In Tom Finkelpearl’s introduction to What We Made and the history of social art, one aspect that stuck with me was the history of performance collectives, especially in the 60s. Groups like the San Francisco Mime Troupe, the Yippies, the Living Theatre, and Bread and Puppet made politically and socially charged performance in groups. Perhaps this is my nostalgia, but I couldn’t help but feel that radical performance art collectives aren’t as prevalent today. We have groups making devised theater and emphasizing collective creation, but often those works happen within the hallowed institutions of nonprofits and designated performance spaces.
Some of the group performance art today works with a core group that then recruits outside members to take part. The Yes Men, for example, are a duo that recruits volunteers to join them in politically charged performance, posing as supporters of unscrupulous politicians and corporations and holding signs with slogans like “Billionaires for Bush.” Belarus Free Theatre, combatting Belarus’s attempt to create a nuclear energy program that does not comply with international safety standards, walked with a red ribbon throughout London. While performance art collectives in the 60s also encouraged audience participation, I’m wondering if performance art groups today need fewer members because they can recruit the flexible labor of outside supporters to join in flash mobs. In the gig economy, it might be easier to recruit participants for each project than to have a large collective making work.