Ever since Duchamp produced his readymades, the definition of sculpture has loosened and mutated, like an object plunged into an acid bath and slowly eroding. In England, Gilbert and George presented performances of themselves as living sculpture, while in the United States, strange cross – overs between installation and happening- between non-text-based theatrical troupes like La Mama and people who called themselves performance artists-continued to flourish with, according to your viewpoint, all the strength of evolutionary mutation or all the irritation of rampant weeds taking over the cornfields of traditional art. The crucial crossover area is the overlap between installation and performance art, both of which were initially intended to buck the system (undermining capitalism), but were, ironically, absorbed by that very system. Museums not only buy installations, they also buy performances, as is the case with some of David Sherry’s works…see the entire article in the print version of June’s Sculpture magazine.
