Nao Bustamante

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Nao Bustamante is a performance art pioneer originating from the San Joaquin Valley of California. Her work encompasses performance art, sculpture, installation, video art, pop music and experimental rips in time.

1 International Artist
2 Controversy
3 Art Work
4 External links
5 References

[edit] International Artist

Bustamante's work has been presented at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 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. Her collaborations include working with such luminaries as Coco Fusco and Osseus Labrint. In 2001 she received the "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.

[edit] Controversy

Her role as an academic and performance artist became controversial during the recall election of Governor Gray Davis in California, where her eldest brother, Lieutenant Governor of California, Cruz Bustamante ran against film actor and former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger. During the Campaign, Nao Bustamante's art, frequently performed by the artist in the nude, [1] was criticized in the media.

For instance, in the article Hot sauce with that? [2] printed in the Orlando Weekly, Chuck Shephard wrote:

"California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante (runner-up to Arnold Schwarzenegger in the October [recall election]) is not the family's only public figure. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported in September, his [sister] Nao Bustamante, 39, is a [prominent] performance [artist] whose work includes wearing a strap-on [burrito] for men to [kneel] before and bite in order to absolve themselves of "500 years of white man's guilt," and also sticking her head into a plastic bag filled with water and tying it around her neck to resemble a Houdini stunt, to create "an urgent situation to respond to." "