WHO: Neva Grant

ROLE: National Public Radio (USA), UTS Journalism lecturer

MEASUREMENTS: 6m x 5m

Neva understand Live Art as “art that you don’t expect to see, or that has more to do with where you encounter it”. She has just finished a radio documentary on intimate theatre which featured Sara-Jane Normans work.   Neva thinks that Diego Bonnetto’s work falls under a different category and gave some examples of NYC subway flash mobs where people don’t wear pants.

She thinks that it is a trap to think that the desire for intimacy is anything to do with digital connectivity, and that artists are and always have sought a direct connection and closer relationship to the feedback they receive from an audience. Lara spoke about Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ project Touch Sanitation where she shook hand with 8500 sanitation workers across NYC. Neva asked where the engagement was for audiences but agreed that a concept can live on through memory, word of mouth and documentation without needing an immediate ‘audience’.