Performance and Its Documents: Revisiting Debates in Performance Art Documentation

Abstract

This thesis examines issues of performance art documentation. An art historical survey contextualizes performance art practice and theory, situating the contradicting nature of performance art as a medium that both requires documentation while also denying its possibility. A detailed case study of the work of contemporary performance artist Cassils provides a point of entry for reconsidering documentation itself as a mode of doing performance art, rather than being ancillary to the work of performance. Finally, the research culminates in a research-creation project that puts into practice the ideas explored earlier in the thesis; this final chapter of the thesis is realized in both writing and as a gallery exhibition which explore and enfold the research produced through a month-long daily practice performance work engaged in by the author. This thesis is also available at: https://doi.org/10.7939/R38S4K343