Interview with PPL (Esther Neff and Brian McCorkle)
By Quinn Dukes The summer is quite possibly the busiest (and liveliest!) time for performance artists. Across the globe, performance festivals, fairs and live-art series awaken the heat-hazed city streets. This weekend Time, Body, Space, Objects continues its programming on Spectacle Island (Boston, MA) with works by PPL, a Brooklyn-based performance duo (Esther Neff & Brian McCorkle). I am excited that PPL is a part of the TBSO4 roster this year, especially considering the performance location. I reached out to PPL to learn more about their upcoming performance concepts and am delighted to share our conversation with you below. Enjoy and head out to Boston this Saturday, August 22nd! - Quinn
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There are a handful of cities within the U.S. that not only recognize performance art as a meaningful contribution to the contemporary art world but also financially sponsor its development. As noted in last weeks post with performance art curator and practitioner, Jill McDermid-Hokanson, there is limited funding for performance art. Limited, but not non-existent. This year The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Boston awarded 2 out of 4 James and Audrey Foster Prizes to current performance art practitioners - Vela Phelan and Sandrine Schaefer.
I have followed Vela Phelan's work for many years. His visually alluring performance rituals blend contemporary culture, technology and religious deities. Phelan has a bewildering ability to charge spaces and objects. This energy often lingers with viewers post-performance and further extends into the secular world. I am pleased to share Vela Phelan's work for our next Artist Feature. The feature focuses on Phelan's exhibition and performance series "Obscurus Fidem" is a site-specific video altar dedicated to Jesús Malverde, a folk legend elevated to the rank of sainthood by Mexican narco-traffickers currently on view at ICA Boston. Thus far, Phelan has completed six of nine live actions entitled "Obscurus Novena" in honor of Jesús Malverde. Enjoy the interview and go see the exhibition! (On view thru August 9th.) - Quinn I am pleased to share the work and words of U.S. based artist and art facilitator, FAITH JOHNSON. Among many mediums, Johnson explores art and life as a performative hybrid. Her interest in building community and fostering inter-connectivity are but a few reasons that I find her work so compelling. I first witnessed Johnson perform at Lumen International Video & Performance Art Festival (2010), where she traced the outline of willing participants in a piece entitled, Collective Spirit. During that time her interactive performances explored the collective unconscious, a sentiment which undoubtedly carries through her present work. Johnson portrays her relationship with performance art through a responsive text entitled "....and yet no action is too small to be felt by the universes in their entirety." This thoughtful and inquisitive text was generously prepared for Performance Is Alive. Please find Johnson's full response below. "….AND YET NO ACTION IS TOO SMALL TO BE FELT BY THE UNIVERSES IN THEIR ENTIRETY"
- an exploration of performance art by Faith Johnson |
CONTRIBUTORSIan Deleón Archives
July 2023
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