U N I V E R S I T Y D A I L Y K A N S A N
Friday, May 2,1997
3A
Performance brings art to life
CONTRIBUTED ART
Teneille Haggard, Lawrence senior, brings her art to life through performance. Haggard said she explored issues of gender, sexuality and self-identity in her performance art.
By Mary Corcoran Special to the Kettering
Imagine walking into an art gallery and running across a woman suspended 11 feet in the air, wearing a Wonder Woman costume made of Wonder Bread packages. Now, imagine the woman sitting high above the gallery floor surrounded by red and yellow balloons, blowing bubbles and dropping eggs down a chute of corrugated tubing where they break as they hit the floor.
- That's exactly what you would have seen in the Art and Design building's gallery if you had attended Teneille Haggard's performance art exhibit.
Audiences have told Haggard, Lawrence senior, that her best performance art piece was Wonder Wear, in which she dressed as Wonder Woman while dropping eggs down a long piece of tubing. Haggard said the performance could represent a giant vagina or ovary, but audiences could come away with their own interpretations.
"I'm trying to bring people in to something they've already seen," Haggard said. "I want to reinvent an issue that people like to turn off. With Wonder Wear I tried to bring people in with comedy. It opens people up, and then on second thought they think 'Hey, what's going on?'"
Haggard has taken professor Roger Shimomura's performance art class more than two semesters. In her second year as a performance artist, she has performed in professional venues, including the Lawrence Arts Center.
Haggard said performance art truly took two dimensional images and brought them to life in an immediate way.
"It's right there alive in space," Haggard said. "It's interactive, instead of viewing something stagnant, like a painting."
Haggard, who paints as well as performs, said she considered vulgarity, vanity and vulnerability in her work.
"I tackle topics of sexuality, gender and self identity in a manner that could be considered not only direct, but confrontational," Haggard said.
haggard said that Shimomura had helped her performances and her art in general.
"Roger knows so much about performance art," she said. "He once told me that painting can be dold while performance can be hot."
Shimomura has taught performance art at the University of Kansas for 12 years, and he still has trouble defining exactly what performance art is.
performance art is.
"It's easier to tell what's not performance art, Shimomura said. "It's debatable. This is my 12th year, and I have not heard a good definition yet. When you see it, you know it."
The performance art class is open to any student in the school of fine arts, as well as other interested students with Shimomura's permission. The class gives students a chance to combine all the disciplines offered by the school of fine arts.
"The class is outside of art, outside of music, outside of design, yet it combines all three." Shimomura said.
Shimomura requires the students who take the class to do variety of performances during the course of the semester. The performances vary in length, equipment, effects and philosophy.
Performances are often limited by space and therefore equipment, Shimomura said. Most performances take place in the classroom, with one public piece performed in the Art and Design building gallery on Stop Day.
"Limited space forces students to be economical about their props," Shimomura said. "It refocuses them on the performance aspect of their art."
Haggard said that despite the prop limitations set up by Shimomura, performance art had opened up her art to a whole new way of exploring issues and relating them to people.
"You're hoping that when people see a performance it loses any feeling of being frivolous or pointless," she said.
"You can do it anywhere. You don't have to do it in a gallery. It can happen anywhere, like in a supermarket. Maybe you get arrested, but maybe that's your point."
By Harumi Kogarimal
Kansan staff writer
Many KU students will leave town in a few weeks, but troubles with landlords might follow them if they do not abide by their contracts.
Jo Hardesty, director of Legal Services for students, said that students often failed to pay their last month's rent, mistakenly thinking that their security deposit applied to the rent.
apologized to the Ten. Braxton Copley, staff attorney for University Legal Services, said that the service handled about 3,000 cases a year, and that student's problems with laudlords made up 15.2 percent of the total.
According to the Landlord/Tenant Act, landlords can keep security deposits and still recover the full rent due if tenants fail to pay the rent. Students will usually receive a letter reminding them that rent is not paid. If tenants still do not pay, landlords file a lawsuit, Hardesty said.
"They are actually suing students," she said. "We recommend you not to wait until you get sued."
Hardesty that most landlords would not allow tenants to put their
security deposit toward their last month of rent. However, if students need to take advantage of this option, they should consult with landlords in advance.
Copley said that summer subleases created another common problem.
When students move without paying rent, the roommates who stay behind, or their families, could be sued by the landlords, Hardesty said.
Some KU students do not check with landlords when subleasing their apartments, although contracts require them to do so.
If landlords agree to sublease the property, original tenants are still responsible for any damage caused by subleases and for ensuring that rent is paid.
If the property officially changes hands, subleasees will be liable and the original tenant will not be held responsible for any violation of contract.
Hardesty said that if students received letters from landlords, they should visit a legal services for assistance as soon as possible.
"You would not want to see a nasty lawsuit," she said.
Event features art in park
By Paul Eakins
Kansan staff writer
Amid food, music, fun and frivolity, local artists will display their works Sunday during the 36th annual Art in the Park.
The event, which will go from noon to 5 p.m. on the east side of South Park, in the 1100 block of Massachusetts Street, will feature the work of 85 to 90 artists, 17 food vendors and four live bands, said Debbie Heeney, chairwoman of the event.
The artists will display origina art works in media such as painting, ceramics, pen and ink, pottery, photography, textiles, jewelry, glass and sculpture. Some artists will display their creative abilities to the public
by doing such things as blowing glass or drawing at the event, Heeney said.
The event is a popular one and has become a tradition in Lawrence, she said.
"It's a huge community event, giving local artists a chance to display their work," she said. "The community is completely supportive and helpful."
Attracting visitors from Kansas City, Topeka, and many small towns near Lawrence, Art in the Park has grown during the years in the number of artists and the number of visitors who attend.
"Last year we had nearly 10,000 people attend," Heeney said. "We expect more this year."
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