“Although performance art could be said to include relatively mainstream activities such as theater, dance, music, and circus-related things like fire breathing, juggling, and gymnastics, these are normally instead known as the performing arts. Performance art is a term usually reserved to refer to a kind of usually avant-garde or conceptual art which grew out of the visual arts.”

That being said, I can’t stand a lot of artists for the same reason, visual, performance, performing, or otherwise. The “I’m pushing boundaries. I demand respect. I can talk bullshit about the ‘meaning’ and ‘impact’ of this piece for hours when it’s clear I just thought it looked neat.” is what gets on my nerves. It just seems to be VERY highly concentrated in the performance art scene (every single performance artist i’ve ever met). And you can see this while they’re doing it, it makes me cringe. But hey, I’m just one very jaded girl. Take it as you will.

I say put that act together and take your show on the road, woohoo! Go Art!

The term itself is a flabby ubrella that encompasses a ton of stuff. Like all expressions, much of it surely sucks, but much of it totally rocks, too. Consider the rebirth of burlesque theater; you can certainly file that under performance art, and while even within that genre some of it definitely goes lacking, an awful lot of it is a showcase for brilliance. I’d argue that Nelson’s work is pretty original, interactive, arresting (literally), and immediate, which is the crux of good performance art.

It may not make ya think, but in Nelson’s case, it might leave you with a zippy new ‘do.