Performance, Protest, Preservation: The Legacy of High Performance Magazine

Though widely acknowledged by artists and scholars, High Performance magazine remains underexamined in American art history. As one of very few international journals dedicated to performance art, it was a crucial platform for experimental practices, artist-authored documentation, and global visibility—especially for feminist, queer, Indigenous, and working-class artists. From the late 1970s to the 1990s, the magazine documented performances addressing gender violence, the AIDS crisis, immigration, and Indigenous sovereignty, while launching careers of artists like Suzanne Lacy, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Coco Fusco, and James Luna.

This convening marks the first large-scale scholarly gathering focused on the magazine’s role in shaping the growth, documentation, and discourse on performance art from the second half of the 20th century. Consisting of panel discussions with artists, arts administrators, scholars and emerging professionals, as well as live performance events, this program examines performance as protest, magazine culture, and how to sustain radical performance practices. Archival footage from the GRI’s collections will be available for viewing throughout the day, featuring highlights from the High Performance magazine records.

This convening is part of High Performance: A 2-Year Conference, a multi-institutional initiative dedicated to High Performance, featuring collaborations between the Getty Research Institute, 18th Street Arts Center, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Highways Performance Space and Gallery, and the Performance Art Museum (PAM).

Support for this event provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

The recording will be available on the Getty Research Institute YouTube channel following the event.

Program Schedule

9:30am: Breakfast reception

10am: Welcome remarks with Glenn Philips and Samuel Vasquez

10:10am: Richard Newton, "How I took off for the moon and ended up naked on a gallery floor"

10:15am: Catherine Taft, "The Highland Art Agents: From Public Spirit to Double Issue"

10:20am: Session I: Sustaining Radical Performance Practices

Moderated by Erica Wall with Robyn Farrell, Amelia Jones, and Limor Tomer

This conversation among leading curators will explore the systems that support or hinder radical performance art—from funding and institutional barriers to collective infrastructure and emergent models of sustainability.

11:20am: Break

11:35am: Liz Hirschand, "Paper Circuits: Jerry Dreva and the Early Life of High Performance"

11:40am: Branislav Jakovljevic, "HP on LP: Performance Art at 33 1/3 RPM"

11:45am: Vanessa Damilola Macaulay, "Choreographing Visibility: Urban Bush Women and the Documentation of Black Feminist Performance"

11:50am: Session II: Magazine Culture in Los Angeles – From High Performance to Now

Moderated by Jenni Sorkin with Gwen L. Allen, Stacey Allan, and Hakim Bashara

This panel traces the editorial legacies of High Performance, examining how magazine culture shaped the visibility of performance art and how contemporary artists and editors continue to innovate within both digital and print platforms.

1pm: Lunch break

2pm: Performance: Susan Silton with Eric Castro and Breanna Sinclairé, She Had a Laugh Like a Beefsteak

A multilayered performative lecture about voice that Silton has been presenting in evolving iterations since 2005. The work draws from diverse artistic, theoretical, and anatomical sources not simply to contextualize the artist’s interdisciplinary practice but as a structure for a piece unto itself. The title of the work refers to a 1935 description of Gertrude Stein’s laugh by biographer M.D. Luhan.

3:15pm: Break

3:40pm: Ana Briz, "Framing Life in Public with Bonnie Ora Sherk"

3:45pm: Franziska Rauh, "'Crossbred Mules': Feminist Artistic Publishing across High Performance Magazine and Close Radio"

3:50pm: Nancy Popp, "Under the Asphalt: Political Performance in the Streets"

3:55pm: Session III: Performance as Protest

Moderated by Sarah Russin, with Kathe Kollwitz of Guerrilla Girls, John Malpede, Patrisse Cullors, and Demian DinéYazhii.

This conversation features intergenerational artists whose work centers protest, social critique, and community engagement. The session underscores performance’s power as a tool for transformation and activism, linking the historic urgency of High Performance to the present.

5pm: Closing Remarks with Anuradha Vikram and Leon Hilton

5:15pm: Closing reception at Trellis Bar

6:30pm: Performance: Linda Mary Montano with Tehching Hsieh

Beginning with their iconic performance "Rope Piece" (Art/Life: One Year Performance, 1983–1984), where the artists were tied together continuously for one complete year with an 8-foot rope, Montano and Hsieh will reanimate the performance and discuss the role performance has played in their lives together and apart, featuring an introduction with an AI video interpretation of a High Performance interview with Allyson and Alex Grey (Issue #27), by Tobe Carey.

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