Performance Art and Censorship
Performance art is a dynamic form of artistic expression where the artist's body often serves as the medium, focusing on acts rather than traditional art objects. It emerged from movements like street theater, particularly in response to social and political issues, and is characterized by its willingness to embrace controversy. This art form can range from public performances that engage in political critique to more intimate, private expressions. Performance art has historically tested the boundaries of what is considered acceptable, which has often led to censorship and conflict with societal norms.
In various contexts, such as the United States and Cuba, artists have faced censorship through financial repercussions, legal challenges, or public outcry. Notable incidents include the arrest of artists for obscenity or the backlash against performances deemed offensive. While some performance artists choose to distance themselves from traditional funding sources, others participate in established venues without conflict. Ultimately, performance art continues to provoke discussions about freedom of expression and the limits of artistic license, often reflecting the cultural tensions within the societies it inhabits.
Subject Terms
Performance Art and Censorship
Definition: Dramatic art typically presented outside the ordinary conventions of narration and acting, using themes and techniques of visual art, oratory, and the fine arts generally
Significance: The often confrontational presentations of performance art have made it a target of censorship for much the same reasons that art generally has been censored: offensive depictions, nudity, and controversy
Some define performance art as art in which an artist’s own body becomes the medium, while others believe that performance art is only art that is unique to one location or limited to one performance. Performance art has come to be understood generally as art in which acts, rather than object, are central, and which does not fit other existing categories, such as dance or drama. It has roots in the street theater criticizing the Vietnam War and thus has a tradition of embracing controversy. By the 1990’s performance art had diverged into a wide spectrum of public and private performances. Although some performance artists and scholars have argued that performance art must exist without the support of traditional arts venues, such as government grants or formal galleries, other artists have experienced no conflicts in applying for support from federal and state agencies.
Performance art festivals have been held in a number of cities around the globe. Cleveland, Ohio, for example, claimed to host the largest festival of performance art in the world. The city advertised that for their 1996 festival Kain Karawahn, an internationally known performance artist, would set the Cuyahoga River on fire. Performance art thus spanned the spectrum from the deliberately politically marginal, that is, performers who risked arrest for trespass or public indecency when they appeared, to artists who were comfortable working with established agencies for the entertainment of the mainstream public. Most scholars have agreed, however, that true performance art tests the boundaries of what is traditionally considered art. Such boundary testing has often led to censorship.
In the United States censorship of performance art occasionally has resulted in the arrests of artists on obscenity charges, but more often has resulted in denial of funding or threats of boycotts. In Santa Cruz, California, for example, feminists accused performance artist Fakir Mussafar of encouraging violence against women with a piece called “Torture Circus” in 1992. His performance segment consisted of one woman attaching feathers to another to symbolize her transformation into a bird. Protesters threatened to boycott commercial sponsors of the exhibit at the Bulkhead Gallery, which responded with a publicity campaign that warned of the dangers of censorship. In the end, the gallery lost only one sponsor.
By the late twentieth century, American society was sufficiently open that censorship was often expressed financially, rather than by more direct means, but artists in conservative countries still ran the risk of severe penalties for challenging the status quo. In Cuba, for example, in 1989, performance artist Angel Delgado staged a piece titled “Sculptured Object” at the Havana Center for the Development of the Visual Arts. Intending for the work to protest censorship, he erected a circle of animal bones on the floor, placed the Cuban daily newspaper in the center, then dropped his pants and defecated on the newspaper. After state police arrested Delgado on a charge of “public scandal,” he served six months in prison.
Delgado’s piece typified much performance art both in being highly political and in testing what the public would accept as art. All art challenges viewers to experience the world in a new way, but performance art, through its use of confrontational techniques and politicized messages, has often been designed to offend. This offensive element has made it particularly vulnerable to censorship.