| Brian Feldman | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | performance artist |
| Years Active: | 2003–present |
Brian Feldman (born April 1, 1981) is an American fringe theatre performance artist whose work often involves "bizarre feats of endurance".[1]
Feldman was raised in Orlando, Florida, where as a child he performed in television commercials for Disney and Nickelodeon.[2] His parents, Edward Feldman and Marilyn Wattman-Feldman, and sister, Adrienne McIntosh,[3] [4] have all participated in his performance art.[1] [3] He is based in Washington, DC and Orlando, and has received fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs.[1]
Feldman's first performance art piece, staged in 2003, was The Feldman Dynamic,[5] in which Feldman, his parents, and sister have dinner onstage before an audience.[3] The Feldman Dynamic was later staged as part of the New York Fringe Festival.[6]
Other shows involving his parents have included 24 Hour Embrace on Father's Day in 2011, in which Feldman and his father hugged 24 hours inside a boxing ring,[1] and 24 Minute Embrace on Mother's Day in 2015, in which Feldman and his mother hugged for 24 minutes each in Orlando, Washington, DC, and Philadelphia.[3]
In a 2010 piece designed to protest Florida's laws against same-sex marriage, called Brian Feldman Marries Anybody, Feldman "promised to legally marry any woman who showed up at the Orange County Courthouse at a specific date and time".[7] Feldman married "relative stranger" Hannah Miller, and the marriage was annulled in 2011.[8]
In the show Dishwasher, Feldman goes to an audience member's home, washes their dishes, and then performs a monologue of the audience member's choosing, ending with the question: "Am I a better actor or dishwasher?"[2] Dishwasher has been performed in Central Florida[8] and in DC as part of the Capital Fringe Festival.[3]
Other Feldman performances include txtshow in DC, in which Feldman gives audience members anonymous Twitter accounts, and then sits onstage reading out messages as they come in;[3] [5] Brian Feldman's William Shakespeare's Macbeth, where he repeated the word "Macbeth" more than 17,000 times over nearly three hours in an amphitheater at Orlando's Lake Eola Park, while wearing a hockey mask in front of an audience given earplugs;[1] and Wawa Shabbawa, in DC and Florida, a shabbat dinner held at a Wawa convenience store.[9] [5] [10]
Feldman's art frequently makes use of repetition, the passage of time, and audience participation, often revealing "more about the people seeing the show than" about himself.[3] Feldman's work has been compared to Tehching Hsieh and Marina Abramović, but "more playful".[2] Feldman has said of his work: "It’s a little terrifying and fear is a driving force. Fear of the unknown is exciting."[3]