I am sure many of you have already heard of what will be going on at Sego in March: a special project that local artist Chris Purdie has been cooking up for about a year now. Chris has created a website Chrispurdie.com where you can track his progress and see hints of what might be on March 6.  I will try to get him to post on this blog as well.  If the project at all seems narcissistic, solipsitic, and entirely self centered- your’e on the right track.  Chris is the last person I would describe with these personality traits- and thus the project suddenly becomes a critique of the contemporary artist herself- mimicing a number of obvious art world personas that need not be named.

I am most excited for this project as it is one of the few true performance art events that has recently been had in the state of Utah (Dance Theatre Coalition and its Proving Ground performance art series has helped performance significantly in the beehive state). Chris is publishing a full color catalogue with essays by performance rock scholar Wade Hollingshaus, and others yet to be announced. The project recieved major funding from the Laycock Center for Creative Collaboration at BYU, a foundation that this author has benefited from with past project funding also.

This performative collaboration has indeed become an excercise in relational aesthetics: the artist and the project collaborators have all experienced something greater than individual artistic achievement- and the goal is to include viewers as participants in this dialogue.  So start getting excited for this project if you haven’t already.  And make sure you are there on March 6th.  I promise you’ll have a good time.