top of page
Search

'Walking;As a Performance Art?' online Access

  • Writer: Bethany Tompkins
    Bethany Tompkins
  • May 18, 2020
  • 21 min read

Updated: Oct 30, 2021

While the live public webinar will not be accessible, there is still able to be a discussion after the fact, from anyone interested in this topic. Thus I had compiled the presentation below for anyone who may have been interested on the topic but was unable to attend the public webinar presentation and open discussion on the 5th May 2020.

 

Research by: Butler, A., Phillips, G., Summers, J. Tompkins, B. & Entwistle, I


Writer - Butler, A.

Editorial - Tompkins, B.


Full credits for the online webinar, including presentation and discussion leads:

 

Hello everyone, today we will be presenting and discussing the topic of Walking, and why it is performance art. One of the most important items to consider is: what is performance art? Without this knowledge, we cannot discuss how walking can be performative.


Performance art can be defined as actions performed by the artist or other participants, which may be live or recorded, spontaneous, or scripted. The main focal point of performance art is to challenge traditional conventions of visual art, sculpture, and painting. When these styles no longer answer the artists’ needs and they become too restricting, artists often turn to performance as a way to reach new audiences and trial new ideas. Performance art can comprise styles and concepts from practices unrelated to the arts, including rituals or daily menial tasks, often resulting in a focus on the body. This abandonment of conventional mediums can offer liberation for the artist, however some wonder whether this reflects a fundamental crisis - a sign that art is exhausting its resources.


Walking allows collaboration between theory and practice. This reveals an interchangeable dialogue between art, architecture, urban studies, sustainability, and ecology. Walking can disclose multiple layers of relationships between people and places. As stated by Rebecca Solnit: “Walking, ideally, is a state in which the mind, the body, and the world are aligned…”. She situates the history of walking in response to a disembodiment of everyday life and highlights the ever-reducing amount of public space and free time.


In line with the striking similarities between these Performance and Walking theories, we have condensed the act of walking into three performative categories: Wandering, Following, and Journey, which we shall now discuss in more depth.


Wanderlust (Solnit, 2014)

To expand on Rebecca Solnit’s influence on walking as performance art, we will briefly analyse her book called Wanderlust. Wanderlust explains the history of walking and suggests that to wander is an act of protest. It could be seen this way because a busy lifestyle dictates a fast pace of walking. Solnit argues that ‘to Wander’ is expressive and something to truly get lost in. She describes her own experiences as ‘partial’ as well as an ‘idiosyncratic path’. In terms of walking, this could mean that a slower pace is crucial to a better understanding of true wandering. Solnit insists that wandering is an everyday practice and suggests that it contributes to the human lifestyle in adding experience and exploration.


Solnit also discusses Robert Louis Stevenson and his belief that “Walking tours should be gone on alone because freedom is the essence. You should be able to stop and go on”. He also goes on to say, “You should be able to follow this way or that”, suggesting that humans should wander to be able to fully explore, and doing it alone still allows you to follow that which takes you on your journey. In this sense, Solnit has linked the act of Wandering, Following, and Journey.


She has used Stevenson as an example. When considering walking tours, a person follows another, yet they are still on a journey together, making walking an important collaborative process. However, she has highlighted that it is sometimes important to walk alone, because when you leave the walking tour to go and explore on your own, you are wandering, while also following your own curiosity, therefore making the journey individual to you.


 

Wandering is often seen as ‘To be lost’, as it can be considered as a way to move around aimlessly, you do not focus on a particular destination and decide the route in that moment.


Rebecca Solnit also used Wanderlust to explore a movement known as ‘Wandervogel’, which began in Berlin in 1899. Students went on expeditions to the woods, gradually wandering further and further away. The students would eventually leave for weeks at a time, wandering into the mountains. The movement became part of their culture when more and more people joined in their wandering, expanding from students all the way to Hitler’s youth group.


This could be considered a potential catalyst for a movement put forward in the Theory of the Derive in 1956 by Situationist, Guy Debord. This act of wandering undertaken by the students developed into more than simple walking, it became an important movement ingrained in society, therefore it could be argued that there was room for this type of wandering to expand into the realm of performance art. The Derive was seen to be one of the first examples of walking in Performance art, and can also be found in the Situationist International, formed at a conference in Italy in 1957 by Debord. The Situationist International was a group of revolutionary European, Marxist, avant-garde, artists who aimed to break down the division between artists and consumers and to make art part of everyday life.


