A snapshot of current contemporary art practice, 58 artworks from 17 performance and conceptual artists in this anthology of new and established artists.
This is the forth book in The State of Art, art book series and seeks to explore some of the concepts, ideologies and extreme lengths that today's contemporary artists are taking to push the boundaries. In the past few years the fields of conceptual art and performance art have grown in interest and complexity, introducing new ideas to the practice of contemporary art.
Both fields have their origins in the early 1960's when attitudes to what could be considered art were beginning to shift. In essence, conceptual art is work in which the ideas involved in the formulation of the work take precedence over the materials used to create them. Leading exponents of conceptual art such as Joseph Kosuth began to challenge the notion that artists create commodities or trophies of wealth by creating taxonomical works that challenged both the classification and existence of objects.
In performance art, the body of the artist and other participants takes centre stage either in public places, art galleries or more traditional performance spaces such as theatres. Performances can utilise new media technology such as film, digital graphics and the Internet but are always comprised of four main elements; time, space, the performer and the relationship between the performer and their audience.