Artists in the Archive: Creative and Curatorial Engagements with Documents of Art and Performance

Artists in the Archive explores the agency and materiality of the archival document through a stunning collection of critical writings and original artworks. It examines the politics and philosophy behind re-using remains, historicising this artistic practice and considering the breadth of ways in which archival materials inform, inflect and influence new works. Taking a fresh look at the relationships between insider know-how and outsider knowledge, Artists in the Archive opens a vital dialogue between a global range of artists and scholars. It seeks to trouble the distinction between artistic practice and scholarly research, offering disciplinary perspectives from experimental theatre, performance art, choreography and dance, to visual art making, archiving and curating.

Table of Contents:
Paul Clarke, Simon Jones, Nick Kaye and Johanna Linsley, Introduction: inside and outside the archive Nick Kaye, Liveness and the entanglement with things 1. REMAKE 1a Janez Janša, Monument G as a call for reconstruction 1b Tim Etchells, Untitled (After Violent Incident) 1c Robin Deacon, Stuart Sherman's Hamlet: a careful misreading 1d Rosemary Butcher and Stefanie Sachsenmaier, Rosemary Butcher: After Kaprow–a visual journey 1e Zhang Huan, Six Questions 1f Adrian Heathfield, The ghost time of transformation. 2. RETURN 2a Blast Theory/John Hunter, Jog Shuttler 2b Lin Hixson and Matthew Goulish, Our 18 Beginnings 2c Paul Clarke/Performance Re-enactment Society, Performing art history: non-linear, synchronous and syncopated times in Performance Re-enactment Society’s Group Show (Arnolfini, Bristol 2012) 2d Pil and Galia Kollectiv, Re-enacting the archive: untimely meditations on the use and abuse of repetition 2e Amelia Jones, Archive, repertoire and embodied histories in Não Bustamente’s performative practice 2f Andrew Quick, The patina of performance: documentary practice and the search for origins in The Wooster Group’s Fish Story 3. REVIEW 3a Mike Pearson, The lesson of anatomy 3b Fiona Templeton, Authority, authorship and authoring in the Theatre of Mistakes 3c Bodies in Flight, Do the Wild Thing! Redux 3d Felix Gmelin, Understanding negative dialectics 3e Johanna Linsley, 9 beginnings: sonic theatrical possibilities and potentialities in the performance archive 3f Maaike Bleeker, Resistance to representation and the fabrication of truth: performance as thought-apparatus 4. ARCHIVE 4a Giles Bailey, Talker Catalogue 4b Terry O’Connor, Nothing goes to waste 4c Koh Nguang How, The Singapore Art Archive Project 4d Richard Hancock and Traci Kelly, Playing with shadows and speaking in echoes 4e Claire MacDonald, Performing with ghosts: a talk remembered 4f Simon Jones, The future perfect of the archive: re-thinking performance in the age of third nature List of contributors Acknowledgements Index

About the Author :
Paul Clarke is an artist, theatre director, and Senior Lecturer in Performance Studies at the University of Bristol. Simon Jones is Professor of Performance at the University of Bristol, a writer and scholar, and founder and co-director of physical theatre company Bodies in Flight. Nick Kaye is Professor of Performance Studies at the University of Exeter. Johanna Linsley is an artist, researcher and producer, a founder of the performance/producing collective I’m With You, and a founding partner of documentary arts centre UnionDocs, Brooklyn, NY.