Performance Art and Revolution

Stuart Brisley is a pioneering English multi-media artist who developed performance as a form of social action in the 1960s and 1970s. This book assesses his seminal influence on British art through a focus on his lifelong engagement with the histories and imaginaries of revolution.

Linking key aspects of revolutionary history with material gathered from a critical dialogue established between the author and Brisley over many years, the book views revolution as a rupture in time. It uses the 'trope' of the French Revolution to investigate Brisley's engagement with the idea of revolution as an ongoing and potentially permanent process. Brisley's work thus becomes a fascinating stage for addressing the relations between art, politics and historical discourse today.

Performance art and revolution demonstrates how we can continue to value political art even when the idea of revolution has supposedly died or is no longer deemed possible. It also provides a new historical model for situating the 'afterlives' of performance art, demonstrating how they can be used to reveal latent aspects of the past, including the historical experience of revolution.