain Artist: Bob Flanagan
The World According to Jack Smith
Men? Oh, Pause: Peggy Shaw
The Statue of Libertines: Annie Sprinkle
Washed in the Blood: Ron Athey
Stripped Down: Zhang Huan
The Rumble in dumbo: David Leslie
Silence = Life: John Kelly
The End of the Edge: An Epilogue
Index

What People are Saying About This

Herbert Blau

"When it comes to performance at its extremities, or virtually in extremis, C. Carr is the major resource . . . She knows the traditions of the avante-garde, and is quite capable of following the lineage of a performance from Marinetti and Hugo Ball through Jack Smith to the Kipper Kids, from the Bauhaus to the Blue Man . . . What the book adds up to, for students of theater and performance art, is a vivacious record of inaccessible events"

From the Publisher

"When it comes to performance at its extremities, or virtually in extremis, C. Carr is the major resource . . . She knows the traditions of the avante-garde, and is quite capable of following the lineage of a performance from Marinetti and Hugo Ball through Jack Smith to the Kipper Kids, from the Bauhaus to the Blue Man . . . What the book adds up to, for students of theater and performance art, is a vivacious record of inaccessible events"—Herbert Blau

Editorial Reviews

"Like a parade, a reunion, a wake, a summit, or a coming out party, C. Carr's On Edge is an occasion. The book brings together the best of those exquisite Carr essays that have salt and peppered the Village Voice for ten years, telling the 'Real Deal' on the ever-cutting edge of what we, the 'nth' generation, refuse to let ourselves continue to call the avantgarde."—Rebecca Schneider, TDR (The Drama Review)

"Like a parade, a reunion, a wake, a summit, or a coming out party, C. Carr's On Edge is an occasion. The book brings together the best of those exquisite Carr essays that have salt and peppered the Village Voice for ten years, telling the 'Real Deal' on the ever-cutting edge of what we, the 'nth' generation, refuse to let ourselves continue to call the avantgarde."—Rebecca Schneider, TDR (The Drama Review)

"On Edge is an elegy without sentimentality, dedicated to all the artists in New York's East Village underground, a site of manic creativity and serious hijinks."—Linda S. Kaufman, The Women's Review of Books

"Like a parade, a reunion, a wake, a summit, or a coming out party, C. Carr's On Edge is an occasion. The book brings together the best of those exquisite Carr essays that have salt and peppered the Village Voice for ten years, telling the 'Real Deal' on the ever-cutting edge of what we, the 'nth' generation, refuse to let ourselves continue to call the avantgarde."—Rebecca Schneider, TDR (The Drama Review)

"On Edge is an elegy without sentimentality, dedicated to all the artists in New York's East Village underground, a site of manic creativity and serious hijinks."—Linda S. Kaufman, The Women's Review of Books

"When it comes to performance at its extremities, or virtually in extremis, C. Carr is the major resource . . . She knows the traditions of the avante-garde, and is quite capable of following the lineage of a performance from Marinetti and Hugo Ball through Jack Smith to the Kipper Kids, from the Bauhaus to the Blue Man . . . What the book adds up to, for students of theater and performance art, is a vivacious record of inaccessible events"—Herbert Blau

From the Publisher

Since 1984, Village Voice critic Carr has chronicled the work of artists in that amorphous territory called ``performance art.'' Though some of these 58 essays have gone stale, most convey spirited descriptions and sensitive defenses of obscure or much-maligned avant-gardists. She observes Holly Hughes and Carmelita Tropicana bra-zenly presenting politically incorrect lesbian theater, finds dragster Ethyl Eichelberger transmuting Shakespeare into Leer and notes how Chris Burden's apparent masochism (having himself crucified on top of a Volkswagen) forces the audience to confront iconographies of power. Foul-mouthed, food-smearing Karen Finley is, to Carr, an example of a shattered persona, ``a self unable to put a face on things,'' while ``feminist porn activist'' Annie Sprinkle, allowing audiences to peer at her cervix, suggests a ``supernakedness'' that restores her power. Carr's best work takes on the critics of Finley and Robert Mapplethorpe, skewering Rev. Donald Wildmon and the would-be censors in Cincinnati. In an epilogue, Carr suggests the bohemian tradition has been energized as well as fractured by the advent of multiculturalism. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly