Performa’s $1000-a-plate Metal Ball

New York Magazine reports on the recession-proof gala that brought out David Byrne and Cindy Sherman clad in metal outfits. But Dennis Oppenheim was not impressed: “Real performance art as it was initially, coming from the seventies, was not that entertaining,” he said, sitting at a table to the side of the stage. “It was quite boring. If you look at the early tapes of Nauman and Acconci and so forth; they were very clinical, they were really done as an almost tutorial thing about theory, and it wasn’t really made for an audience. But it morphed into what we’re now looking at; it’s quite different.” We asked Oppenheim, who long ago changed over to making large-scale public architectural works, if he had worn any metallic accessory to the party. “No, I don’t really take this stuff seriously,” he said.

Shiny Art-World Celebrities Turn Out for Performa’s Metal Ball (New York/Vulture)