Performing for the Camera

This new exhibition at the Tate Modern examines the relationship between photography and performance, while also exploring a varied range of artists and photographers. The collection encompasses serious works of art that deal with identity politics, carefully constructed fantasies, and witty improvisational snapshots. The exhibition was divided into appropriate sections, and looked at documenting performances, photographic actions, self portraits staging/collaborations, and performing icons. As discovered though these photographs, performance art is often more photographic, and photography more performative, than their usual separate histories suggest. The use of documenting actions through photography, and using photography as an action, is an interesting concept within the field of graphic design, and opens up many possibilities in not only how work is displayed, but also how it is created.

Yves Klein, Leap Into the Void (1960) - A performance in which Klein leapt

from a wall into the 'void': in reality, Klein leapt onto a tarpaulin which was

removed later on. Klein used the photograph as evidence of his ability

to undertake unaided lunar travel

Charles Ray, Plank Piece I-II (1973) - Ray was part of a wave of artists during the 1970s who addressed sculpture as an activity rather than as an object. In this iconic two-part photographic work, the artist documents the use of his own body as the sculptural component through a complex balance between weight and gravity

Dan Graham with Harry Shunk and János Kender, Pier 18 (1971) - A performative piece

in which Graham photographed his surroundings by placing his camera on different

parts of his own body, working his way down from his head to his feet.

Erwin Wurm, One Minute Sculptures (ongoing) - A series of live performative works that

encourages audiences to engage briefly with their surroundings and to create

 a sculpture using their own bodies and surrounding materials.