Nao Bustamante

In A Story the artist interrogates the image of idyllic women's labor as portrayed in the picture taken off the wall and brought into the “studio.” The camera becomes both mirror and voyeur; the video itself, a minefield of artistic tropes ostensibly to be read as the artist's “process.” This intense process is interrupted when I take a phone call amidst the solitary solo action, an action so provocative and precious that the artist (myself) must document it. Though the action has been known to induce spontaneous visceral and verbal responses when the video has been screened, the risk here is not the infliction of physical pain by cutting the flesh, but in applying theatricality to the “authentic” form of performance art. The blood is an illusion that, once broken by the telephone interruption, lays bare the privilege the artist possesses in the depiction of suffering. 

Nao Bustamante is an internationally known performance artist originating from the San Joaquin Valley of California. Her work encompasses performance art, sculpture, installation and video. Bustamante's work has been presented, among other sites at, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Arts, and the Kiasma Museum of Helsinki. She has performed in Galleries, Museums, Universities and underground sites throughout Asia, North Africa, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Mexico and of course the United States. Bustamante has been invited to lecture at such prestigious institutions as Stanford, New York University, Columbia and Cornell. Her collaborations include working with such luminaries as Coco Fusco and Osseus Labrint. In 2001 she received the prestigious Anonymous Was a Woman fellowship. Currently she is living in Troy, New York and holds the position as Assistant Professor of New Media and Live Art at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. For more info: http://www.naobustamante.com