Bob Flanagan was born in 1952 with cystic fibrosis. At the time, children with this disease generally did not survive past adolescence. Flanagan lived to be 43. It was not a medical miracle… it was, according to him, a decision.…
Tag: Performance
Joseph Beuys, Every Human Being Is an Artist
In 1974, Joseph Beuys locks himself in a New York gallery for three days with a wild coyote. No audience, no performance in the spectacular sense… just a man, a felt blanket, a cane, copies of the Wall Street Journal…
Constraint of the Week: The Three-Hour Bench
The Three-Hour Bench, Constraint #68 Choose a public bench. Sit down. Stay for exactly three hours. Observe. Don’t read, don’t look at your phone. Just be there. Reference artist(s): Tehching Hsieh. The protocol Choose a bench in a busy place……
Sophie Calle, the Art of Following Others
In 1979, Sophie Calle follows a stranger in the street. She doesn’t know him. She won’t speak to him. She photographs him from a distance, notes his movements, reconstructs his day. When he disappears into the metro, she loses him……
Roman Opalka, Counting Until Death
In 1965, Roman Opalka begins painting numbers. 1, then 2, then 3… on a black canvas, in white, by hand, with a fine brush. He calls it a “detail”. Each painting is a detail of a single, infinite project that…
Some Artists Who Inspired OuViePo’s Constraints
OuViePo’s constraints are not invented ex nihilo. Each one is linked to an actual artistic practice, a documented gesture, a work that showed it was possible. Here are some of the artists who made all of this imaginable. It all…