BEING WORK is a collection of essays by dance and theater artists that offer access to varied experiences of performing in live exhibitions. The authors capture a spectrum of mundane and profound moments that arise within performance gig work in visual arts contexts such as museums, galleries and art fairs, detailing the day-to-day practice of inhabiting art work as well as reflecting on broader questions of how they got there and the impact it has had on their outside lives. While providing very personal, human perspectives on what it feels like to perform in visual arts spaces, BEING WORK asks its audience how a performer's labor is perceived and valued in these spaces, and what new possibilities might unfurl within the, at times fraught, coexistence of the two mediums.
Contributors include: Mireya Lucio writing on being the work of Marina Abramovic, Casey Brown being the work of Maria Hassabi, Jessica Emmanuel being the work of Xu Zhen, Kestrel Leah being the work of Julien Previeux, Allie Hankins being the work of Gordon Hall, effie bowen being the work of Narcissister, Dorothy Dubrule being the work of Tino Sehgal and Paul Hamilton being the work of Bruce Nauman. Illustrations by Eileen Echikson accompany each essay to draw out the many thoughts, interactions, sensations and associations that encompass the experiences described.