Day One: Well, I am just about too tired to produce narrative. Ron opened the seminar by asking students to cat-walk and introduce themselves & their performance personas. It was great to discover who was ready to S-T-R-U-T! I'm really impressed by this group.
Ron kept them going in conversation through the morning, then I gave a talk from my work in progress on difficulty & performance. People seemed game, in general, for thinking, talking, and looking at art. We watched a few works this evening - some Bas Jan Ader performance videos, the hilariously nutty "Hey, Baby Chickey" (Nina Sobell, 1978), Linda Montano's Primal Scene (1980) - which layers a film of a woman birthing to the soundtrack of Montano reading porn, Carolee Schneemann's Fuses (1963) - which is so beautiful, even in VHS. If you can program the film - do. It is totally worth it. I felt really moved by it this time - I hadn't seen it in about 15 years. And then, George Kuchar's Hold Me While I'm Naked (1966) - a camp classic. I'd originally planned to show a couple other pieces, but their mood was too dark - I decided to call it a night, and end of the weird upswing of Kuchar's DIY melodrama. Tomorrow's program will probably be a little harder. But still fun & provocative!
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