Approximating the Art of Stuart Sherman

In his Watermill residency, the UK-based writer and filmmaker Robin Deacon develops his long-term research project about the late American performance artist Stuart Sherman (1945-2001), a seminal though underexposed figure, who has been described as “the Buster Keaton of linguistics.” Since 2006, Deacon has labored to bring Sherman’s work to a wider audience. Deacon has gathered video footage, testimonials, and written descriptions of Sherman’s solo performance works, and at Watermill he will further develop and explore the conundrum of Sherman’s methodology through transcription and physical re-enactment of the artist’s performances. Deacon is interested in how the work and legacy of an artist like Sherman may live on not just in the work itself, but also in the work of artists who have been influenced by him. The outcome of the residency will be a series of video works featuring Deacon that could be shown within the context of the proposed documentary, or on their own.