From Canvas to Performance on/off Screen

Image:  performance by Stelarc at The Blue Rider - Centenary Symposium, Tate Modern,

26, November, 2011

(c)Text and video clip by Lila Moore, PhD

Stelarc's performance at The Blue Rider - Centenary Symposium, Tate Modern, 26 November 2011, reflects the transition from canvas to screen and from live to virtual performance. It shows a dynamic and interactive fusion of art forms, and the evolutionary changes involved in the way they are perceived by the viewers. Images issuing from the paintings of Kandinsky and the Blue Rider transform into digital screen environments. 

The performer exhibits an ambivalent presence both on/off stage as his avatar performs on screen beyond his physical body but inside his mental space. There is also a transfer of early 20^th century spiritual and aesthetic ideas onto a 21^st century platform, which opens a relatively new field of creative and philosophical exploration.

This work corresponds with the central outlook of my thesis and ongoing research in Dance on Screen by emphasizing the evolution and fusion of art forms throughout modern and postmodern culture and the current emergence of new hybrid art forms.