The Situationists Times Cover (De Jong, J. 1962)


The Derive means “to drift”, it is almost interchangeable with psycho-geography, which is the effect a location can have on your mood or behaviour. For example, an alleyway can make you feel isolated, while a forest can make you feel relaxed. This theory was created after Debord took influence from fellow Situationist, Jacqueline De Jong, and responded to their work by producing the Situationist Times, an experimental journal which visualised and verbalised the Derive.





Though psycho-geography and Derives are often interchangeable, at their core they are different. Debord defined Derives as follows: “a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances. Derives involve playful-constructive behaviour and awareness of psycho-geographical effects and are thus quite different from the classic notions of journey or stroll”. Debord also mentions that Derives often take place in urban environments rather than rural because in 1923 he responded to aimless wandering undertaken by four surrealists and said: “Wandering in open country is naturally depressing, and the interventions of chance are poorer than anywhere else”.


Debord states that you must be aware of psycho-geography in order to Derive, but there is more to it than just this. Psycho-geography is the effect that geographic locations have on individuals and affect their emotions and behaviour. Unlike Derives, psycho-geography does not necessarily have an endpoint. Psycho-geography tends to be more research-based, specifically into urban environments and their effect. These can be more analytical viewpoints rather than impulsively drifting through environments during a Derive. Therefore, Derives and psycho-geography are different, yet they are inherently linked. You must be aware of psycho-geography during a Derive and Derives help us study psycho-geography.


The Derive became a basic practice for the Situationists, focusing on the transitions of ambience, environments, and emotions. They emphasise the use of playful behaviour and by doing so, discourage serious and focused reasoning to explain the Derive. It is different to mindless wandering, as you are fully present and focused at that moment, purely in tune with your emotions projecting you through your surroundings, letting your feelings take you from one location to the next. Multiple people can experience a single Derive, and it is this way that The Situationists performed. Their conflicting emotions and experiences throughout their Derive created knowledgeable discussions and exploration into their theory.


 

There is little documentation of Derives from the original period, but in 1957, the same year he attended the founding meeting of the Situationist International, English artist Ralph Rumney, created ‘The Leaning Tower of Venice’ where he decided to document the Derives of Venice through 128 photographs. However, the artwork is not the photographs, but the moments frozen in time.

'The Leaning Tower of Venice' (Rumney R. 1957)

This was a performance piece, and the photographs simply provide an individual, unique response to the locations depicted. This provides a new layer to the psycho-geography of the landscapes. Wandering allows the subject to retain their own agency, and implement playful behaviour, whereas to Journey or Follow, requires more structure and a less frivolous attitude. However, Journeying has some sort of guarantee as to where you may end up at the end, whereas Wandering and Following is much more uncertain. Overall, it cannot be denied that each form of performative walking is intrinsically linked.

 


'London Orbital' cover (Sinclair, I. 2002)

Writer and filmmaker Iain Sinclair is also interested in the Derive and psycho-geography. He has written a variety of books based on London, such as London Orbital in 2002. This book focuses on Sinclair walking a route around the M25 and looking at London and the fringes of the city in a new light through these Derives.


In September 1998, Sinclair set out from Waltham Abbey and began a series of anti-clockwise walks around the outside of the M25. Before the end of the millennium, Sinclair had completed his 117-mile circuit, and with the help of his artist friend Renchi Bicknell, he had filled his book with photographs, illustrations, and notes on his time walking the outskirts of the M25.


Throughout London Orbital it is clear that Sinclair holds a deep appreciation for the arts, rebels, visionaries, and resents industrial establishments and developers.


He revels in layers of meaning, be it historical, literary, or geographical, and has strongly related himself to the concept of a Derive. He has also aligned himself this way in a documentary series of the same name as his book, and a French novel translated to ‘London 2012 and other Derives’, which focuses on a collection of texts and records of Derives which occurred leading up to the 2012 Olympics, and the spectators which create the landscapes of London.



'Psycho-geography' Cover (Self, W. 2007)

Another important figure in explaining psycho-geography is an English author and journalist, Will Self.


Self has written many articles and books surrounding the topic of psycho-geography, usually based around London, and he has frequently referenced Iain Sinclair.


