Performance art is a realm where the unexpected thrives, and nothing illustrates that better than a collection of 10 weird live art pieces that challenge conventions at every turn. From post‑war Japan’s visceral Butoh to a 24‑hour tattoo marathon in New York, these works reveal how artists turn the body, the stage, and even everyday objects into canvases of bewildering expression.
At its core, performance art stretches beyond traditional media, inviting audiences into a live, often uncomfortable, dialogue. As one academic definition notes, it is a practice that “evolves as artists sought to extend art beyond conventional media,” making the strange not just permissible but essential.
These ten performances were born out of a desire to break free from censorship, tradition, and the predictable, allowing creators to explore limitless avenues for self‑expression. Buckle up; the ride gets delightfully odd.
10 weird live Highlights
10 Butoh
Butoh emerged in the late 1950s as a Japanese contemporary performance movement, pioneered by choreographer Tatsumi Hijikata in the aftermath of World War II. Influenced by the arrival of French Surrealism and Dadaism, Hijikata forged a new language of movement that reflected the turmoil and reconstruction of post‑war Japan.
Rejecting the strength‑and‑conformity of traditional Japanese theater, Butoh positioned itself as “anti‑traditional” and “anti‑establishment,” celebrating fragility and vulnerability. Practitioners often liken its aesthetic to the slow, poisonous seep of mercury that plagued the nation during that era, underscoring its unsettling allure.
The inaugural Butoh presentation, titled “Forbidden Colours,” adapted Mishima Yukio’s novel of the same name. Starring Yoshito Ohno alongside Hijikata, this groundbreaking performance set the tone for a genre that would forever question the boundaries between beauty, decay, and the human condition.
9 Parade (1917) by Erik Satie and Jean Cocteau
First staged in 1917 by the Ballet Russe, “Parade” fused the avant‑garde talents of composer Erik Satie, poet Jean Cocteau, and visual icon Pablo Picasso, who crafted both costumes and sets. The ballet’s strict, classical choreography collided with Picasso’s wildly unconventional designs, including a two‑person horse that bewildered audiences.
Picasso’s oversized, angular costumes hampered the dancers’ movements, turning the performance into a visual puzzle that clashed with the era’s expectations of elegance. Critics lambasted the spectacle, arguing that the grotesque attire rendered the ballet incomprehensible to its 1917 viewers.
“Parade” marked Satie’s first foray into ballet and his debut collaboration with Picasso. Reception was tumultuous: the premiere incited a near‑riot, and rumor has it that an irate audience member actually slapped Satie as the curtain fell.
8 Interior Scroll by Carolee Schneemann
The 1975 debut of “Interior Scroll” took place during the “Women Here and Now” exhibition in New York. Multidisciplinary artist Carolee Schneemann ascended a table clad only in two sheets, stripped herself, painted her naked torso, and then read from her forthcoming book Cezanne, She Was a Great Painter. In a bold feminist gesture, she extracted a scroll of text from her vagina and recited it aloud.
Schneemann revisited the piece at the 1977 Telluride Film Festival. Though originally invited merely to introduce a collection of women‑made erotic films, she chose to perform “Interior Scroll” again, frustrated by the exhibition’s title and determined to make a louder statement about female agency.
7 Gavin Krastin’s BODY/BAG
South African choreographer, curator, and performance artist Gavin Krastin champions LGBTQ+ visibility through work that pushes the limits of comfort. Describing his practice as a probe into what audiences deem “ugly” versus “beautiful,” Krastin’s pieces often leave viewers questioning their own aesthetic judgments.
His piece “BODY/BAG” uses a human‑sized plastic bag to vacuum‑seal his naked body, a stark commentary on race and politics that remains deliberately opaque. The performance, alongside his 2016 work “EPOXY,” both involve the artist encased in the transparent sheath, confronting viewers with a visceral, unsettling tableau.
Krastin’s repertoire extends to acts like having a participant eat off his bare skin, anchoring himself to a chair while dancing, and stuffing his lips with clothespins while clutching a pig’s head—each act amplifying his exploration of bodily extremes.
