If so, please describe.
Oh, what the hell. If it was bad, describe that, too.
I’m sure you guys have some doozies.
If so, please describe.
Oh, what the hell. If it was bad, describe that, too.
I’m sure you guys have some doozies.
I’m going to see the Crutchmaster tomorrow…I’ll let ya know how it turns out.
I don’t know what strictly qualifies as performance art but all these acts have been in Australia and all are as funny as hell. They each occupy their own little bit of the entertainment galaxy.
Hmmm…does Blue Man Group count? 'Cause if so, they are awesome beyond words.
(words other than awesome, that is.)
I don’t think they count. Blue Man Group is too entertaining to be considered performance art.
Unfortunately, I used to have to sit through a good deal of it. My definition of performance art would include phrases like, “self-indulgent” and “disdainful of audiences”.
Most performance art I’ve seen is just people being contrary and ridiculous. It’s sort of odd that I don’t like it, because I love surrealist art. But I’ve never found much to like in performance art.
There was this one time, at a friend’s opening in some art gallery downtown, that I saw The Scary Clown.
He was dressed up in a festive, jubilant clown suit. Red and white, it was. He had a tasseled hat. He wore a hockey mask with an X over the mouth made of electrician’s tape. He walked around, silently, with a tray of stones. He would approach people, and offer them the tray.
I was so creeped out, I wanted to take stones and throw them at him till he left. BAD scary clown guy!
Cirque du Soleil - amazing show, and I will argue to the end that they are absolutely performance art, no matter how mainstream an audience they are bringing in. Nothing else has ever left me feeling truly bewildered.
I was always partial to Ann Magnusson. Generally pretty amusing.
Tokyo shock boys, the regurgitator, and Cirque du soleil are performance art? What a joke.
I’ve seen tons of great performance art, even some big names like Anna Mendieta and Chris Burden. It’s out there. If you want to keep tabs on the performance scene, try to locate “High Performance” magazine (not the automotive magazine by the same name).
Andy Kaufman & Laurie Anderson. Oh, wait, I never saw them. But they had it down.
I had a passing acqaintance with Rick Gibson, who had his 15 minutes of fame in 1990, when he sent out press releases announcing that he was going to crush “Sniffy” the rat, whom he’d purchased from a store that sold rodents as snake food. The “performance” was actually the media reaction. He also ate a portion of human testicle on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery, but that didn’t garner nearly as much attention.
I met him at Newsounds Gallery, a lovely lovely radio show that played noise. Used to hang there in the late eighties and early nineties. (Here’s a 40 minute cut-up audio collage that I did for that show, if you have the time to download a 27Mb .mp3 file: Through The Looking-glass Darkly. I don’t recommend you try to listen to it unless you’ve done way too much of something.) Newsounds was mainly run by GX Jupitter-Larsen, and the inimitable BlackHumour. They did a pretty cool piece at the Helen Pitt Gallery, in which they piled tables full of garbage. Horrible, nasty, garbage. It was called “Gart is Arbage.” Lots of fun watching the gallery poseurs looking serious and contemplative. About garbage.
There’s one guy I wish to hell I’d seen: Forget his name, read about him in RE:Search Pranks. This guy would rig himself up with explosives. (Plating & padding next to his skin, explosives, and then covered up with bulky clothing.) Then, he’d go into a bar and be obnoxious enough to have someone pick a fight with him. Just before it came to blows, he’d set of the charges and run away, leaving everyone confused as hell. Sweeeeet.
It late. Mudd sleep now.
I haven’t seen it recently, but I did see fantastic performance art in the late 1980s. A local group of artists in Buffalo, NY did a (sort of) monthly show that was set up in the format of a talk show (a la The Tonight Show) and all of the “guests” were of the bizarre performance art variety. The great thing was that the host played it extremely straight, so that you were always getting the contrast between the talk show host guy and the artistic guests.