Will Self heavily aligns himself with Psycho-geography. He released a book of the same name, filled with his own thoughts on the benefits of walking. In many of his articles, he has suggested that wandering is the only way in which you can truly know a place. Most of his works focus on London, including a piece posted on his own website titled ‘Walking out of London’. In this work, he credits Sinclair when he states that he undertook a series of “radial walks” around the city, claiming that he would walk in whichever direction most appealed to him at the time.


During an interview with Geoff Nicholson, Self discusses the influences of Iain Sinclair, and the way that walking should be about oneself within the world. He states that his walks are more entwined with psycho-geography than a Derive, and that he relates with a quote from fellow walking writer Sebastian Snow, “mentally munching nothingness”.


Self consistently promotes walking as a way to connect a city, both physically and psychically. By wandering you can become absorbed in the fabric of your surroundings, and in this sense, you are also going on a journey. Both Sinclair and Self often begin and end where they started, definitely signifying a journey, but they do this by first wandering because as they both always emphasise, wandering is the only true way to discover a place.



As we mentioned earlier, while Psycho-geography is not specifically a Derive, it still is useful when discussing them as an art form and as performance art. The research of Psycho-geography by Will Self and Iain Sinclair explores the notion of walking and wandering. With their new information, they provide a new perspective and they contribute to discussions surrounding performance art through a Derive.


 

The second of our three types of performative walking is Following, and for this, we will study Vito Acconci’s ‘Following Piece’, Sophie Calle’s ‘Venetian Suite’ and ‘The Shadow’ and also Sergio Rojas Chaves’ ‘Plant Personification’.


Vito Acconci was an American contemporary artist, who is widely thought to be a founder of the Performance Art movement. In 1969, Acconci was sponsored by the Architectural League of New York to conduct an artwork that would take place every day between 3rd-25th October. During those three weeks, Acconci followed random New Yorkers every day for as long as he could until they entered a private residence. His performances could sometimes last for hours, for example, if the subject went to a restaurant or a movie. Or they could only last a few minutes if the subject got into a car and Acconci could not immediately hail a taxi.


'Following Piece' (Acconci, 1969)

‘Following Piece’ explores real issues surrounding space, time, and the human body. Acconci gave up his right to his own body during these performances, as he trusted someone else to dictate his actions. He gave up his own personal space and time to commit to someone else’s day, therefore contributing to a larger system of life beyond himself.

It is clear that Acconci was studying complex social structures and codes that the public abides by for no written reason, and the human body’s relationship to their surroundings and environment. This is similar to the Situationists, but in a more possessive, unsettling way, as he studied the language of bodies and the way they interact with the world, but without permission.


This form of following a stranger was somewhat aggressive, and completely opposes the preconceived notion that walking art is peaceful and reflective. Instead, Acconci stalked random strangers in order to study them. This form of walking art is disturbing and unapologetic, yet also constrained because Acconci gave up all agency in order to conduct the work. Even though he never engaged with his subjects, he was putting himself in danger by not knowing the outcome of his pieces.


Acconci’s performances took on another artistic medium when the documentation of the work became an artwork in itself. Photographs of his performances became felt-tip pen silver gelatine prints, and the map of his routes is now just as valuable. However, just like with Ralph Rumney and Sophie Calle, Walking as Performance Art poses a danger of having the documentation become the artwork, rather than the performance itself. However, in both cases, the act of walking was the artwork, and the impact it made at that moment made it performance art. Acconci’s work finds itself relating to Wandering, as he would never know where he would end up each day. He forced himself to immerse into each moment and put one-sided trust into his subject.


 

We could not argue the case that walking is performance art without Sophie Calle, a French installation and conceptual artist, writer, and photographer. Her notable works include ‘Venetian Suite’ and ‘The Shadow’.


In 1979 Calle performed “Suite Vénitienne”, translated to ‘Venetian Suite’. Calle began following strangers around Paris in order to reacquaint herself with her native city after some time abroad. One day she followed a man whom she lost sight of in a crowd after a few minutes. As if by chance that very evening this man was introduced to her at an art opening.

'Suite Vénitienne' (Calle, S. 1979)

During their conversation, the man simply referred to as Henri B., revealed to Calle that he was planning a trip to Venice, so she decided to follow him.


Calle then proceeded to track Henri B. over the course of his thirteen-day stay in Venice. She stalked him around the city while enlisting the help of friends and acquaintances she made in the city. Eventually, Henri B. recognised Calle, and they shared a silent walk together. Even after this encounter, Calle continued to follow Henri B. from a distance until he returned to Paris.


