Portia Chapman’s Family Christmas Turkey Takes the Leading Role in Her Performance Art Video

When it comes to being a performance artist, one needs to let life happen. I find it thrilling when the audience become the actors. To me, performance art reveals life in real time. What happens around the artist is just as important to the craft as the artist herself.

For Christmas a couple years ago I thought: “Hmmm… The star is going to be the turkey at Nanny’s Christmas supper.”

So I set up the camera on a tripod and videoed our family helping themselves during our meal. When I viewed the footage, I felt really sorry for the turkey so I wrote a song to honour it. Coming from a very musical family, it was so much fun bringing the new song, “Turkey,” to life. The song is so catchy, every now and then, we suddenly start singing or humming it. How funny is that?!

Portia Chapman’s Performance Art Video: “Turkey”

I submitted “Turkey” to the Union Gallery video gala but it was not chosen. I think that they would have really enjoyed it because if you have ever eaten a holiday turkey, you can relate to this real experience. Although this video was not chosen, another performance art video of mine was featured at the show.

Portia Chapman’s Performance Art Video: “Rolling on Campus: An Odyssey of Courage”

Rolling on Campus was a hit. It features me rolling around on the ground and steps at Queen’s University. The camera was hidden the entire time. It is a very emotional performance art. It illustrates how a person can be overlooked in a crowd. When I set out that day to roll, I had no idea how the students would react to me on the ground. From this experience, I learned that there are times in life when we must find strength and get up because there won’t be someone there to help you. I found a strength I never thought I had.

Keep looking out for more performance art!