linda montano

One of Montano’s most well-known performances is based on her personal interpretation of the yogic chakra system. This durational piece titled, 7 Years of Living Art + Another 7 Years of Living Art = 14 Years of Living Art lasted from 1984 to 1998. Working from root centre, to crown, then back down again, each year was dedicated to a different chakra. Wearing one colour per year – chosen to represent a given year’s chakra – she would meditate for a minimum of three hours each day in a room painted the designated colour and carry out the daily task of living with an underlined concentration on that year’s energy centre. Between 1984–91, at the New Museum in New York City, Montano provided art/life counseling and Tarot readings for one day out of each month in a gallery also painted that same colour. During the first three years, additional directives were imposed: Montano would speak in a specific accent (not her own) for twelve months at a time to everyone except immediate family and would listen to a single pitch for seven hours a day while meditating in her painted room. Eventually the last two vows were dropped, but the intention and devotion remained. At the core was a desire to live more consciously and in a state of constant awareness.The ensemble of her work is about living more spontaneously and fully, about locating internal balance and serenity, about centring attention, about finding a voice. Her “living art” manifesto not only proposes that “life can be art,” it also provides practical instruction on how to make “living art,” in order to achieve this state of focused intention and presence.