Robin Rhodes and Janine Antoni

One of our artists, Nial Singh suggested that he could bring a different genre to our exhibition through performance art. The theme would still anarchism but perhaps performed instead of a traditional 'on the wall painting or drawing.' He liked the idea of working with the objects outside, mentioning the bike racks as a particular element to perform on and amoung. The action of anarchism rather than the aftermath.

I found two performance artists, Robin Rhode and Janine Antoni whilst researching in one of the workshops, and found their work really interesting. They both deviate from the 'norm' as it were when it comes to concepts of art, linking to our anarchism theme.
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Robin Rhode is a South African artist, born 1976 in Cape Town, South Africa, now based in Berlin, Germany. In 1998, he obtained a diploma in Fine Art from Technikon Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, followed by a postgraduate program at the South African School of Film, Television and Dramatic Art in Johannesburg.
Working predominantly with everyday material like charcoal, chalk and paint, Rhode started out creating performances that are based on his own drawings of objects that he interacts with. He expanded and refined this practice into creating photography sequences and digital animations. These works are characterized by an interdisciplinary approach that brings aspects of performance, happening, drawing, film and photography together. Rhode often returns to his native South Africa, creating work in the streets of Johannesburg and continuously registering the traces of poverty and social inequality. An outstanding characteristic of his works is his addressing of social concerns in a playful and productive manner, incorporating these issues into his practice without simplifying or judging them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Rhode


JANINE ANTONI
The conceptual photographer, performance artist and sculptor Janine Antoni is perhaps best known for staging one of the most unconventional and provocative kisses in the history of art. In Mortar and Pestle, Antoni created a photographic tableau of the artist's tongue licking a man's eyeball in order to, as the artist put it, "know the taste of his vision."

In her subsequent projects, including Loving Care 1993, where the artist painted the gallery floor with hair dye using her head as a brush, and the more recent video Touch, in which she appears to walk on water by balancing on a strategically placed tightrope, Antoni developed a reputation for imbuing established conceptual practices with a new emotional tenor.

http://www.canadianart.ca/online/see-it/2009/05/07/janine-antoni/

BY KATIE ECCLESTON :)