Performing an Action

One thing that is important to understanding the art I make is my conception of performing an action as a work of art. Often when the word performance is used, it conjures up notions of theatre and a crowd of observers. For me though the simple act of performing an action, or a series of actions is enough to create a work of art.

No matter what the medium, a process (series of actions) is needed to create a work; weather those actions are preparing a canvas and marking it repeatedly with pigments, continuously chipping away at a piece of marble, or sawing a car in half.

The actions are what is important, and that being the case it would do us well to define the term action. The online dictionary from Merriam-Webster (www.mirriam-webster.com/dictionary/action) has a lot of definitions, all revolving around the basic metaphysical notion of the term we should all be familiar with (seriously...we perform actions all day long as people). The one i will go with is listed as number 2: The bringing about of an alteration by force or through a natural agency.

For me, art making is about altering the medium. Using my force (which I believe is a natural agency) to alter the world. All of the actions I perform to make these alterations add just a little bit to the overall quality of the work. Any triumphs or mistakes are left for the world to see in the finished product as a record of the action of its making.

In some cases, it is enough to simply do some thing for a time as a work of art. The example i will use is my Donuts piece. The art of that work was the actual driving i did for that period of time. The materials of that work are as follows: the car, the space occupied by the car during the performance, the momentum of the car driving, the combustive properties of year old gasoline, the explosions within the engine propelling the car, the exhaust it produced, the sound waves produced, and the friction of the tires as they moved across the pavement.

The actual work was only viewable at the time the action was being performed. The work was documented with film so that many people could view it later, but what they see is only a shadow of the actual work.