Endurance Art: The physical and mental preparations to engage in endurance art, physical theatre and ritual performances

Endurance Art is a practice which asks the artist to give of themselves to complete the artwork. Through time, physical activity or mental duress the creator serves the creation and it is through their participation that the work is completed. Being able to persist in our arts practice through tiredness, impatience, discomfort, confusion, doubt and even pain is a core skill for many artistic disciplines, especially if you intend to have a sustainable career with consistent output. This Endurance Art session will lay the foundations for a brave, even stoic, arts practice and provide training and anecdotes about embodiment techniques which have enabled me to complete 24hr performances, public art experiences and even social experiments which took several weeks to complete. Topics covered include elemental immersion, fasting, sleep deprivation, scarification, branding and public speaking.