I was watching Real Sex on HBO a while back, and they had lesbians doing their thing(s) as “art” in NYC. I bet that would be a GREAT performance!
Plato? Aristotle? Socrates? Morons!
~Can you be so warm? Can you know what I feel? -Better Than Ezra
I once saw a performance where most of the act was the woman complaining about not getting a government grant for her art. However, she did strip naked and hung upside down during the performance, which was entertaining.
The most exceptional example of performance art I have ever seen is the work of Michael Moschen. He takes the concept of juggling and extends it into manipulation and dance in ways that make other jugglers look like pathetic backyard circus rejects.
In the movie “Dark Crystal”, the stunt where David Bowie has a crystal ball roll down his arm into his hand is executed by Moschen. Moschen’s work with crystal balls in his Great Performances tape is a jaw dropping stunner. All of his work is supremely creative and priced at $20.[sup]00[/sup] the tape is one of the great entertainment bargains of all time. His work transcends language and age simultaneously in its universal appeal. I have shared the video with people of all cultures and ages and to a person all who watched it were amazed and glad to have seen it. Here is the contact information to obtain a copy:
Brian Dube, Inc.
520 Broadway
New York, NY 10012
Tel: 212.941.0060
Fax: 212.941.0793
The tape is titled:
Great Performances presents In Motion with Michael Moschen produced and directed by Skip Blumberg
This video belongs in everyone’s permanent collection. I cannot praise this artist enough and can only wish that all of the jello-smeared profanity spouting morons would take a cue from a quality act such as this.
I believe you’re thinking of Labyrinth, dude.
First of all, I agree that Moschen has done some truly fantastic stuff. But…
The segments of the video you mention that I would define as performance art were just as self-indulgent as anything else of its type. I’m thinking mainly of the dance involving the long rods and hoops. I used to be in the entertainment business, and once ran into one of the dancers he used in that bit. I asked him what he felt that piece was really about, and the guy had no clue.
But also think of the scene where he bounce-juggles five balls across the ravine. It started off pretty well - bottomless chasm is implied, obstacle on the other side for him to bounce the balls off of. Sort of timeless and interesting. But then he bounces the balls into the ravine and they come right back, clearly showing that the ravine was only about six feet down. Ruined the whole mood of the segment for me.
Moschen does great work, but it seems that sometimes he would rather put on a diaper and go “ooga-ooga” than do things that people will understand. That’s pretentious, and disdainful of audiences, and supports my claims about performance art, and so there!
But yes, people should get that tape. The triangle scene is great, and the sequence with the crystals is beautiful.
First of all, I agree that Moschen has done some truly fantastic stuff. But…
The segments of the video you mention that I would define as performance art were just as self-indulgent as anything else of its type. I’m thinking mainly of the dance involving the long rods and hoops. I used to be in the entertainment business, and once ran into one of the dancers he used in that bit. I asked him what he felt that piece was really about, and the guy had no clue.
But also think of the scene where he bounce-juggles five balls across the ravine. It started off pretty well - bottomless chasm is implied, obstacle on the other side for him to bounce the balls off of. Sort of timeless and interesting. But then he bounces the balls into the ravine and they come right back, clearly showing that the ravine was only about six feet down. Ruined the whole mood of the segment for me.
Moschen does great work, but it seems that sometimes he would rather put on a diaper and go “ooga-ooga” than do things that people will understand. That’s pretentious, and disdainful of audiences, and supports my claims about performance art, and so there!
But yes, people should get that tape. The triangle scene is great, and the sequence with the crystals is beautiful.
Goshdarnit, I TRIED to stop it and preview but it went through too fast! Sorry…
Having seen neither movie, I’ll take your word.
Thanks for the feedback, Grok. The dance sequence with the rods and hoops was quite entertaining for me. I liked the tonal quality of the metal objects and the elements of sychronization that would occur in parts of it.
Other examples of performance art I have seen on PBS are so insulting to the audience’s intelligence that I can only praise someone like Moschen who makes a real effort at creativity.