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performance art show (Alexander Demidov); performance show (Alexander Demidov); performance art (As a category, performance art is hard to define, as it has referred to an extremely wide range of practices. If most have involved artists acting in real time and space in a planned event, there has been enormous variation in the duration of the event, choice of site, number of participants, ancillary equipment and intent. The widespread use of the term in Britain dates from the early 1970s, and the general acceptance of live performance in art schools, museums and galleries dates from the same time. If British performance art was late to develop, it has nevertheless gone on to have an international impact, and it continues to do so. However its audience is small, in comparison with New York, where performance art has enjoyed genuine popularity. A well-known early work of British performance art is Underneath the Arches by Gilbert and George (1969), in which the pair, their faces painted gold and dressed in their trademark identical suits, one carrying a walking stick, the other a glove, stood on a table and moved around stiffly to a recording of the Flanagan and Alan song of the same title. BC Alexander Demidov) |
