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Celebrating
the Other
Art Form
A massive festival reminds viewers that
Vancouver is a hotbed for performance art
BY ALEXANDER VARTY
t's easy to imagine Glenn
Alteen's face crinkling with
mirth when, over the telephone, he retails this hoary
old quip: "What do you get when
you cross a performance artist with
a Mafioso? Someone who makes
you an offer you don't understand/'
The joke reflects the popular
notion that performance art is willfully obscure. In Alteen's hands,
however, the jest is stood on its
head: what's being mocked is
not performance art but the
public's misunderstanding of it.
Yes, some performance artists
are silly, self-obsessed, and
vague in their intentions, if not
actually incomprehensible. But
to the long-time grunt gallery
curator, performance is one of the
most immediate and accessible of all
art forms—and with that in mind
he has organized Live at the End of
the Century, a massive, month-long
celebration of the idiom.
Kicking off with a night of performance-art cabaret at the Vogue
Theatre on Friday (October 1), and
continuing through 27 other
events at 11 different venues, Live
at the End of the Century aims to
boost the profile of performance
art in this city while reminding
viewers that, internationally, Vancouver is widely recognized as a
hotbed of performance activity.
"Vancouver was kind of where
performance started in Canada,"
Alteen explains, "and it's always had
one of the strongest communities,
so I just thought it was a way to celebrate that community. What's kind
of surprising, though, is how many
galleries jumped onboard. I mean,
there's 11 galleries, which is quite an
amazing number when you consider that less than half of them would
program performance art regularly."
His comment points out one of
the peculiarities of the local

performance-art scene: although
there are dozens of performance
artists residing here, many of
whom have won international
acclaim, official support for the
idiom has never been strong. Local
officials have been suspicious of
performance art ever since one of
its earliest proponents, Vincent
Trasov, donned a Mr. Peanut costume to run for mayor in the 1974
civic elections—and, as Alteen
found out when organizing Live at

^fs^fet the

E

tteCentury

the End of the Century, those attitudes haven't changed much in
the intervening quarter-century.
"I remember that when I sat
down to talk to the city about our
grant last year, they were going Glenn Alteen, grunt gallery curator and organizer of Live at the End of the Century, says performance art
'You're doing a performance-art has been vilified—even though it is one of the most immediate and accessible idioms. Mark Mushet photo.
festival?' " he says. "As far as they
were concerned, it was like 'What could be repackaged as perfor- at things like theatre, you're look- course. There are also sexual
the hell are you doing?' "
mance art, for instance, as could ing at a 2,000-year-old history," explorers such as Kiss 'n Tell's
So why is performance art so vili- musical performances ranging from Alteen says, "whereas performance Lizard Jones, video artist Paul
fied? Alteen thinks it's because per- those of '70s art-punks Tunnel is barely a hundred years old. And Wong, and the aforementioned
formance artists themselves haven't Canary to contemporary superstar I remember hearing [Native artist] Satina Saturnina; feminist (or
taken the time to educate their audi- Marilyn Manson. There's not much Margo Kane talking about this postfeminist) thinkers such as
ences in the subtleties of the medi- that differentiates avant-garde years ago. She was saying that Margaret Dragu, Judy Radul, and
um. "The attitude has basically standup from the monologues of although she'd worked as an actor Madison; political theorists such
been, 'We're putting this on; you're performance artist Marlene Madi- and a dancer, performance was the as Clint Burnham; and truly
looking at it. If you get it, great; if son, and Satina Saturnina's auto- first time she could ever just be uncategorizable creators such as
Vancouver's Geoffrey Farmer and
you don't, that's your problem/ " he erotic act would go over just as well on-stage as herself and speak."
This is something that's appeal- Victoria's Sandra Lockwood.
says. "But what's interesting is that in some outre sex dungeon as in
"A carnival of the marginalif you go to the Native community, the relatively staid confines of the ing about performance art for a lot
it isn't that vilified. Or look at the Anza Club. Used to art that comes of Native artists, he adds. "It's less ized," performance art's detracphenomenal success of groups like neatly packaged in well-labelled strictured. It's able to take tradi- tors might scoff, and it would be
Kiss 'n Tell or Taste This in the les- boxes—this is "theatre"; that is "a tional culture and mix it with con- true enough. But as corporate
bian community: wherever they do painting"—the general public may temporary culture in a way that culture strengthens its grip on
a performance, they get 300 people. be understandably confused by per- doesn't all of a sudden say 'No, our TV sets, radios, and newspaIf you look at it that way, you realize formances that smear such cate- you can't do that.' Which might pers; as funding for the estabbe performance art's strongest lished arts continues to shrink;
that performance art is only margin- gories into a lively blur.
alized in popular culture; in more
It is just this lack of boundaries, point: there's never that 'Oh, you and as neoconservative ideology
marginal cultures, it plays a much however, that gives performance art can't do that,' which is a problem comes to dominate even what
passes for leftist political dismore central role."
its strength. Performance is a refuge in a lot of other forms."
Native performers such as course, we are all, increasingly,
It's also possible for those who find a single medium
that performance too confining; it's also a haven for Archer Pechawis, Warren Arcan, marginalized. If nothing else,
is just too amor- those who have some message to Aiyyana Maracle, Dana Claxton, performance art offers the possiWHAT: Live at the End of the Century
phous for popular impart that the mass media won't and Thirza Cuthand aren't the bility of finding a voice. •
WHERE'- Various venues
tastes. Half of the touch—and those to whom such only ones represented in Live at the
End of the Century, of
theatre pieces in avenues are closed.
WHEN: October 1 to November 6
any given fringe
"When you're looking
festival

INFO: 875-9516

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