<p>The medium of performance art locates both the art-making subject and the art object in the body of the artist. Performance art thus serves as an appropriate medium for integrating the complex, repetitive, and often unconscious somatic knowledges developed by two distinct experiences: the practice of religious ritual and the overwhelming conditions of trauma. In this dissertation, I explore the foundational idea that the artist's body can become a site of both theological significance and traumatic memory. I examine the connections among the forms of performance art, bodily worship practices, and traumatic experience in the work of three contemporary U.S. performance artists with devout religious backgrounds. Born between the1940s and the 1960s, Linda Montano, John Duncan, and Ron Athey have all consistently positioned their work in religious contexts. This trans-generational set of artists represents a spectrum of Christian traditions in the United States: Athey's improvisational Pentecostalism, the liturgical tradition of Montano's Catholicism, and mainstream Protestantism in the form of Duncan's Calvinist Presbyterianism. At the same time, all three artists struggle with the persistent affect of traumatic experience, from domestic violence to sexual assault. These artists' works represent their traumatic experiences as mediated through the bodily, visual, intellectual, and aural forms of their respective Christian traditions. My dissertation identifies religion as a neglected foundation of performance art and as a fundamental motivating factor and force in shaping its forms, content, and significance.</p> / Dissertation

Looking at John Duncan's 1980 art performance, BLIND DATE, and its morally controversial content, I propose to investigate the nature of art's relationship to morality. My research consists of determining whether "immorality" represents an obstacle to the ontological identity of art and to artistic value. To question the authority of ethical criticism in art, I review a contemporary philosophical debate, which opposes two main schools, one in support of the validity of ethical criticism in art and the other against it. Following up on the second position, I elaborate a definition of art and a system of evaluation that aims to determine artistic value, both of which allow space for the potential artistic legitimacy of immoral art.

Thesis (MVisualArts)--University of South Australia, 2001.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2001. / Includes bibliographic references.

Thesis (PhD--Anthropology)--University of Washington, 2008. / Title from PDF cover page (viewed on 4 February 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 220-236).

Honors Project--Smith College, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 61).

Thesis (M.M.)--University of North Texas, 2008. / For live and fixed electronics, mixed ensemble, dancers and painters. Four or more musicians, preferably play flutes, saxophones, clarinets, recorders and/or Kamëntsállnga wind instruments; musicians also perform various percussion instruments. System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Includes bibliographical references (p. 36-38).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2007. / A thesis submitted to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, School of Communication Arts in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of English, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF document.

Thèse (M.A.)--Université Laval, 1997. / Bibliogr.: f. 59-61. Publié aussi en version électronique.