Connotations I and II

Connotations . . . is a series of 42 photo/text works documenting a series of fictional performances. In 2003, after exhibiting Connotations 1 at Tate Modern, I wrote that the work was both a celebration and analysis of the performance canon, revisiting performances by artists such as Adrian Piper and Dennis Oppenheim. In this, the photo/text works were palimpsests that added new layers of meaning to the original works (Live: Art and Performance; Tate Modern, ISBN1-85437-501-6).

The series engages with Judith Butler’s notion of performativity and the ‘speech act’; that through utterance or the act of reading, an activity is performed. The descriptive texts in this work are written in the past tense/first person and collude with the images to create fictions and myths that come into being when the work is viewed.

The works posit a practical answer to theoretical arguments made by Peggy Phelan (Unmarked: The Politics of Performance) that privilege the ‘live’ performance over its representation. Phelan argues that performance cannot be recorded or documented. The photos in Connotations . . . are staged and suggest that the life of a ‘live’ work is not only in the performance, but in the document (Camilla Jalving, Performative Realism, University of Copenhagen, 2005, ISBN:9788763500784).

Connotations 1 and 2 were shown in solo exhibitions at The Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2002) and Centre d’art Contemporain, Geneva (2003). Connotations 1 has been shown in its entirety in group shows at Tate Modern and Gertrude Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne. Selected works were shown at The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Saachi Gallery, London; Tate Liverpool and Künstmuseum, Lucerne (all 2002-5). Co-exhibitors included: Joseph Beuys, Dan Graham, Chris Burden and Marina Abramovic. It is represented in; Saachi, ACE and South London Gallery collections. For further information see: www.hayleynewman.com.