Rush: Chapter 1 (47-57)

I think this section really challenged me to expand my idea of what art is. While I can appreciate Nauman's Clown Torture as amusing and maybe a little disturbing, some of the other performances , such as Pier Martons's Performance for Video, where he beats himself with a guitar until it disintegrates, may make a particular statement, but it's also hard to distinguish from possible mental illness. I think we might've discussed something like this in class. What distinguishes some art from mental illness? Can it be both? Probably. Some of Muehl's performances (pg 56) border on the latter, or certainly deviant and possibly criminal.

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