‘Venetian Suite’ was initially produced as a book of black and white photos in 1983. The photos capture the dread of being caught, the boredom and banality of waiting, and obsession. The shots often show Henri B. with his back turned to the camera, some of them partially obscured by a window or doorway, only adding to the creepy feeling of being observed. The brilliance of the images is that the focal point is not Henri B., but the sense of being followed. There is an absence of physical threat, and yet the images are filled with a consistent sense of persistence, a shadow, a stalker.


Calle does not appear in most of her photos, this is a stark contrast to Vito Acconci who made a point to appear in his images. Acconci’s work strongly shows himself stalking his subjects, whereas Calle’s images bring more of a subtle nuance to following as performance art. Calle followed her subject for the pleasure of following, not because he particularly interested her. She followed her muses mostly without them knowing it.


Sophie Calle has managed to turn the act of Following into performance art as she discloses hidden relationships between herself and her participant. In ‘Venetian Suite’, she follows an unknowing participant much like Acconci does, but we go on the journey with her, to follow Henri B. Whereas In Acconci’s ‘Following Piece’, we are following both Acconci and the subject.


Once again the documentation of the work is not the art, but the act of walking itself. While her practice strongly relates to the performative act of Following, she also takes a Journey. She does this by literally journeying to another country to follow an obsession, and in doing so she discovers intimate details about a man she had multiple pre-destined encounters with. Regarding Sophie Calle, it is impossible not to believe that she has made walking into performance art.


 

Another artist who has used the act of Following as part of his performance work is Sergio Rojas Chaves, a Costa Rican artist who created ‘Plant Personification’ in 2018.

'Plant Personification' (Chaves, 2018)

This immersive performance required the audience to travel blindfolded by masks that resembled house plants, and they were guided through a forest by the person in front of them. They relied on their other senses to also guide them, thereby intending the person to focus on their relation to houseplants, and the wild plants around them, as if for the very first time.



This relates closely to the act of Following as there was a heavy reliance on following the person in front of them to maintain a close line. In this way, there was a more communal relationship between the participants, rather than the unsettling feelings given off by Acconci. This also relates closely to the act of Wandering, as it required the audience to focus on themselves at that moment and connect to nature on a deeper level. They were instructed to focus on their sensations in that very moment, rather than the end location.


Each member of the audience was controlled by the person in front of them, until the beginning of the line where Chaves took the lead, un-blindfolded. In this form of Following, the subjects follow the artist, rather than the other way around found in Acconci and Calle’s work. Since the audience did not know where they were going, this suggests strong connections to the theme of Wandering. Each audience member relied on Chaves to guide them, and he, in turn, relied on Situationist inspired psycho-geographical prompts to proceed through the forest.


Both Acconci, Calle, and Chaves rely heavily on audience participation, knowing or not, in order to complete their work. All three artists reveal deeply personal connections in wildly different ways, using unexpected mediums to transcend the boundaries of art. This thoroughly aligns ‘Following Piece’, ‘Venetian Suite’, ‘The Shadow’, and ‘Plant Participation’ with performance art.


 

Our third and final performative walking technique is a Journey, and to thoroughly analyse this we will be using Francis Alÿs’ ‘The Green Line’, and Richard Long’s ‘A Line Made by Walking’. Alÿs is a Belgium visual conceptual artist based in Mexico and is widely believed to be a hugely influential figure in performative walking. He addresses political and social realities through conflict, community, and national borders. Alÿs’ work is often referenced as poetic; however, this is when his work does not emanate a political aura. However, sometimes these themes crossover, as they do in The Green Line. Working through visuals such as video, photography, writing, and painting, he regularly utilises concepts of physical borders to comment on a community.


In 1995, Alÿs walked with a dripping bucket of blue paint across the city of São Paulo and titled it ‘The Leak’. This was then “read as a poetic gesture of sorts”. Alÿs returned in 2004 to re-stage this performance, proceeding to trace a line through the city of Jerusalem. This was his artistic re-iteration of the demarcation line that was drawn by Israel and its neighbours during armistice talks in 1949, following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. This demarcation line existed as a green ink line drawn on a map and served as de-facto borders for the State of Israel from 1949 until the Six-Day War in 1967.


'The Green Line', 2004. (Tate, n.d.)

