The Pornography of Performance

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Resource MovingImage: Performance Recording
Title The Pornography of Performance
Creator Organisations
Abstract/Description 'Ransacking the history of the avant-garde, the Sydney Front has produced two works WALTZ (the exhibitionism of the performer) and JOHN LAWS/SADE (the voyeurism of the spectator). Oppressed by a vision of the future as endless plagiarism, the Sydney Front has decided to imitate only itself. Thus, our previous works are shuffled and combined to produce a frenzied meditation on theatrical obsession: THE PORNOGRAPHY OF PERFORMANCE. THE PORNOGRAPHY OF PERFORMANCE is a frenzied meditation on theatrical obsession, a festive overture of histrionic suffering and flapping genitalia.’ - Poster for The Pornography of Performance, 1988 THE PORNOGRAPHY OF PERFORMANCE Who controls a theatrical performance? Is the spectator the passive recipient of the artists’ god-like manipulations? Or are the performers desperate whores constantly incited by the spectators’ devouring gaze to greater and greater acts of self-abuse? THE PORNOGRAPHY OF PERFORMANCE takes as its subject the shifts in power and the explosions of pleasure that happen between the spectator and the performer. Inevitably, images of voyeurism and exhibitionism predominate. - Press release for The Pornography of Performance, 1988
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Publisher Artfilms
Date Created 1988
Language English
Citation The Sydney Front, The Pornography of Performance, Artfilms, 1988
Resource Identifier 51518
Dataset AusStage