Performance At The Whitney Museum

                 For our fifth class field trip we visited the Whitney Museum. The exhibit we viewed was called the "Rituals of rented island" which contained documents of performing arts in New York. The works of art were influenced by the forces which were found in time period that the artist lived through which were cultural, social, and political forces. Since the artists were from New York, the U.S. involvement in war had an effect on some of their work. Also, cultural and social differences between the people that lived through these times had an impact on their performances. There were three documented performances that caught my attention when looking through the exhibit.

         The first documented performance I viewed was by The Kipper Kids called "Performance at the kitchen" (1978). The video showed the performers being hostile too one another but clumsiness would make their stunts back fire and make their actions hysterical. The description of Kipper's performances seems to infer that it is a political reference. The realistic violence portrayed in a funny way. In a way, it mocks the issues having to do with religion and social rituals. Their bodies are used to express pain these issues cause.

          The second documented performance that caught my attention was By Michael Smith titled "Baby Ikki" (1978). The video was of a man dressed and acting like an infant in the street. He had a diaper, baby like clothes, and baby toy props. The man would walk back and forth actin as a baby would act in the environment of their house or anywhere else. He would sit down in the middle of the street and crawl around while a car would stop. A crowd would surround him while he would throw tantrums, even if he was being laughed at he would not lose character. I think this shows a social reference due to in society grown-ups would have childish moments or would act childish on purpose. Seeing this performance live would give me a better understanding in seeing the expressions of the audience.

          The last performance that interested me in a way is titled, Shake!DaddyShake!" by Julia Heyward. I really didn't understand it because I viewed it for a short amount of time but I saw Julia shaking her hands and then eventually saying Shake Daddy Shake. I would think it’s a social reference too because from the short clip I saw it seemed like sudden burst of random words. I would definitely get the performance if I were to see it live.  

          I learned to understand that the performances of these New York artist referred to political, cultural, and social forces. These few examples that I mentioned showed some references to these forces. After this experience I now have some sort of idea in identifying if a performance was inspired by the events of the time period. 

Kipper Kids

"Performance At The Kitchen"

Video B/W 56min

1978

Michael Smith

"Baby Ikki"

1978

Julia Heyward

"Shake! Daddy! Shake!"

Recorder

1976