Freezing time: ice as a metaphor to duration in performance art: MFA Thesis - Sculpture

Abstract

We are in 2022, in the Hudson Valley, NY. I have been a performance artist for over two decades now, and in my current performance work I am freezing time, metaphorically, yet also very much physically. In this text I examine phenomenological aspects in performance- I look at Bergson's idea of materiality in time, Heidegger's idea of object-at-hand (with a focus on it's sound), and ideas of repetition in performance. I will also look at artists who addressed the temporality and quality of ice, as a weather art movement beginning in the Fluxus well into contemporary examples. The questions that inspire this research are trifold, as an open letter to performance and it's addressees: Can time as duration be made visible, for example: ice?; What infrastructure(s) can support time-based performance, for example: mold making?; Can a performance archive be a process-based mechanism, for example: buckets?