Live Art in LA: Performance in Southern California, 1970 - 1983

Live Art in LA: Performance Art in Southern California , 1970-1983 documents and critically examines one of the most fecund periods in the history of live art. The book forms part of the Getty Institute’s Pacific Standard Time initiative – a series of exhibitions, performance re-enactments and research projects focused on the greater Los Angeles area. This extraordinary volume, beautifully edited by one of the leading scholars in the field, makes vivid the compelling drama of performance history on the west coast.

Live Art in LA:

• moves lucidly between discussions of legendary figures such as Judy Chicago and Chris Burden, and the crucial work of less-celebrated solo artists and collectives;

• examines the influence of key institutions, particularly Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and the California Institute of the Arts – and the Feminist Art Programme established at the latter;

• features original and incisive essays by Peggy Phelan and Amelia Jones, and eloquent contributions by Michael Ned Holte, Suzanne Lacy and Jennifer Flores Sternad.

Combining cutting-edge research with over 100 challenging and provocative photographs and video stills, Live Art in LA represents a major re-evaluation of a crucial moment in performance history. And, as performance studies becomes ever more relevant to the history of art, promises to become a vital and enduring resource for students, academics and artists alike.

Peggy Phelan is the author of Unmarked: The Politics of Performance (Routledge, 1993); Mourning Sex: Performing Public Memories (Routledge, 1997); the survey essay for Art and Feminism, ed. Helena Reckitt (Phaidon, 2001); the survey essay for Pipilotti Rist (Phaidon, 2001); and the catalog essay for Intus: Helena Almeida (Lisbon, 2004). She is co-editor, with the late Lynda Hart, of Acting Out: Feminist Performances (University of Michigan Press, 1993); and co-editor with Jill Lane of The Ends of Performance (New York University Press, 1997). She has published more than 60 articles and essays in scholarly, artistic, and commercial magazines ranging from Artforum to Signs; these essays have been cited in the fields of architecture, art history, psychoanalytic criticism, visual culture, performance studies, theatre studies, and film and video studies.