Alÿs used 58 litres of green paint to produce a physical version of this 24-kilometre line. This piece heavily conforms to the idea of journeying, which in hand further perpetuates a sort of map or route to navigate, to journey as he did before in 1995. A filmed documentation of the 2004 action was presented to an audience upon Alÿs’ invitation, to collect their spontaneous reactions of the circumstances in which it was performed. He marked his work ‘The Green Line’ 2004, along with the following quote: “Sometimes doing something poetic can become political, and sometimes doing something political can become poetic.”


Image Stills Of Francis Alÿs ' Paradox Of Praxis (1997)

Alÿs sacrificed his agency, restricting himself to walk this specific 15-mile stretch, a hike of political Derive which took him down streets, yards, and parks. In the documentary film, he drew little to no notice, and people continued their daily lives. By tracing a path through the streets, Alÿs not only visualises his own personal journey but in fact articulates how people move within urban space. Through the psycho-geographic practice of mapping by walking, he reveals a deeper poetic connotation to a way of understanding identity through his line on the land.


Alÿs’s work resonates highly with Journeying as his performance style because there is a clear beginning and an end. Yet he gave up agency over his own work and was dictated by politics set out decades prior to his performance. The journey he took was defined by life completely different from his own and revealed a deep historical context in a subtle yet effective way.


 

Our final artist today, also relating to the act of a Journey, is Richard Long. An English sculptor, conceptual and performance artist, Long worked to highlight a new way of walking, and therefore make walking an art form.


In 1967, pausing between hitchhiking from St Martin and Bristol, Long stopped in a seemingly irrelevant field in Wiltshire. He began to walk backward and forwards in a line through the grass until it wore a visible track through the ground. When the sun caught the grass in such a way that the line was most visible, Long photographed this work and called it ‘A Line Made by Walking’.


'A Line made by walking' (Long, 1967).

This straightforward and precise walk was photographed to highlight mobility, lightness, and freedom, as well as the human body’s measurement of time and distance. The performance demonstrates lifelong concerns such as impermanence, motion, and relativity. The materials are raw and show the benefits of walking as art because it takes little in terms of material, but a lot in terms of intention and value. The works are often described as “mystical kinship in the landscape”.


The Journey itself is undeniably the most interesting part of this work, as Long has created an irrelevant journey, a path to nowhere. Yet he has highlighted the importance of human intervention, without a human figure ever being present in the photographs. Therefore, it is clear that Long’s activity is the focal part of the artwork, he created a Journey in the middle of an irrelevant field, and he could not have done so without first Wandering to find the site of his performance. This work could also be linked to the act of Following, as Long is technically Following himself repeatedly as he tramples through the grass.


 

The performative act of Wandering is deeply connected to the acts of a Journey and Following. Wandering is a precursor for performative walking, it is the original. Considering Wandering to be the first act of walking as performance art allowed us to consider different ways of walking and performing, thereby leading on to Journey and Following. While Wandering is passive, to Journey or to Follow have clear specific intentions. You cannot Journey without first Wandering, and you cannot Follow, without the Journey.

Alana: Each category of performative walking offers its own creative challenges and freedoms. All of them are intrinsically linked to one another, and occasionally the lines between each category are blurred. Wandering offers the chance to connect to that which cannot be seen but must be felt and is often spontaneous and without any clear-cut reason. Following is often possessive, whether that be over the audience, the subject, or the artist themselves. Journeying is more fluid to define, as it could be argued that walking from point A to point B is a Journey on its own. However, it should be stated that to conduct a Journey, there is a clear-cut beginning and end, and a specific way to navigate that route.


To conclude, Walking is a Performative Art Form because it combines the notions of participation, social commentary, and a captivating medium. The artists we have presented to you today highlight the expansive and inclusive approach to walking and its impact on the art world. By using walking as their stimulus, each artist has commented on vastly different issues and brought them to light in an effective way.


With Journeying you have a clear beginning and end, with Wandering you may have a general idea of where to start but the end point can be unclear. Following, however, you are following someone else’s journey or wandering. You give up your own agency in order to learn about someone else, all the while it is unclear where you may end up. Each performative category can transform a performance in very different ways, and our artists have used them to their advantage as they shine a light on walking and turn it from a menial everyday activity and bring it to the forefront of our attention.



 

Image References:


 


Full Bibliography:

 


Comments

© Bethany Tompkins 2023

bottom of page