Palace of the Legion of Honor, 100 34th Avenue

T.R. Uthco (Diane Hall, Doug Hall, Jody Proctor), Great Moments (4th-5th January 1975)

Description

Great Moments by T.R. Uthco […] is their ironic, parodic, at times almost slapstick “revue” of performance art in general, the trademarked moves and strategies of its better-known practitioners in particular.

Nearly every major performance artist from Acconci to Wegman receives a tasty conceptual pie in his or her face before the last Great Moment has passed: not even the Perfect Master Himself, Marcel Duchamp, escapes an occasional punning dart. Obviously the work is primarily designed for an audience of art magazine readers. Much of the humor is generated by the speculation about Who’s Going To Get It Next, followed by a little shock of admittedly malicious pleasure when the next target is identified and properly skewered. (Kent 1975: 16) 

Consisting of twelve short episodes, the performance took place on a traditional stage. One reviewer describes it as “wedged somewhere between conceptual art and vaudeville.” The performance utilized live action, often in combination with pre-recorded audio, projected slides and film. (Hall 2013c)