Performance Art (Felshin 1995; Goldberg 1977) is a form of artistic expression that employs both conventional and unconventional theatrical and artistic techniques to convey meaning that lies outside of both traditional art and theatre worlds. Derived from surrealist theatre, happenings, life/art, and feminist conceptual art, performance art has historically been anti-entertainment, anti-institutional and noncommodifiable.

In this article I will discuss the particular relationship between art and catharsis in terms of performance art. Performance art provides a unique example of cultural production because of its outsider status. That status is due, in part, to the use of emotions in the transgression of conventional boundaries. To look at how emotions are used by artists and received by audiences helps us to understand the ways in which particular emotional expressions, and the form in which they are expressed, lead to either conventional or unconventional interactions between audiences and performers. (p. 37, 38)

CONTENTS
Performance Art, Distance, and Audience Catharsis.
Methods.
Catharsis as Audience Response.
Catharsis as Artistic Content and the Dimensions of Distance.
Conclusion.
Notes.
Bibliography.