Performance Art Showcase Returns

For the sixth Performance Art Showcase, 28 artistswill fill the fourth-floor gallery of the Milwaukee Institute of Art &Design with imaginative new works. As always, the presentation by co-producersPegi Christiansen and John Loscuito is adventurous. One end of the gallery willcontain a tent with semicircular seating and a stage on which five differentacts will appear in continuous rotation. The rest of the space will be filledwith a carnival-like maze of 15 high-walled booths of varying sizes withentrances from different directions, in which separate performances will repeatand/or develop through the two-hour running time. Versatilecircus artist Geoff Marsh will perform feats in the pathways. As in my favorite video games, visitors can choose their own sequence ofcomplex interactive adventures and come and go or remain in each domain for aslong as it suits them. Everyone’s journey willbe to some degree unique and self-created.

The event is titled “Souvenirs.” Each performer will offer an actual physical mementoof the experience for visitors to take home. Most willbe free; some will have a small charge to cover costs. The growing number of relic-like artifacts once used as props in liveperformances and now installed in major art museums worldwide inspired Loscuitoand Christiansen. What is the relationshipbetween the leftover object and the time-bound performance? For theco-producers, a major purpose of the showcase over the years has been toexamine the nature of performance art. They hope the contrast between thetemporal experience and the souvenir will spur visitors to rethink the specialinteraction that takes place live between each audience member and performer.

The Performance Art Showcase provides an exciting wayto discover the work of Milwaukeeartists you have never known. I trustthe co-producers. The number of artists andrange of styles this time are greater than ever. It looksto be a mix of serious and lighthearted works on an array of personal andpolitical subjects in highly idiosyncratic presentations, just as it should be.

I know only two of the artists. Theresa Columbus, theendearing former impresario of Milwaukee’s mainperformance art venue Darling Hall, returns from Baltimore to perform “The Artist Statement”about her struggle to compose one. FilmmakerJoe Reeves, his back to us as he faces a camera, will reveal “the massiveweight of his ego” via his televised face as he supports the screen on hisshoulder for two hours.

Some performances sound genuinely useful. PinkertonXyloma will teach us how to survive without money. Petra Press will create asanctuary from maniacs. Robert Hoffman will do penance for whatever reasons wegive him. Kasia and JasonDrake-Hames will capture group screams in glass jars with lids. You can take one home as a souvenir.

ThePerformance Art Showcase takes place 7:30 p.m. Sept.22 at the Milwaukee Institute of Art &Design, 273 E. Erie St. Suggested donation: $5; $3 for students.