6 Payau #2 Waterproof
“Payau #2 Waterproof” is a dance work choreographed by Jakarta Institute of Arts alumnus Yola Yulifianti. Premiered at the 2012 Indonesia Dance Festival as the event’s centerpiece, the piece synchronizes movement with the rhythmic patter of dripping water, culminating in a solo where the dancer balances a pink bucket atop their head.
Yulifianti’s choreography interrogates urban social issues, drawing directly from community engagement with residents of Penjaringan, North Jakarta. The work’s creation process involved immersive collaboration, ensuring the performance resonated with the lived experiences of the neighborhood.
5 Allan Kaprow’s Yard (1961)
Legendary artist Allan Kaprow introduced “Yard” in 1961, an interactive “Happening” that filled Martha Jackson Gallery with car tires and tar‑paper‑covered objects. Viewers were invited to climb, rearrange, and physically engage with the installation, dissolving the barrier between spectator and artwork.
Kaprow pioneered the term “Happening,” describing events that blur the line between art and life by employing any media or discipline an artist chooses. The Routledge Performance Archive defines these cross‑disciplinary, non‑textual events as “utilizing all media and means at an artist’s disposal.”
In 2009, three contemporary artists revived “Yard” for the opening of New York’s Hauser & Wirth Gallery, demonstrating the enduring influence of Kaprow’s radical participatory vision.
4 Bobby Baker’s Cook Dems (1990)
British performance artist Bobby Baker wields food as a provocative medium, delivering sharp critiques of gender norms and domestic labor. While works like “Kitchen Show” and “Drawing on a Mother’s Experience” already showcase her wit, “Cook Dems” pushes the absurdity to new heights.
In a later piece titled “How to Live” (2004), Baker guided a frozen pea through an 11‑step recovery program mirroring cognitive‑behavioral and dialectical behavior therapies she herself endured in the 1990s. A candid Guardian interview revealed her battles with mental health, self‑harm, and a stint at Pine Street psychiatric hospital.
During “Cook Dems,” a live audience watches Baker transform a man in a Speedo into a living cake—painting, icing, and adorning him while he remains stoic and obedient, embodying the bizarre intersection of culinary art and performance.
3 Lukas Avendaño
Oaxaca‑born Lukas Avendaño, a Muxe artist and anthropologist, creates immersive live performances that weave dance, sound, and prop work into a singular, untranslatable experience. His art interrogates sexuality, gender, and the unique Muxe identity—a cultural role for individuals assigned male at birth who adopt traditional female responsibilities without becoming women.
Avendaño’s pieces often feature partial nudity, using the body as a conduit for expression. By foregrounding Muxe culture—an indigenous Zapotec tradition—he invites audiences to reconsider entrenched binaries and celebrate fluidity.
2 Wafaa Bilal’s …and Counting (2010)
Iraqi‑American artist Wafaa Bilal channels personal tragedy into his work; after his brother Haji was killed by a missile in Kufa, Iraq, Bilal explored war‑induced trauma through pieces like “3rdi,” where a camera was surgically implanted behind his eye to comment on surveillance culture.
In the 24‑hour performance “…and Counting,” Bilal invited visitors to tattoo his skin at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York. The piece not only generated a visceral record of collective marking but also raised $105,000 in scholarships for Iraqi and American students whose families were affected by war.
1 Senga Nengudi’s R.S.V.P.
African‑American visual artist Senga Nengudi boasts a prolific career that began alongside a generation of Black avant‑garde creators in the 1970s and ’80s. Her work has been shown at influential spaces like Just Above Midtown (JAM) and the Pearl C. Woods Gallery, paving the way for future Black women in both visual and performance realms.
“R.S.V.P.” consists of installations using previously worn, dark‑hued pantyhose knotted into sand‑filled sacks that are stretched and tethered to walls in ever‑changing configurations. These sculptural elements become performance vessels, allowing Nengudi and collaborators such as Maren Hassinger to entangle, move, and interact with the pliable material.
Honorable Mentions
While we had to trim the list to ten, these works were tantalizingly close to making the cut (and kept family‑friendly for good measure):
- Pope L. performing Eating the Wall Street Journal (2000)
- Cabaret Voltaire (1916) by Various Artists
- Trans‑fixed (1974) by Chris Burden
- Self Obliteration by Ron Athey
- Testicle Banquet (2012) by Mao Sugiyama
- Rhythm 5 by Marina Abramović