Johanna Went

Johanna Went, an American performance artist who works mainly in Los Angeles, began in the late 1970s as a musician in the punk scene, and music remains a key part of her shows. She has often collaborated with the musician Mark Wheaton, and her performances rely on elaborate costumes she makes from found objects and on artificial blood. She works from a sketch that sets a rough sequence rather than a fixed text, leaving room for improvisation, and she rarely uses language to communicate, instead singing, screaming, whining and murmuring. A typical show brings costume changes, dancing, jumping and big props that she rips apart and throws into the audience. Critics have often called the work chaotic, wild or shocking, and it is frequently discussed with that of other women artists of that decade, among them Karen Finley, Lydia Lunch and Diamanda Galas. Her performances include Hyena (1982), Knifeboxing (1984) and Ablutions of a Nefarious Nature (2007).