Spectacle: A Portrait of Stuart Sherman

DIRECTOR: Robin Deacon

VENUE: Kino Kilta, Nunnankatu 4

DATE & TIME: Film screening on Fri 5.9. 16.00–18.21  

DURATION: The screening lasts 2h 21min. The same screening also features Simple Gestures: Janusz Baldyga. Advance registration required. Pre-registration

LANGUAGE: English

The late American artist Stuart Sherman (1945 – 2001) was a strange and underexposed figure in the history of performance art and experimental film. Using interviews with his friends and colleagues conducted over four years, as well as original and re-enacted footage of Sherman’s performances, Robin Deacon’s 90 minute documentary Spectacle: A Portrait of Stuart Sherman explores the life, work and methodology of this unique artist. 

Overall, this film investigates the notion of artists seemingly disappearing from performance art history. Why is it that Sherman’s work is not more widely known and disseminated? Has the differing understanding and reception of Sherman’s work outside of the USA (it appears his work was always more accepted in Europe) affected his presence within the documentation and discourses surrounding performance art since his untimely death in 2001? Broader issues raised by this film concern the possibility for the preservation of ephemeral artworks through their reenactment. Issues of chaos, chance and fate are also recurring themes, and exploring how Sherman’s grappled with these notions in his art and his life raises profound questions within the film regarding not only what it is to be an artist, but also what it is to be human.