(See the unedited version below; not that it wasn't plenty long as published)
“Red Tape,” a play written by Teresa Pesce and directed by Deb McShane, runs Jan. 15-16 and 22-23 on the Panida Theater’s Main Stage
If you were anywhere close to the art world in the late 1970s and early ’80s, you couldn’t help but be influenced (or appalled or enraged) by the so-called golden age of performance art, a movement that challenged cultural norms and featured unorthodox and sometimes even dangerous collaborations between artists and their chosen media, sometimes the artist’s own body. In those days, the “performance piece” or “happening” might be a live installation in a gallery or theater, or it could be an event staged in the midst of an unsuspecting public.
One of the most iconic and controversial performance artists was Chris Burden, who was known for crawling through broken glass and being crucified on a Volkswagen Beetle – his hands literally hammered to the roof of the car – all in the name of art. Perhaps most infamously, at a gallery in Santa Ana, Calif., he was shot in the arm by an assistant with a 22 long rifle from a distance of 13 feet. He claimed that he became sculpture at the point in which the bullet penetrated his arm, after which he was promptly taken away for psychiatric examination.
More familiar to the general public is the performance artist Karen Finley, who has made numerous appearances on the television talk show circuit and posed for Playboy. Ben Brantlee, of the New York Times called her a “… performance artist and specialist in the imaginative use of foodstuffs."
Imaginative, indeed. Evoking different characters in an often trance-like monologue, her performances typically ended with the smearing of chocolate all over herself. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. These days, she still performs, but has switched to liberally dousing herself with honey.
Fortunately, the performance art making its debut in Sandpoint at the Panida Theater’s main stage January 15-16 and 22-23, takes a decidedly less controversial approach, while still engaging the audience on multisensory levels. Please note that chocolate does figure into the story line, as does lasagna, but to reveal more than that would be insensitive. Don’t worry, napkins will be provided.
