Post 4 The Rope Performance TEHCHING HSIEH & LINDA MONTANO

 

REFLECTIONS ON THE ROPE : TEHCHING HSIEH AND LINDA MONTANO: THE LIVING ART MANIFESTO by LINDA MARY MONTANO

LIVING ART: TIME SPENT ARTFULLY ALONE OR NOT ALONE
Section 1: Purpose and Intent:
Friends often intend to collaborate but rarely find the opportunity. The purpose of Living Art is to allow artists/nonartists to designate specific times; hours,days, weeks or months to work and live together or alone. This time then becomes ART . The intention of Living Art is to redefine relationships by living together in a marathon fashion after having drawn up a mutually workable contract. The contract lasts as long as the art.
Section 2:Living Art Defined:
Living Art is any work/play which artists/nonartists are willing to perform together or alone. The rules can be determined by the needs of the participants. For example, they may want to explore silence, fasting, mental strength, eating, a hidden agenda or tours in the search for new styles of relating. Living Art becomes Living Art when the times and activities which the artists perform are INTENDED to be art. The announcement may be public or private.
Section 3: Time Defined:
Living Art divides time into actual time and ART time. Actual time is divided into seconds, minutes, hours, days ,months, years etc. The artists may choose as much of this time as they think they need to transform and change themselves or to de-habituatize the activity form an ordinary action to an action that changes the mind. When it is intended that a specific time is sufficient, then it may be determined to become included in the performance as art-time.
Section 4: The Contract:
The contract is an agreement made by the artists before the event. It states that the time together and activity performed will be ART.
Section 5:The Activities:
The activities are anything the artists/nonartists would like to perform together. These activities, when documented and performed together as ART, can change the values and personal vision of the artist/nonartist.
Section 6 : Directions For Performing Living Art:
1.Choose a person/persons with whom you wish to perform Living Art.
2.Select an activity that you would both like to perform.
3.Draw up a contract stating what the activities are,time it will be and place/places.
4. Decide on a mode of documentation for the Living Art event.
5.Spend the designated time together and perform the event.
6.Present the results of your experiment to one or more friends, either with documentation, talking or live performance.
Section 7:Documentation:
The document of the time can be in any mode comfortable for the artists. Record making should be done without stress so that the process of the art itself can be fully experienced.
PERSONAL LIVING ART HISTORY
1973:Home Endurance: home blindfolded for a week.1973: Handcuffed to Tom Marioni,3 days.
1974:Husband-Wife Fashion Show; Mitchell Payne and I model clothes we will wear to a resort with his parents. GARAGE TALK . Sitting in my garage ffor a week talking with people passing by, making myself available.
1975: Listen to Your Heart: Living three days in a gallery, wearing a stethoscope, 24 hours a day, listening to my heart.
1975:Living Art: Living in the Anza BoregoDesert With Pauline OLiveros.
1976:When I Was Young I Thought I Would Die At 34.Living on Leucadia beach for 3 days.
1980-1983:Living secret art, retired from art.
1983-1984:Living tied with an 8 foot rope to Tehching Hsieh in his One Year Performance.
1984-1998:14 Years of Living Art:Living the seven colors associated with the seven chakras and seven sacraments.
1998-present: Dad Art:taking care of my dad as art.