Art in Everyday Life

by Linda Montano

Clean, tight, unread. Light shelf wear and page tanning.

152 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1981

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Art in Everyday Life is sort of a manifesto on Montano's use of her own life to create performance. Everything from making house calls as a nurse to friends, to living in a desert with a friend for 10 days and documenting it, to giving tours of her home in the nude, are all part of this artist's repertoire. She forms simple rules for what art is- which include preplanning, promotion, documentation and presentation to at least one person. Montano walks the reader through performances she has held starting with the bare bones of what happened. She tells first what happened as far as the "art" involved" but then spends as much time telling what was happening in and around her in her life- providing one full-page picture of each performance opposite the description. Some interesting interviews follow, as well as excerpts from video performances, with her using a character she created.

Honestly a refreshing read. Art is in the everyday- a conclusion I came up with a few years back myself. To read of Linda Montano has given me some courage, some ideas, some straight out laughs and some things to ponder- what else is there to find in a book.