9.08.2007



Champion: Back to Performance Art?

Okay... yes, I admit it, I was secretly pretending to be a certain imaginary Mademoiselle Sugimoto
for a time, this summer. It was part of my new idyllic fascination with the fabulous artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. So taken by his images was I, that my objective was to view the world as he might have, had he been in the places which I have recently visited.

Word among the arts intellectuals has it (and has, for some time now) that performance art has lost its’ usefulness, has suffered a demise and gone the way of so many once fresh artistic formats, into the murky sea of academia. (Glug, glug, Mlle. Sugimoto). Yet in the past three months, I have again discovered its’ methods and processes to be quite ingenious and personally functional. Ah well, it has always been said that much of performance art was simply indulgence and perhaps it is so.



Seeking peace of mind and a moment to make sense of the frenzied abundance of new facts and ideas which were churning in my mind, one day I happily found myself on a beautiful beach surrounded by the fresh, soft sands and the salt free water of Lake Michigan. The open, waterscaped, clean air washed over me like a transparent tonic and I felt greatly renewed and refreshed enough to reenter the swirling of my life (which is what I am required to do, when I am secretly pretending to be me).

Ask any serious actor; sometimes it is both useful and cathartic to imagine yourself as somebody else. The imitative process helps to further growth, to extend thoughts and even to shape new dreams. Ask any psychotic and if possible, he/she will tell you that psychological escape is a very safe place to be, particularly when being yourself has become overwhelming. Where and who was I when these images were made? Perhaps we might ask the secretly brilliant (yet imaginary) Mademoiselle Sugimoto. She has certainly been a great help to me.

In so many ways, this summer of 2007 has been a time of countless new experiences, a flood of inspirations and a portent of personal renovation/alteration. My sometime alter ego, Mademoiselle Sugimoto has unquestionably facilitated the organization of this information both in my right brain and in my heart.

As they say, change is a constant.


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Let Wordsmith at Griffonage Studios make your next project a success.

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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh does anybody really think that performance art is dead?

Anonymous said...

I suppose there were no photo ops in new mexico? hahahahaha
Loved this piece... seriously.

Anonymous said...

if people would stop endlessly lighting candles and wearing only vintage undergarments and chanting illegibly and making us suffer too long in the audience for lack of timing --- well maybe performance art would revive itself.
Anyway I like you Mlle Sugi, nonetheless.
Good work.

Anonymous said...

Always enjoyable, thank you for another beautiful bit of prose.

Anonymous said...

I want to visit Lake Michigan now.

Anonymous said...

Where is your book?
You write so well. We are all waiting impatiently.
xoxoxoxox

Anonymous said...

I too love the work of Sugimoto.
Yes to the resurgence of Minimalism.

Anonymous said...

Awesome blog.

Anonymous said...

we are seeing a resurgence of minimalism here in the east (usa) as well.
we enjoy your blog writing.

Anonymous said...

Looks pretty and almost a bit like Sugimoto. Nice job.