Montreal Museum of Fine Arts 

Lisa Gabrielle Mark’s Description “The performance, cryptically titled _____., was created for a performance festival at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1978. It involved a timer on a plinth, set for 35 minutes; next to that was a light bulb in a socket, and next to that a winch. Located in front of the “stage” area were some seating and a microphone stand. As the audience settled in, the timer started and the light bulb went on. Suddenly from an open archway the cable connected to the winch began to pull someone into the room. The anonymous figure was gagged, blindfolded and bound at the hands, knees and feet. It was Dean, but as he later explained, he wished to be unidentifiable in order to avoid creating any undue influence in the audience’s reaction. Someone in the room made a noise (I like to think it was a gasp), and the light bulb went off and the winch stopped. When the audience fell silent again, the winch started up.

After figuring out the correlation between their behavior and the fate of the bound person, the audience members set about clapping and making noise in order to stop the unknown man from hanging upside down. As time passed, the clapping began to wane; luckily, someone had happened to bring a violin, pulled it out and began to play. (This is surely one of the most merciful performance-art audiences on record.) When 35 minutes was up, the performance was over. Dean never restaged ____. because, as he pointed out, the audience’s reaction was completely spontaneous; a savvy audience might let him hang.” Button Pusher. Canadian Art, Volume 18, Number 1, spring/March , 2001. Page 55