Zen and the Art of Expression

When times are bad, like in this recession, we evolutionary beings tend to seek for ways to feel better by expressing ourselves and searching for meaning, understanding, and connection. We search for ways to feel human and alive, to console ourselves and trust that the world is a good place and that things will get better.

There's a zen saying that the purpose of life is "to express the ineffable, which is the ultimate paradox."

Expressing the ineffable is the language of art. And these days, performance art is used as self expression, healing, and to establish community. And it seems to be everywhere.

Many times in an improvisational way, performance artists plan (somewhat) to gather a large number of people to perform a certain an art, like doing a choreographed dance in a train station, for example, or causing a scene of some kind in an urban setting, like in the popular NYC group, Improv Everywhere's video, Human Mirror:



Some performance artists nonverbally make a statement, like in this video, also by the same group:



Performance art, which is a nonverbal display of art, integrates a lot of movement or dance as its medium. The human body is the canvas, and the situation and/or costume or clothing its paint.

It expresses the ineffable in a world full of paradox. Its a in-your-face-art, one in which passers by do not need a ticket and is usually documented or videotaped for the world to enjoy with the click of a button.

I'm planning one I hope to perform in before 2010, and I'll definitely be videotaping to share with the world.

Stay tuned.