Last night I hid from my wife, begged for quarters, and built a small shelter out of wood scraps so I could take a fifteen minute nap. I am neither a fugitive nor homeless. It was all in a night’s work to perform TASK.

TASK is an artwork devised by Oliver Herring and has taken place twice before - once in Paris and once in London. Last night it was staged in a former bank across the street from the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art (PBICA) in Lake Worth, Florida.

Oliver Herring, a tall, skinny man with a slight accent, gave us the parameters of the performance. We were to find the table on stage that held a pile of envelopes. In each envelope there would be a task devised by Oliver. These were the same tasks assigned the performers in London and Paris. We would then perform the task using the provided props, other performers, and whatever else we saw fit. Once the task was completed, we would display the task paper for the audience to see. Then we would write a task of our own, insert it into an envelope, and place it on the pile of tasks. We could then pick a new task and so on and so forth. The only rules were to use the “stage” alone and not venture into the audience’s space, to ignore the audience, and to leave the bank’s safe untouched since the combination was unknown. Other than that, we would create the performance.

The performance began and the tasks for the first act were fairly mundane - do [blank] activity [blank] times or for [blank] minute(s). Performers were wandering around the stage doing quotidian chores for set durations of time. I listened to three songs on three different CDs, I had to spell “bivouac” five times loudly, and stand atop a ladder for one minute. Each of the twenty-five performers, doing his/her own task, contributed to the cacophony of music, screaming, talking, and seemingly random movement.

As the evening progressed, the tasks became more autogenous to the performance. Some tasks referred specifically to previous tasks to build upon them or dismantle them. Other tasks required actions to or with specific performers. At one point I had to write a task for someone to remove the twenty clothespins clipped to my ears because the pain was becoming unbearable. A microcosm emerged on stage where each act lead to the next and improvisations between performers ushered in tasks that became more elaborate than their directions.

At the end of the evening, after all twenty-five performers took part in a particularly rousing percussion march, we gathered up all of the tasks that had been clipped, taped, stuffed, and strewn about the stage. Reviewing them and their placement on the stage became a forensic peek into what took place that night.

A few comments from the audience were overheard to the effect of, “Performance art really does suck.” Honestly, I can see their point. If I were a non-participating audience member taking a cursory glance, it may have seemed fairly inane. I dislike having my time demanded by performance and video art. I would not want to feel that I had to invest five hours into a performance with no promise of a payoff. But there was no time requirement to the piece. A glance at the displayed task papers and a minute or so watching the chaos of the stage could easily reward the viewer with a chuckle and a little something to chew on.

After talking with Oliver, it became more evident that this performance was just a step and not a ending point. The performances in London and Paris were steps and the next performance of the piece will add a bit more dimension. Then the photographic documentation and video footage of the four occurrences of TASK will be organized into book, exhibit, and/or video form. Trying to view our Lake Worth performance as a singular event would stifle a much broader read. The more I thought about it, retrospection would reveal patterns in performances and how differences in place, age, and culture would affect the tasks. Order and meaning could sort themselves out later. Play ruled the evening.

Mostly I just enjoyed being a part of the process. I was able to ignore the dour face of the art establishment and just do something without worrying if my motives would be questioned, how the audience would perceive it, or whether or not it was “Art.” I could play hide-and-seek with my wife, take a nap, listen to some interesting music, and make a really bad sculpture out of water bottles and plastic tarps all because I was supposed to. It was my given task.

TASK was performed January 31, 2003, 5-10pm with two short intermissions.

Originally published in the Miami Art Exchange.