Believe it or not, Bob Dylan turns 73 this month. In honor of the great Bard the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild is hosting a performance on his birthday, May 24, by artist Linda Mary Montano—and what an interesting performance it looks to be.
For the occasion, Montano will lip-synch to Dylan’s songs for seven straight hours on a 14-foot lift stationed outside of the entrance to Byrdcliffe’s Kleinert/James Center for the Arts in Woodstock. Since the 1960s, Montano’s career has addressed “questions of time, the deeply personal, and the life-affirming, with underlying currents in theology and feminism.” Montano is known for her sensory-deprivation endurances of the 1970s, which she sometimes calls “endurances” and can last anywhere from three hours to fourteen years. The Dylan endurance outside the Kleinert/James stems from her realization that members of her family bear a striking resemblance to Bob Dylan. She began performing in the persona of Dylan in order to “be like my brothers, having always wanted to be a man as a child—knowing that they were always getting the better cultural deal.”
Here’s a clip of one of Montano’s previous Dylan performances:
Linda Mary Montano’s performance piece “Linda Endures as Bob Dylan on His 73rd Birthday” will take place at the Kleinert/James Center for the Art in Woodstock on May 24 from noon to 7pm (rain date: May 26 from noon to 7pm). The event is free. For more information, call (845) 679-2079 or visit http://www.woodstockguild.org/.
