Tate Modern (UK) | Frances Morris, Director |
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Contre Georges Pompidou (Paris) | Bernard Blistene, Director |
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SFMOMA | Rudolf Frieling, Curator of Media Arts |
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MOMA | Stuart Comer, Chief Curator of Media and Performance Art |
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Whitney Museum of American Art | Donna De Salvo, Senior Curator |
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The Museum of Contemporary Art | Helen Molesworth, Chief Curator |
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Hammer Museum | Connie Butler, Chief Curator |
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Walker Art Center | Siri Engberg, Senior Curator |
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Contemporary Art Museum of Fine Arts | Jen Mergel, Senior Curator |
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"Juried Performance" is an ongoing inquiry into the symbols, processes, and systems associated with institutionalized power and the hegemonic elite. Revolving primarily around a collection of recorded parasuicidal rituals and protests that occurred in public spaces in front of an absentee jury, the project analogizes the “juried art competition” to today’s sociopolitical climate and inequitable class hierarchies, a callous model of capitalistic theater where ultimate success or failure is determined by the most privileged and powerful.
Juried Performance manifests as a video triptych and public intervention aimed at "inviting" key curatorial players to "jury" a performance series. 9 USB drives were loaded with a Quicktime video file of the documented performances and strategically sent to 9 well-known contemporary art institutions across the United States and Europe via postal service. As this project was technically uncommissioned, it "forces" institutional review and participation, moreover generating a discussion related to the submission of artist works, the jury process, and ultimate validation (or discreditation) based on acceptance or denial.
The aforementioned chart displays the initial 9 art institutions selected to host the exhibit, to specifically whom at the institutions the USBs were addressed (i.e., curator, director, etc.), and the date the packages were shipped and received.
The act of "selecting" these institutions and "jurors" strives to reverse and deconstruct the power dynamics and customary roles of maker and master. Are we only to submit to the all-powerful juror with the hope of one day being named master? Are there any gestures left that are just too powerful to ignore? Can we demand that a jury takes notice?
*JP artists do not condone violence or self-injurious behavior. Project is intended to raise awareness, inquiry, and discussion only.*