John Howell

Art Performance: New York

This was a half-serious remark by an artist-performer who would hardly mind a vaudevillian take by the entire New York art scene. Still, it correctly reflects the increasing claims of performance on the central (Soho) art-network. The opening show of this season at the Holly Solomon Gallery is an example too pertinent to ignore. Next to Mary Heilmans primary (red, yellow, and blue), basic (square) paintings, a clear if modest statement about that form, there was a room of Performance Objects. Among them: -Jared Barks photo-booth assemblies, in which groupings of the serial photographs of his manipulated body operate as puns on the shape created (Turtleman, etc.). -a large piece of floral fabric, actually a costume spread and tacked to the wall, by Robert Kushner, who designs material and outfits which are shown on live models (as in fashion show). -Suzanne Harris book of plans and photographs of Locus One, her outdoor sculpture which invited its viewers through a hallway into a circular pit occupied by a large cube, and once there, to experience the ritualistic overtones of its special compass orientation and architectural formulas. -Laurie Andersons Viophonograph, a violin with built-in turntable and needle mounted in mid-bow, and complete with record, each track of which plays only one note.