Midterm Part 1 by Chris Pearce

Art comes in many shapes, sizes, and forms. It can be a sculpture, a painting, and even a performance. When I found out that our midterm constituted our class to design a performance piece my mind quickly went to work. I researched performance artists and found many interesting performances that I could not have ever thought of. One was Michael Lotito who ate unusual objects who most likely would have put fear factor contestants to shame. Another was Yves Klein who painted models and moved them around on white paper to leave their impression on it. These two artists inspired me to come up with my own ideas and to think outside of the box. I did not want to have my midterm project projecting something that truly didn’t mean anything to me or did not have a message for viewers of it.

I wrote down all of my ideas and what I would like to accomplish for the viewers. It had to be something that had a theme to it. As dorky as it sounds for a guy, I wanted to have the theme be love. Something a guy loved to do and made his day. Secondly, it had to be extraordinary. As a performance piece, I felt it had to be something that glorified what a performance piece could capture that everyday life did not.

My list was long but it became clear to me as I narrowed it down that I knew what I wanted to do. My performance art would be of a man fly fishing midwinter in a parking lot . I believe it would capture what a man loves to do even when he does not have the ability to do it because of the time of the year. The man is fully dedicated to his passion and will not let snow or no open water dictate his time of enjoyment. All men have a place they like to do to get away from their life whether it is working out, watching tv, working on their car, etc. In this case, the man is depicting how he will not be denied his opportunity to his time. He decides he will not be denied and by doing it in a parking lot he is sharing to all his passion for his hobby.

There would not be any other props besides what the man would take to go fly fishing such as his fishing gear and fishing ensemble. There would not be any sound because the only sound a person has when going fishing is the sound of nature. As for the aspect of when it would take place it would have to be in the morning hours around dawn for that is when fish are more likely to be caught. The performance would last for around two hours and the man I would choose to recruit for the performance would have be someone in their mid 50’s who enjoys fly fishing as their favorite hobby.

To break down the performance the man would arrive at a parking lot in February about twenty minutes before dawn. He would get his fishing gear ready and cast away for the next two hours. The performance would depict the man enjoying his favorite hobby and having the opportunity to escape reality and collect his thoughts.

I believe my performance would be one that anyone can relate to. Everyone has a hobby that they put time aside as much as they can to do. It is a time where one can reflect on life as well as to escape any problems they are dealing with. In this case it is a man who does not have the ability to completely enjoy his hobby but he does his best to show his love for fly fishing.