Thru the ages, Art has evolved from crude cave paintings to the majestic renaissance achievement of the Sixtine Chapel, then from the blurrish canvas of the Impressionist to the jumbled perspectives of Cubist painting, and even further, from the post-modernist adventures of Andy Warhol to the nether regions of Installation and Computer Art. The need to express ideas, feelings and sensations has expanded to every nook of Life, Society and Culture. Now, two men engaging in live sex has been labeled Art, and the meaning of the word has perhaps revealed a new philosophy: Living is Art. I've always suspected that was the real deal of Art; its broader meaning.

     In college, I researched and wrote a paper about Chris Burden, a performance artist who for one of his pieces had someone shoot him in the arm. He staged several pieces in which his life was put in danger. One involved him laying down with live electric cables lying very close nearby in buckets of water which could have dangerously spilled at a dreadful moment's notice. What attracted me to write about him was the seemingly irrational nature of his art--Why would anyone stage suicide scenarios and call it Art? Of all the befuddling forms of Art which spawned in the 20th century, why would a man perform transgressive actions and call it Artful? Having someone shoot you and performing sex on someone aren't most people's definition of Art. These are things which happen; they're part of Life as unsettling as they may be.

     Let's take Tom Green, MTV's deranged comedian, who ambushes, irritates and pushed people's buttons in the name of entertainment. Many think that Green is far from an entertainer but a public nuisance. I happen to think he's genius. Green is capable of pulling the most outlandish, perplexing pranks: Once for example he performed at a comedy club as an amateur act and proceeded to annoy the audience for minutes on end performing unintelligible gibberish and spastic behavior. The audience didn't think Green was funny at all. He was escorted out and the club's host apologized for the entire affair. I was tickled giddy like a hyena on laughing gas--the sincere, irritated look on the audience members' faces was priceless. Green as a comedian is really doing performance art like Chris Burden did and like the young man at the art school--they all incite feelings and reactions from their audiences.

     At this point, the question of Art, performance Art and Life as Art becomes a fascinating issue which leads to many conclusions--one of which I think is that the entirety of living is a piece of performance Art, from birth, thru childhood, school, marriage, sex and death. In each stage of life we're performers whether we're aware of it or not. Perhaps by being aware of this "Performance" analogy to Life, we can all learn how miraculous the entire phenomena of existence is.