Contemporary authors develop performance art by forming and exploring new personal and social narratives on themes of social justice, environmental issues, and systemic inequality
Performance art originated in the early 20th century as a radical break with the canons of traditional art, emphasizing the body and lived experience over permanent objects. Inspired by movements such as Dadaism and Futurism, it gained popularity in the 1960s and 1970s through individuals such as Marina Abramović and Joseph Beuys. The performances explored themes related to identity, politics and the nature of time, writes Artnetcolumnist Sofia Hallström.
Today, performance art continues to evolve, combining technology and interdisciplinary methods. Artists utilize live performances, digital tools and installations to connect with audiences. Major themes include social justice, environmental issues, and systemic inequality. Creators actively utilize elements such as sound, film, dance and artificial intelligence to reflect the reality of today’s global society. Performance has become a powerful tool to experiment, discuss and analyze complex societal and personal stories.
Meet five artists who are redefining performance art, using it as a way to reflect on and engage with the complexities of contemporary life.
Prem Sahib
Prem Sahib ( born 1982, London ) creates works spanning objects, installations and performances, delving into issues of queer proximity, desire and the intersection of personal and socio-political spheres. Their work often explores mechanisms of belonging, isolation and limitation, emphasizing traces of touch and the dynamics of surveillance.
Sahib’s performances develop these ideas, as vividly illustrated in Alleus ( 2024 ), which was commissioned by the Roberts Art Institute and Somerset House Studios earlier this year and presented at the Edinburgh Arts Festival. Alleus presents a critique of the xenophobic political narrative, deconstructing and reinterpreting the anti-immigration statements of former UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
Solomon Garson ( born 1991, London) is a versatile artist who creates work in forms such as sound, sculpture and performance. His work focuses on exploring transitional spaces and narratives drawing inspiration from digital environments and underground culture.
Recent projects include Opening credits 4 Sunset Beach ( pilot ) with Josiane Pozi]subtitles added ] at 243Luz in Margate. This project was a live broadcast, immersing viewers in a first-person journey through the artist’s family home. Utilizing red light filters and a montage of hidden cameras, the performance was complemented by a distorted 90s noise soundtrack from American band Harry Pussy and concluded with an impressively intimate shot. Garson’s frequent use of temporary, inactive Instagram accounts emphasizes motifs of ephemerality and surveillance of other people’s lives.
At Studio Voltaire, London, Garson’s debut UK institutional exhibition earlier this year presented an intriguing soundstage and ambiguous forms. Sculptures resembling bodies and partially concealed under fabric evoked associations with violence or protection, while empty chairs symbolized spaces for absent viewers. Low-frequency sounds and artificially created reverberation reinforced ideas of territoriality and surveillance.
This exhibition emphasized Garson’s characteristic interest in scale, materials, and transformative imagery, which was markedly influenced by elements of the horror genre and reality television. The program included three live performances, engaging the audience as both witnesses and participants, reflecting the artist’s fascination with the processes of uncovering, transforming, and disguising stories.
Ndaye Kouagu
Ndaye Kouagu ( b. 1992, Paris ) explores language and text, complementing his artistic practice with elements of performance, film and installation. His work skillfully combines contradictions, humorous elements and existential exploration, using the stylistics and statements of the digital age to create a dialogue with his audience that is both intriguing and confusing.
Quague’s latest work Please, don’t get!, presented during the opening of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Warsaw, was a prime example of his unique approach to performance art. Focusing on fragmented narratives, the piece was performed with an inherently restrained manner. Kouagu combined spoken word with minimalist staging, presenting the audience with a series of open-ended statements and rhetorical questions that immersed them in an atmosphere of playful yet profound reflection.
Another outstanding work, 4 Chiens et Une Prune (Four Dogs and a Plum), was presented at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. This performance encouraged visitors to engage in an interactive immersion in existential reflection. By asking questions and utilizing movement, Kouagu erased the line between audience and performer, creating a shared space for uncertainty and discovery.
His latest solo exhibition, Message for All, organized by the Gathering Gallery in London, continued his exploration of the theme of mediated communication. The artist’s work conveys the disparate realities of contemporary life, encouraging audiences to rethink the meaning of communication, questions and existence itself.
Kumba Samba
Kumba Samba (b. 2000, New York) is a Senegalese American artist whose diverse oeuvre spans sculpture, installation, and performance, exploring points of contact between material culture, ideological concepts, and diasporic histories. In her performances, she raises themes related to global capitalism, the legacy of colonialism and cultural interactions.
Earlier this year, Samba’s exhibition titled Capital, presented at London’s Cell Project Space gallery, offered viewers the opportunity to enter a mud room surrounded by photographs and elements made from industrial materials. One of the main components of the exhibition was a commissioned performance titled FIFA, created in collaboration with École des Sables and artist Gretchen Lawrence. This project explored the ideological relationship between the West and the regions of West Africa.
Taking inspiration from soccer, Senegalese laamba wrestling, and the South American game of keimada , FIFA presented a choreographed composition of repetitive movements that left footprints in the withered earth-a metaphor for freedom of choice and the results of human physical labor. A soundtrack by Lawrence, combining recordings of Senegalese field sounds with distorted audio loops, filled the space, creating an intense sensory experience.
Samba’s work in performance and installation consistently challenges conventional perceptions, highlighting marginalized views through profound and compelling projects.
Hongxi Lee
Hongxi Li ( b. 1996, Xiamen ) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the characteristics of human behavior, social organizations, and the subtleties of emotion through mediums such as sculpture, performance, sound, video, and installation. Traditional techniques, including metalwork and ceramics, allow her to transform objects of mass consumption into works that tell stories, focusing on individual and collective memories while analyzing urbanization, materialism and corporate structures.
Her alter ego named Jolene serves as a tool to explore the power dynamics in the system through her performances. Sandcastle is a half-hour performance presented on stage in Shoreditch, London, organized by Neven Gallery as part of her solo exhibition Heaven Green.
At Sandcastle , Jolene, dressed in a business suit, creates sophisticated landscapes using recycled construction earth and a bucket styled as a brutalized housing unit. Set against the backdrop of a busy construction site, this performance critiques the processes of urbanization and environmental insecurity, touching on the booming real estate market in China in the early 2000s and pointing to the fragility that accompanies rapid development.
Li’s work combines a minimalist visual style with deep social reflections, touching on themes of trauma, resistance and structural violence. She uses her art to encourage audiences to reflect on established societal opinions and analyze the unstable foundations of contemporary development.