The Value of Performance Art Within A Discipline-Based Arts Education

Colette Copeland
October 2024

As part of my Fulbright Scholar experience in India, I had the great pleasure to teach performance art to Photography Masters students at the National Institute of Design in Gandhinager, India. NID is the most highly selective art and design school in the country and photography only admits 16 students each year. Although I have a MFA in photography and have taught a myriad of photography courses over the past 25 years, my passion lies in teaching interdisciplinary contemporary art classes, which mirrors my own approach to art making in the 21st century.

My NID colleague in photography Rishi Singhal contextualized the relationship between performance art and photography quite well when he wrote the course synopsis, “…the advent of Conceptual Art in the 1960s in the U.S. brought performance and media forms such as photography and video together, which later defined contemporary approaches in photography.”

Despite the correlations between performance art and photography, students are often apprehensive at the beginning of the module. I commit to them to create a safe space, full of trust where they are free to engage in creative play. I usually preface my introduction by saying that they will learn a lot about themselves and a little bit about performance art.

We start with an easy group exercise like Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree, which requires very little vulnerability or courage to perform. I also like to share John Cage’s 10 Rules for Students and Teachers, which sets up expectations for creativity to flourish in the classroom.

During day two, we get a bit bolder and engage in multiple 5-6 minute performative sculptures inspired by Erwin Wurm’s one minute sculpture series. The works’ objective, besides having fun (I am all about experimentation, creative play and having fun in the classroom), is to think about the body’s connection to an object and the architecture of a particular site. My mantra is to embrace absurdity and subvert expectations for objects’ functionality as it relates to the body in space.

Day three we engage in a performance that involves a repeated gesture or series of gestures. With pioneer performance artist Rebecca Horn’s recent passing, I wanted to honor her work, so the students were required to create a body extension from readymade/found materials that either enhanced or impeded one or more of the body’s senses. Their repeated gestures and movements should relate to their sculptural forms. We had the added challenge of rain for our performances and while initially grumbly, most students embraced and integrated this obstacle into their work.

Day four is research presentation day. I’m a big fan of participatory and team-based learning. The students researched and presented a 15-minute talk on a performance artist of their choosing. The one caveat—the artist could not be from the west—U.S. or Europe. Almost everyone chose an artist from India, which was great for me, since I learned about so many new artists.

Their final work, the Body Video Projection Performance assignment is more formalized. They submit a proposal with the concept, repeated action/gesture and video content. I ask them to think about how the video might transform the physical attributes of their body and how fusing and coalescing the video/body might create new meanings. Their performances were powerful, embodying personal and socio-political themes in their work. In addition to performing, each student also participated in documenting their peers and helping with production assistance and styling.

Rather than me summing up my thoughts on the value of performance art within the larger context of a university arts education, I thought it best to ask my students to share their key learnings for the week. Vishal R said, “The various exercises and discourse with contemporary artists during the workshop have opened new doors for using performance art as a medium in my practice.” Basil Moncy replied, “When I pushed my body to perform unfamiliar actions, it revealed more of my true self. This realization is the most important takeaway for me in this module.” Tejal responded, “Each session felt like a discovery, and the variety of exercises helped me think about performance beyond the physical act—considering the emotions, intentions, and context behind each gesture.”

NID Photography Design Class 2023-2024

Yash Bopche, Anukrishnan S, Agraj Nagarkoti, Ami Lad, Arka Sinha, Apurv Parijat, Basil Moncy, Chitrarth Bharti, Hridya Sadanand, Mon Buragohain,  Nisanth Srinivasan, Ruba S,  Ramprasad R,  Rijul Gupta, Tejal Kawachi, Vishal R

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Colette Copeland is an interdisciplinary visual artist, arts educator, social activist and cultural critic/writer whose work examines issues surrounding gender, death and contemporary culture. Sourcing personal narratives and popular media, she utilizes video, photography, performance and sculptural installation to question societal roles and the pervasive influence of media, and technology on our communal enculturation.  She recently completed her work as a Fulbright Scholar in India, writing about female contemporary artists working with social engaged themes, as well as expanding her Soundings Project to include female, non-binary and queer voices in India.

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