SEASON 27 | October 2014

Mother TeresA

Presented by The VORTEX

Linda Mary Montano makes her triumphant return to Austin as Mother Teresa for three nights of endurance performance. Join this legendary artist as she becomes Mother Teresa while Robert Palmer-style “Addicted to Love” attendants assist her.  Endurance attendance is recommended, audiences may come and go from the theatre.

About Linda Mary Montano

Montano is a seminal figure in feminist performance art, and her work since the mid-1960s has been critical in the development of performance and video by, for, and about women. Dissolving the boundaries between art and life, Montano continues to actively explore her art/life through shared experience, role adoption, and intricate life-altering ceremonies, some of which last for seven or more years. Her artwork is starkly autobiographical and often concerned with personal and spiritual transformation. She explores the way artistic ritual, often staged as individual interactions or collaborative workshops, can alter and enhance a person’s life, creating the opportunity for focus on spiritual energy states, silence, and the cessation of art/life boundaries.

Montano has been featured at museums including The New Museum in New York, MOCA in San Francisco, and the ICA in London. She participated in Taiwanese performance artist Tehching Hsieh remarkable year-long work (1983-84), Art/Life: One Year Performance—a work that broke open many people’s concept of performance art as the two artists were bound to each other by a length of rope 24 hours a day for a whole year. Her endurance works have lasted hours, weeks, and years--each one a unique exploration of life/art.

Linda Mary Montano’s extraordinary career has influenced thousands of performance artists. She taught in the Art Department at The University of Texas at Austin from 1991-98. She is a mentor and coach to many artists including The VORTEX’s dear friend Annie Sprinkle. Montano even made a guest appearance in Annie’s erotic experiment, MetamorphoSex at The VORTEX in 1995.