PERFORMANCE: Clifford Owens

Clifford Owens, still from performance of Tell Me What To Do With Myself, 2005 via whitney-white.com.

Five Days’ Worth

Curated by Adrienne Edwards

November 18 – 22, 2013

THIRD STREAMING

10 Greene Street, 2^nd Floor

New York, NY

In conjunction with the traveling exhibition Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art, Performa13, and Third Streaming, Clifford Owens will present Five Days’ Worth, a new performance art project for which he will create a unique performance each day for five consecutive days; November 18 – November 22, 2013.

While conceived as one art work, Five Days’ Worth is structured in five parts, each of which is realized on a different day over the course of a week: In the Dark, Waiting for David (Hammons), Letters from My Lovers, Dad, and Come to Me. The project is a point of departure for the artist as it will be realized outside of the white cube space of a gallery or museum, as is typically the context for Owens’ performances. Instead, the artist will respond to Third Streaming’s intimate loft setting. Five Days’ Worth is also Owens’ most personal work to date as he creates distinct yet related performances which explore various personal themes of emotional, inspirational, and artistically influential importance. Throughout the project, Owens activates objects, and stages conflicts and resolutions, which accumulate and crescendo in the culminating performance through a series of participatory actions with the audience. As in previous bodies of work, such as Photographs with an Audience (2008-) and Anthology (2011-2012), Owens will use the occasion and context of the project as the basis for a new series of photographs, videos, and sound works.

Performances are free to the public but RSVP is required; please send to info@thirdstreaming.com

Performance titles and dates:

In the Dark

Monday, November 18 2013, 8:00PM-10PM

Waiting for David (Hammons)

Tuesday, November 19, 12:00AM-2:00AM
Note: This event is not open to the public.

Letters from my Lovers

Wednesday, November 20, 7:30PM-8:30PM

Dad

Thursday, November 21, 7:30PM-8:30PM

Come to Me

Friday, November 22, 7:30PM-9:30PM
Note: For admission to Come to Me, attendees are required to bring an object, a text, or an instruction for Owens to perform.

Performance Link

NEW YORK: Gifted and Talented (Curated by Clifford Owens) / Third Streaming

Tameka Norris, Video still from  Untitled (September 16, 2011), 2011.

Exhibition Dates: 
May 31 – September 6, 2012

Opening Reception: 
Wednesday, May 30, 6 – 8pm

Performance Dates:

Wednesday, May 23, 7pm 

Friday, September 7, 7pm

THIRD STREAMING

10 Greene Street

New York, NY

Third Streaming presents Gifted and Talented, a group exhibition comprised of photography, video, and live performance curated by acclaimed artist Clifford Owens. Extending the timeline created in his recent exhibition, Anthology at MoMA P.S.1 – which highlighted performance scores that Owens solicited from a multigenerational group of African-American artists – Gifted and Talented features the work of a younger generation of up-and-coming artists whose practices are centered around performance. The exhibition includes artists Tom Chung, Élan Jurado, Ali Kheradyar and Tameka Norris, with contributions by Clifford Owens.

The artists, featured in Gifted and Talented, all of whom have studied with Owens, work with the specifics of ritual, and explore the labyrinth of identity politics without regard for the limitations of any specific media. Their practices incorporate live performance and those specifically created for the camera, blurring the boundaries between the two. This is especially evident in Norris’ Venus of the Rags (2012), in dialogue with Michelangelo Pistoletto’s work of the same name from 1967-68, and Chung’s Antidote (2012), which was taken just before the artist ingested a pill containing a wasp.

Chung’s work challenges preconceived attitudes towards race, gender and sexuality as shaped by religion. For this exhibition, Chung will premiere a performance that is part prayer, part confession to powerful effect, interweaving biting snippets of personal history conjuring otherworldly spirits while affirming his identity as a gay man of Chinese descent. Chung further explores the conflicts of religious representation through his interest in myth, shamanism and divination. While Chung claims a place for those that are ‘other’, Jurado’s performances painfully exploit and test the boundaries of physical endurance and tolerance through his submission to violent acts of aggression. In White Action Red Reaction (2012), the artist is shot with a paintball gun from close range nineteen times before falling to the ground in agony, providing an intense study of the limitations of the human body.

Norris’ investigation of the body takes a more outward approach, directly engaging with the audience to foment uncertainty, discomfort and critique. Her performance for Gifted and Talented leaves the viewer in control of her body, giving the audience members complete freedom to act out intimate hygienic routines. Norris thus engages concepts of surrender and accessibility, while activating the desirous nature of the gaze. Kheradyar’s photographic series of Betty Hair Dye deals with similar themes of sexual identity and the body, while referencing Minimalist photography in the clean lines of Dye (2011). Using seriality through the repetition of the female figure, with only the thighs and pubic hair visible, each image is defined by the specific dye applied. With titles such as Lucky Betty and Sexy Betty, the artist playfully questions individual ritualized practices and unconventional concepts of beauty.

The works featured and performed in Gifted and Talented challenge traditional notions regarding what is cultural or socially acceptable, particularly as defined by the current conservative political agenda. Collectively, their work clearly indicates that art and identity politics are as relevant and timely as ever.

EVENT: Conversations - Among Friends / The Museum of Modern Art / January 24, 2012

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT.

PLEASE NOTE LOCATION CHANGE.

