ABSTRACT
Where was performance in the 1990s? In 1999 the theatre director Peter Hall spoke of the role of the arts in education as fundamental because of the revolutionary character of art. Hall went on to state “that [revolutionary art] is the only art, because artists are there to tell us about tomorrow not yesterday” (quoted in the Guardian, 2 November 1999). In a sense this statement could also be used to describe the general notion of art in the twentieth century, via the concept of the avant-garde as that which constantly pushes forward the boundaries of representation. In the late 1990s, some of the most exciting and vigorous pushing back of these boundaries took place in the realm of performance art and live art as opposed to traditional forms of theatre. However, in beginning to outline some of the main themes and preoccupations of performance in the 1990s, I think it is also important to consider this work not merely in terms of pushing back boundaries (both its own and others) but also in how work of the time relates to performance work from the past thirty years. The notion of a canonical tradition and methodology is often missing from the consideration of performance as art – perhaps due to its significant lack of a finished product.
