Most of the contributors to this issue of Art Papers think that performance art can only be defined anecdotally; by examining the work of particular artists (as Arlene Raven does in her examination of the work of Elizabeth Streb) or, like Celeste Miller, by listing the artists who are doing performance work. Performance art and its relationship to theater, rituals, and the liminality is questioned in this issue. In A Framework for Being: Field Notes on the Art of Performance, Ronald Ehmke differentiates theater from performance by its interest in Being rather than Acting. Perhaps only the artists working in the realm can offer their own experience, as do Charles Dennis and Mark Russell of P.S. 122 and the artists contributing to our Nashville forum. Possibly reviews like those in this issue of Celeste Miller and Zaron Buffet, Chris Burnside, the Alternate ROOTS Festival, the New Performance Festival, and Visual Art theater are the only ways to bracket the medium.
