An analysis on the elements that surround an action in performance

The Preparation Before the Action

This research paper focuses on how performance art works are being set up around the actual action. This is being analysed through three basic elements that are part of every performance; the three elements being body, time and space.

The paper is primarily based on the theories in the book The Analysis of Performance Art by Anthony Howell. As Anthony Howell mentions in this book, performance artists often go with the feeling that they begin with a lack of something. This is because, as opposed to artists in other disciplines, like video makers who start with a camera or painters beginning with a canvas, they mostly do not have tangible objects to go from. The necessity for writing this paper is therefore to clarify that that the body is the instrument of performers and that elements such as time and space can be as tangible as the camera of a filmmaker or the canvas of a painter.

By explaining how to work with body, time and space in performances, I hope to help myself and others in creating awareness in what performance art technically entails which will hopefully lead to the creation and execution of better performances later on.

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2020