Off the Wall: Part 1 - Thirty Performative Actions September 15, 2010

Conceived as a two-part exhibition, 'Off the Wal'l brings together thirty performative actions by artists, in works made from 1946 to the present. The exhibition takes place at the Whitney Museum of American Art in the second-floor Mildred & Herbert Lee Galleries and the Kaufman Astoria Studios Film & Video Gallery. 'Off the Wall: Part 1--Thirty Performative Actions,' focuses on actions using the body in live performance, in front of the camera, or in relation to a photographic or printed surface, or drawing. Each action displaces the site of the artwork from an object to the body, acting in relation to, or directly onto, the physical space of the gallery. The wall and floor become the stage for these actions: walking on the wall, slamming doors, slapping hands against the wall, gathering sawdust up from the studio floor, walking on a painting, striding and crawling around a small cylindrical space, writing or drawing on the wall and floor, or performing a striptease behind the transparent plane of Duchamp's Large Glass.