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Industry of the Ordinary and Performance Art

Performance art can be an exploration of the body and its relationship to time and space as a fundamental element in art making. Chicago has been dominated by what has been known as experimental theater, which can rely too heavily on the presentation strategies of traditional theater in terms of narrative, simulation, and imaginary time. “Sculptural” live-art concentrates on the lived experience, use of materials (including the body), and real time to intensify the moment for audience and artist alike.

Industry of the Ordinary, which formed in 2003, works through performance art and sculpture, text, photography, video, and sound to explore and celebrate the customary, the everyday, and the usual. Their emphasis is on challenging pejorative notions of the ordinary and, in doing so, moving beyond the quotidian.

Their first performance, Dropping 163 lbs: Daley Plaza, involved approximately seventy-five performers who dropped 163 pounds of white clothing on Daley Plaza in Chicago, Illinois. One hundred sixty-three pounds is the average weight of an American adult.

I Do/Don’t Want To Be Ordinary/Beautiful
(to be hummed along with national anthem of your choosing)

I am preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love.

I have a grandiose sense of self-importance.

I exaggerate my achievements and talents.

I expect to be recognized as superior without commensurate cause.

I believe that I am “special” and unique.

I can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people.

I require excessive admiration.

I have a sense of entitlement.

I have unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with my expectations.

I am interpersonally exploitive and take advantage of others to achieve my ends.

I lack empathy and am unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others.

I am often envious of others and believe that others are envious of me.

I am arrogant and haughty in my behaviors or attitudes.

I am beautiful.