26One-Year - Teching Hsieh & Linda Montano
Performance artists Teching Hsieh and Linda Montano spent one year tied to each other at the waist with an 8-foot-long rope. They had to stay in the same room while indoors, including at Montano's teaching job, and were not allowed to touch each other until the end of the one-year period.
27. Russell Brand's violent outburst, which involved breaking a glass bottle over his head and stabbing himself with the shards, led to his expulsion from his second art school after he was criticized over a performance.
28. Tilda Swinton's art installation and performance piece, "The Maybe," involved her sleeping in a glass case on public display for a week in both London and Rome.
29. As part of an art performance, artist Jacqueline Traides willingly underwent public animal testing techniques to highlight the inhumane treatment of animals in cosmetics testing labs.
30. Performance artists Marina Abramovic and Ulay connected their mouths and only breathed each other's exhaled breaths until they collapsed from oxygen deprivation as part of one of their performance art pieces.
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31Artist's Shit - Piero Manzoni
Piero Manzoni's controversial artwork, "Artist's Shit," consisted of 90 tin cans filled with feces, which he sold for up to €124,000 per tin can. In 2016, one of the tins sold for a new world record of €275,000 at an art auction in Milan.
32. Spencer Tunick's "Naked" involved getting thousands of people to pose naked in public spaces for his performance art.
33. Yoko Ono's 1965 performance art piece "Cut Piece" involved her sitting on a stage and inviting audience members to come up and cut off pieces of her clothing until she was almost naked.
34. The Australian artist Stelarc has performed extreme body modification performance art acts, including suspending himself from hooks in his skin and implanting a third ear on his arm.
35. In 2010, Italian artist Pippa Bacca was hitchhiking from Italy to the Middle East as part of a performance art piece called "Brides on Tour." She was raped and murdered in Turkey by a man who had offered her a ride.
36Stone - Abraham Poincheval
In 2017, French artist Abraham Poincheval lived inside a giant rock for a week, eating and sleeping inside the rock, and documenting the experience for his performance art piece "Stone".
37. In 2000, Chinese artist Zhu Yu's controversial art performance "Eating People" involved him appearing to cook and eat a stillborn fetus, sparking controversy and outrage.
38. In 1983, artist Christo's "Surrounded Islands" used pink fabric to surround 11 uninhabited islands in Miami's Biscayne Bay, creating an otherworldly, surreal, and dreamlike landscape.
39. In 1999, British artist Mark McGowan protested the high cost of living in London by pushing a peanut across the city with his nose.
40. In 1993, artist Ron Athey's performance art piece "Four Scenes in a Harsh Life" at the Walker Art Center featured body modifications and suspensions while covered in blood, leading to protests from conservative groups.
41Mirror Box - Milo Moiré
Swiss artist Milo Moiré's "Mirror Box" performance art piece from 2016 involved her standing in a box made of mirrors, allowing strangers to touch her breasts and genitals for 30 seconds at a time.
42. In 2011, Swedish artist Anna Odell staged a fake suicide attempt in Stockholm as a part of her performance art piece called "Unknown, Woman 2009-349701." It sparked a massive police response.
43. In 1964, French artist Yves Klein's performance art piece called "The Anthropometry of the Blue Period" involved naked female models covering themselves in blue paint and pressing against canvases to create abstract paintings.
44. In 2012, artist Marni Kotak gave birth to her son in a gallery as part of her art performance piece titled "The Birth of Baby X."
45. In 2013, British artist Millie Brown's "Nexus Vomitus" art performance involved drinking colored milk and then vomiting it onto a canvas to create abstract paintings.
