Introduction

The introduction presents the theoretical framework for the concept of accomplices, defined here as a set of auxiliary agents who played an integral but often overlooked role in art practices during the 1970s and 1980s. Taking into account legislation put into effect during this period regarding complicity and shared accountability, this chapter introduces a new model within histories of participatory and performance art in which artists used the framework of art to undertake actions that might otherwise not be possible to expose the inherent arbitrariness of law itself. Just as artists such as Chris Burden, Hannah Wilke, Martin Kippenberger, and Lorraine O’Grady began exploring alternative ways to assert their authority over other subjects as critical elements in their work, similar questions were posed in criminal, intellectual property, and privacy legislation that evaluated the limits of personal responsibility, artistic ownership, and individual sovereignty in new and important ways.