Conversations: Among Friends

Featuring artists Derrick Adams, Clifford Owens, Xaviera Simmons, and Mickalene Thomas

Introduction and Collectible essay by Christopher Y. Lew, Assistant Curator, MOMA PS1

Tuesday, January 24, 2012
7:00 pm program | 8:15 pm reception
Doors open at 6:45 pm

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
Celeste Bartos Theater 3
4 West 54th Street
New York City, NY

Tickets ($35) may be purchased at The Museum information and film desks, online at MoMA.org or through The Friends of Education Office.

All tickets will be held at the door.

Presented by the Friends as part of the series Conversations: Among Friends, this evening's program features a conversation between artists Derrick Adams, Clifford Owens, Xaviera Simmons, and Mickalene Thomas, with an introduction and Collectible essay by Christopher Y. Lew, Assistant Curator, MoMA PS1. Following the program, guests are invited to continue the conversation and meet the participants at an intimate reception catered by Fantasy Fare in The Agnes Gund Garden Lobby.

Read full program event in PDF format here

POST: Clifford Owens / ARTINFO / November 21, 2011

Clifford Owens photographed by Lizzie Gorfaine (via artinfo.com)

27 Questions for Artist Clifford Owens

Name: Clifford Owens

Age: 40

Occupation: Artist

City/Neighborhood: New York City/Elmhurst, Queens

What project are you working on now?

"Clifford Owens: Anthology."

For your "Anthology" project, you asked a multigenerational group of African-American artists to submit a performance score — written or drawn instructions for actions — and then performed them yourself throughout MoMA PS1. Twenty-six artists, including Glenn Ligon, Senga Nengudi, and Kara Walker, contributed scores. Whose contribution surprised you the most?

I was surprised by all the scores contributed to "Anthology."

You have said that you dislike the label “performance artist." Why?

I dislike labels in general, but I'm particularly allergic to the "performance artist "label that has been attached to my practice. I'm a trans-disciplinary visual artist working through photography, video, and installation. I don't want any one to confuse my practice as a visual artist with the performing arts. I'm not an actor, a dancer, or an entertainer.

All the performances you executed were based on pre-set instructions. This echoes a long legacy of performance art stretching back to Fluxus, in which the artist acts like a machine, dispassionately carrying out an a priori set of directions. Do you think this squanders spontaneity? Is that necessarily a bad thing?

First of all, "Anthology" has nothing to do with Fluxus. According to George Maciunas, the self-appointed founding leader of Fluxus, "Fluxus is about jokes." "Anthology" is not about jokes and the artists who've contributed scores are not jokers; they are serious artists. Secondly, I've interpreted the "Anthology" scores in terms of my own conceptual interests and aesthetics sensibilities. Above all, "Anthology" is intense, passionate, and remarkably spontaneous.

You carried out these performances in spaces all over MoMA PS1, from the boiler room to the attic. Which location was least conducive to the performance you did there? 

There are no locations in MoMA PS1 that could not accommodate a work of performance art. Performance art can exist in any architecture, in any space created for human interaction.

If you did all the performances over the summer, what can we expect to see now at your PS1 exhibition?

The exhibition at MoMA PS1 is comprised of photographs, videos, sound works, and live performances. Of course, the experience of the exhibition will be vastly different from the experience of being present for the performances.

What's the last show that you saw?

Lauren Kelley, "FrouFrou Conclusions," at The Kitchen. Lauren is one of the most interesting artists of her generation and this exhibition reinforces that fact.

What's the last show that surprised you?

I haven't seen that show yet.

What's your favorite place to see art?

MoMA PS1, of course.

Do you make a living off your art?

No. I do not make a living off my art; I make a life off my art.

What's the most indispensable item in your studio?

I don't have a studio. I work in my head and from my heart.

Where are you finding ideas for your work these days?

I find ideas for my work in the lives of my beautiful, brilliant sons Inti and Joaquin.

Do you collect anything?

No.

What's the last artwork you purchased?

I've never purchased a work of art.

What's the first artwork you ever sold?

The first artworks I sold are in the Studio Museum in Harlem collection.

What's the weirdest thing you ever saw happen in a museum or gallery?

Does anything weird ever happen in a museum or gallery?

What's your art-world pet peeve?

I'm not interested in the art world because the art world is not interesting. The art world is not about art; it's about class privilege.

What's your favorite post-gallery watering hole or restaurant?

When I was in residence at MoMA PS1, I frequented the Shannon Pot. I love cheap, shitty bars.

Do you have a gallery/museum-going routine?

No.

Know any good jokes?

I know a few bad jokes, but who wants to read a bad joke?

What's the last great book you read?

Emile Zola, “Germinal.”

What work of art do you wish you owned?

I would like to own one of David Hammons's handsome hats.

What would you do to get it?

I would do everything and nothing to get it. Hammons would gift one of his handsome hats to me.

What international art destination do you most want to visit?

I hate to travel.

What under-appreciated artist, gallery, or work do you think people should know about?

Terry Adkins is a brilliant artist and mentor to many, including myself.

Who's your favorite living artist?

My favorite living artist was born an hour ago.

What are your hobbies?

I don't have any hobbies. Hobbies are for boring people. 

Clifford Owens. Anthology (Nsenga Knight) (detail). 2011. Performance still. Courtesy On Stellar Rays (via momaps1.org)

Clifford Owens: Anthology

November 13, 2011 - March 12, 2012

MoMA PS1

22-25 Jackson Avenue

Long Island City, NY

Source

Exhibit Link

Slideshow of Clifford Owens: Anthology