My work explores discipline- perseverance amid challenge, and the psychology of choice, with a focus on painting and durational/endurance performance. Increasingly, the viewer is required to perform an action to complete the work. For example, Stand Back, I’m Busy [All These Options Series- No.1] and Go Ahead, Take It/ Bait and Switch read as abstract paintings, however if the audience chooses to view the pieces through their phones camera the optical mixing is completed- and the image is exposed. In Fighting the Current (Two Day Performance), the audience could choose their level of participation by pulling ropes connected to my limbs while I painted.

Their involved directly impacted the outcome of this piece. These Endurance performances, are broken into 16-hour work cycles, allowing 8 hours for sleep, creating a full 24-hour day. The One Day Performance series are solitary performances that challenge the body’s physical and emotional ability to endure the day. In the collaborative series Work Week Performance, control is in the hands of your work partner(s).

The added challenge of working with others is heightened by undertaking the development of non-verbal communication. In these collaborations artists perform silently together 16 hours a day for five consecutive days, adhering to set rules, and choosing tools for each other. These performances are an exploration in trust, expectations, and loss of control.
Amanda Grae Platner
Apr 11, 2020