Lyotard and the 'figural' in Performance, Art and Writing

This original study offers a timely reconsiderationof the work of French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard in relation to art,performance and writing.

How can we write about art, whilstacknowledging the transformation that inevitably accompanies translations of both media and temporality?That is the question that persistently dogs Lyotard's own writings on art, andto which this book responds through reference to artists from therecently-formed canon of performance art history, including the myths ofseminal figures Marina Abramovicand Vito Acconci, and the controlled documentation of Gina Pane's actions. Through the unstable, untranslatable element that Lyotard calls the figural, his thought is brought to bearon attempts to write a history of performance art and to question the paradoxicallyprescriptive demand for rules to govern 're-performance'. Kiff Bamford contextualises Lyotard's writings andapproach with reference to both his contemporaries, including Deleuze andKristeva, and the contemporary art about which they wrote, whilst arguing forthe pertinence of Lyotard's provocations today.