14 November 2003 - 25 January 2004

	Hayley Newman Lock-jaw Lecture Series 1998 © the artist  Photo: Casey Orr

Fact or Fiction?    Art historians who specialize in performance are reliant for their information on eyewitness accounts, or on the material evidence that remains once a live event has ended. The use of photography and film has provided many artists with the opportunity to blur the lines between fact and fiction. Fake documents provide ‘evidence’ of performances that never actually took place or are physically impossible. Some artists, however, make work that is so extreme that it is often hard to believe their work is factual/real.

Rudolf Schwarzkogler's self-castration or Yves Klein's life-threatening leap from a gatepost are both, in one way or another, fakes. The fictional aspects of some works are obvious, such as the fake blood in Martin Scorcese's student Film The Big Shave 1967, whereas in others, such as Hayley Newman's photographs, it is unclear whether they refer to (f)actual events or not. Artists such as Franko B and Ron Athey push their bodies to extreme limits, and it may be hard for the viewer to accept the fact that an artist would want to suffer such pain.

When it is difficult to determine if something has really happened its easy for rumours to spread - it is often said that Schwarzkogler died during one of his actions, although the truth is that he leapt to his death from a window. From this fact another fiction grew: that rather than suicide, his death was an homage to Klein's leap...

Hayley Newman Crying Glasses (An Aid to Melancholia) 1998 © the artist  Photo: Casey Orr