ABSTRACT
Within a classic narrative of performance art history, photographic or video ‘documentation’ is a poor substitute for the apparent authenticity of the act. In this scheme of things, a live action encountered in real time is primary, superior to the after-image that might stand in for its passing, within a book or exhibition. For works of ‘body art’ that sought to foreground the palpable vulnerability of the artist’s own presence in real time and in relation to the witness of a live audience—for example, early works by Marina Abramović or Chris Burden—access to the sensations and high stakes of the original act is inevitably hampered via its mediation as a photographic image, even if that image (of Abramović scratched and decked with roses and chains, smeared with lipstick in Rhythm O [1973]), or Burden clutching his arm in pain after being shot, in Shoot (1971) becomes a well-known and iconic representation.
