Australian Video Art Archive

Body and Self

 

Synopsis

Body and Self: Performance Art in Australia 1969-1992 was initially written to fill a gap in Australian art history. It charts a course from the happenings of the 1960s, through body art in the 1970s, towards a more political body in the 1980s and 1990s. The text draws on contemporary theories of the subject and considers changes in art practice in conjunction with social critiques. This on-line version of Body and Self is essentially an archival edition. The text has been edited, corrected and revised but the argument and content remains the same. The major difference is that, wherever possible, archival video imagery and/or moving image sequences has been embedded together with the original black and white photographs. This has been made possible by a new research project which considers the documentation and remediation of performance art. The Australian Video Art Archive is part of this project and it has allowed for the conservation of old videotape, excerpts of which are included in this book.