Movies: Performance art

"Vanity of vanities, everything is vanity" says the bible. The word flows from the tongue naming the pleasure of earthly life and judging it as beautiful, but shallow and useless; vanity is a deadly sin. A female sin. The man painted the woman, put a...

Drawing on the idiom and imagery of the consumer culture he grew up in, video artist Paul McCarthy distorts and mutates the familiar into the disturbing and grotesque as fairy tale narratives and foods are transformed into tableaus of abuse and viola...

A figure is manipulated via a rope leading off screen....

Dirty Martini and Tigger!, stars of the New York underground scene, reveal some of the secrets of their provocative and remonstrative forms of artistic expression in New York’s Off-Off-Broadway. Meanwhile, they will help us to understand from their e...

The film focuses on an audition to select an actor that best interprets the role of Jesus, judged by a jury of Vatican members....

From an inverted position, high above the floor, the camera records Nauman’s trek back and forth and across the studio; his stamping creates a generative rhythm reminiscent of native drum beats or primitive dance rituals. However, Nauman is not parti...

Black and White Tapes derive from a series of performances Paul McCarthy undertook in his Los Angeles studio from 1970 to 1975. Conceived for the camera and performed alone or with only a few people present, these short performances use video to arti...

Over grainy, black and white images of a woman giving birth, Montano reads the story of a nun’s sexual self-discovery—recounting Sister Joan’s growing awareness of her body’s sensuousness and sexuality. Primal Scenes is an excellent example of women’...

Out O' Actions documents Kelley and McCarthy's preliminary activities in organizing a project for the Visitor's Gallery of the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles during the inaugural exhibition of "Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Obje...

A lonely character braving a steep mountain attempting to reach its peak. As he journeys the mountain, he is forced to confront a plethora of internal demons....

Vanessa Place is a writer, artist, and criminal defense attorney. Her 2010 book "The Guilt Project: Rape, Morality, and Law" critically examined the laws and punitive measures currently employed in the US regarding sex crimes, in addition to proposin...

An elderly lady pushes the limits of customer service at an up-market department store by continuously requesting announcements for interesting-looking men....

An exploration of the Cultural Revolution that depicts both its chaotic later years – through the story of a squad of Red Army guards running amok in the countryside – and its continuing legacy in today’s China....

Sinus Beta is almost a sort of teaching film about bodily behavior in different situations. The film also produces, through the heterogenic photographic materiality of the primary elements, a cross-section of the methods, used in capturing the body i...

Bas Jan Ader hangs from the branch of a tall tree, until he loses his grip and falls into a river below....

Performative cinema experience with live music....

Jamila reads aloud a stack of printed emails written to individuals and organisations delaying, postponing, or cancelling work due to illness from her sickbed....

Video (color, sound) | Media and Performance...

"We are beginning a new era of Maya world view that is associated with important events. Departing from an interdisciplinary investigation, anthropological approximately ten years, in the city as in the rural areas, I began to work in the reengagemen...

Identically dressed and with sibling-like resemblance, performance artists Trevor Martin and Kym Olsen shift between spoken word and athletic dance choreography in a collection of 29 scenes. Set in various locations - including a gymnasium, an abando...