Photo by Martin von Haselberg 
Photo by Martin von Haselberg 
Photo by Chris Bishop 
Photo Chris Bishop 
Photo by Chris Bishop | Bernsteins (1971-1973) |
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Bernsteins used complex instructions to create randomised algorithms. These sometimes included audience suggestions, re-interpreted polaroid photographs taken during the show, blindfolds and crutches to create further randomity in already slippery systems. These labyrinthine instructions extended to land drawings such as one at Essex University based on the constellation of the stars and later set alight. Performances were made at Reading Museum and Art Gallery and several universities. We also embarked on 24 Random paintings, each the same size, 4’ x 4’, with titles such as Twisted Girders or Cowboy throwing the Lariat or with instructions on how to make the painting. "The Bernsteins was a group of artists based in and named after a disused East London chemists shop. They were Anne Bean, Peter Davey, Malcolm Jones, Jonathan Harvey, Chris Miller, Brian Routh and Martin von Haselberg. Their performances start from simple premises which are then extended by improvisation and audience participation, both willing and unwilling and sometimes unknowing. Death to Grumpy Grandads was first performed in 1972 and involves the performers laughing for one hour, timed by an alarm clock. Whitechapel Art Gallery, A Short History of Performance (2002) "For the first season in the series (of A Short History of Performance), we invited 7 artists to re-enact performances that they had first held in the 1960s and 70s. They were Bernsteins, Stuart Brisley, The Kipper Kids, Jannis Kounellis, Bruce McLean, Herman Nitsch and Carolee Schneemann. In our consideration of artists to include we sought to reflect a variety of approaches to performance that had characterised the period, from Schneemann’s Kinetic Theatre and Nitsch’s theatricalised ritual to the often absurdist collaborative practices of Bernsteins and the Kipper Kids. It was also important that better known performances such as Schneemann’s Meat Joy, from 1964 and Nitch’s Orgies-Mysteries Theatre should feature alongside lesser known works by Brisley and Bernsteins, works that had slipped from history books at times because, as was the case with Bernsteins, they privileged the imprecise incidence of memory and hearsay over hard documentary fact." Andrea Tarsia, curator Whitechapel Art Gallery See also Taking measurements of yourselves as artists |
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