In general, what survives as estimable East Village art is somehow atypical of East Village art, whose echt keynote was punkish amateurism, and whose strongest mode was ephemeral performance.
Asked why on earth two actors of their stature would put themselves through the trial of doing the play live in a single ephemeral performance for a one-time television audience (although it will be taped for posterity), Ms. Andrews laughed and said, "We're both asking ourselves the same thing".
That was when so many women's efforts tended to be ephemeral performances and temporary installations like those created by Ms. Chicago, Miriam Schapiro and others in "Womanhouse" in Los Angeles in the early 70's.
The city is seeing a turn towards touring exhibitions and ephemeral performances, events and discussions more suited to the tough economic climate than commercially driven work catering to rich buyers.
The radical approaches it favoured including a preference for non-art materials, spontaneity over mastery, ephemeral performances, exhibiting in non-traditional spaces such as city parks and department stores, and a general rejection of tradition were intended to undermine art's complicity with systems of wealth and power.
There is a reason why certain otherwise ephemeral performances live on in the memory, decade after decade, and it is invariably down to that figure on the podium – the eternal giver of rhythm, doing so much more than just waving their hands in the air….
"Music is just as ephemeral in performance, but the performer can play that score and read it over and over again, discuss it, debate it.
Aware of the co-opting power of the market, she chose mediums that were either ephemeral (installation, performance) or easily reproduced and distributed (video, photography).
If there is any takeaway, it may be that the value of all this high-priced advice is ephemeral; the performance of deals is always going to be a crapshoot.
"Dance is so ephemeral, and performances happen in such a short period of time — someone's at Performance Space 122 for five nights, and that might be the only show they do for two years.
Music students were all stuck in the notion of music as performance, ephemeral.
