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Statements & Speculations

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  A performance is not a rehearsal. It is not a practice. The only thing that differentiates a performance from a rehearsal is its irrevocable presentation to a public. And so, if one is interested in the nature of what is being expressed, in the possibilities of what can be encountered, it is important to examine the relationship of the performer and the public. 

   The performance format has been borrowed: the lecture, from education; the speech, from oratory/politics; the spectacle, or invocation, from religious or ritual sources.

   The spectacle or invocation is of particular concern to an artist since in such a format the audience is composed entirely of believers or those who want to be believers. 

   And so, what exactly is such an audience? 

   This is the question, the margin, I am exploring with the Opacity Project. In the performances and interventions which comprise this project I do not want to depend upon a borrowed performance format. I wish to create, not only objects, but a tenuous space in which an encounter with art may occur, unannounced, to those who do not expect it. The power of art rests in its ability to effect an authentic response in those who encounter it. The problem with the borrowed formats of performance which I have mentioned is that the art is not truly encountered— an event is planned, promoted, a venue is chosen, a specific number of people pay to witness something to which they will respond in predictable ways— the art is not truly encountered. The art is stripped of its power; it is rendered limp. And the world... well, the world can only remain a barren place.

	Opacity
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