ENTROPY SYMPHONY: MOVEMENT ONE
May 27th, 2010
4:00pm - 4:05pm
New York City
Whitney Museum of American Art
75 people, 25 performances, all 6 levels of the Whitney, in 5 minutes.
Using Michael Asher's project of keeping the museum open for 72 straight hours as an umbrella for dialogue,
I decided to push the boundaries of the institution still further.
Entropy Symphony is the melodious cacophony from the inevitable decay of a closed system.
In other words, the music that is made when the gears momentarily grind to a halt.
Stealing the fake Charles Ray -- (video still by Dominika Michalowska)
The entire performance began months before May with me growing a full
(and quite shaggy) beard, as well as long hair and getting contact lenses
(which I haven't worn since high school).
I then replicated one of Charles Ray's watercolor flowers from the biennial.
On the day of the performance I snuck the painting into the Whitney and right before 4pm,
while dressed in suit and tie, pretended to steal the fake from the wall.
I used my own mother as a concerned (and then outraged) museum patron, who began screaming,
"STOP HIM!!! HE SWITCHED THAT PAINTING!!!!!"
all the while chasing me as I made a mad dash down the stairs starting from the fourth floor.
(video still by Jomar Statkun)
I made it to the second floor, with the guards hot on my trail when agood samaritan tackled me and the guards jumped on me (ripping the painting in the process).
They hauled me up and pressed me against the wall as they inspected the damage to the faux Ray.
(video still by Emma Hall)
At that precise moment, the other 24 performances began on all floors of the Whitney.
Here is a an abridged list of the 25 emotionally probing and tumultuous performances:
(video still by Amanda Cole)
8 people wrestle in a no holds barred scrum for a frozen duck
(video still by Amanda Cole)
(video still by Aaron Garson)
4 different couples breaking up
-one of the couples was a lovers triangle gone wrong,
another was a couple who attempts (and succeeds!) to kiss a stranger to get back at their lover
(video still by Aaron Garson)
A violent fight between two friends, one of whom happens to be on crutches
(video still by Jomar Statkun and Nadja Frank)
A couple having loud and very real sex in the men's bathroom stall
(video still by Aaron Garson)
4 people smoking in the museum (one of them as a beligerent, shoplifting drunk)AND! a prancing sex bunny
(video still by Ross Elgie)
A man had a seizure, a fake doctor attempted to help himalas... the medical impersonator bungles the situation and places the burden of assistance on the viewers
(video still by Ross Elgie)
A naked man has an art critique in the buff with a clothed opponentwhile a couple spoon in front of a Mike Kelly
(photo by Eric Clinton Anderson)
A man spills hot coffee on an infant pressed up against a mother's breast,they begin a massive quarrel, ending in her chasing him out of museum thrashing him with her baby
(photo still by Sarah Petersiel)
A naked woman enacts Duchamp's classic painting 'Nude Descending the Staircase' in the main stairwell
(photo by Eric Clinton Anderson)
A massive paper airplane fight
(video still by Janet Elliott)
I then got my hair cut, shaved, put my contacts in, changed clothes, posture and accent andwent back to the Whitney for another performance
Ready for take 2
(video still by Janet Elliott)
Thank you to the most talented performers in the world:
Aaron Garson
Abagail Stahlman
Alicia Gluibizzi
Amanda Millis
Anthony Miler
Aram Jiblian
Barclay
Betsy Feinberg
Bill Santen
Courtney Comstock
Daniel Nardicio
David Dismukes
Dan Gluibizzi
Dominika Michalowska
Drea Bernardi
Ed Illades
Emilie Litzell
Emily Turonis
Emma Hall
Eugene Turonis
Gavin Todd
Grayson Cox
Hollis Witherspoon
Jacob Sharff
Janet Elliott
John Vitale
Jim Rich
Joe Egan
Jonathon Fairhead
Josh Tierney
Lawrence Crimlis
Lia Woertendyke
Maiken Weiss
Marisa Smith
Max Woertendyke
M. Elizabeth Barrett
Melissa Skluzacek
Nadja Frank
Nick Critser
Nick Paparone
Nick Teti
Nickolaus Typaldos
Roddy Schrock
Ross Elgie
R. Scott Porter
Sara Jimenez
Sarah Petersiel
Seth Rothschild
Sue Smith
Susumu Kamijo
Talia Bailey
Tara White
Victoria Tate
Zoe Gluibizzi
...and to those who wished to remain nameless....
Also, a special thank you to the guards of the Whitney and the other staff
you have made one of my dreams come true,
thank you.
STORM THE BEACHHEAD
December 3, 2009
5pm
Miami Beach, Florida
Commissioned by Photo Miami
There is nothing that peels the skin back from the mundane like the pre-rational
and what activity is less rational than throwing food?
While on the one hand it operates as a pressure release valve,
allowing the clogged social mores to be abandoned in a liberating hand motion,
on the other it is a symbol of complete defiance against the status quo.
From the age of childhood we are taught very strict guidelines about the proper route of food.
It travels from the oven to the plate to our mouths. Incredibly specific rituals have been formulated
for the correct performance of this procedure. To alter this and to do it in a drastic manner,
to pitch a handful of green jello at a person you were just making small talk with;
this is considered the ultimate taboo in a rational world. This is what we are after.
This piece was commissioned by Photo Miami for their art fair in 2009 on Miami Beach.
After the city of Miami Beach denied me a permit multiple times, we decided to go commando.
These are the gorgeous results.
Photos and video by Adam Reign, David Siqueiros and Digital Pictures
A special thank you to Emma Hall, Nadja Frank, Brookie Maxwell and Charles Guice
for making this project possible.
MIDTOWN GAMES: EVENT ONE - 50M FREESTYLE
August 14, 2009
1pm
New York City
6th Avenue between 49th and 50th
In the most densely populated city in the United States,
in the most densely populated neighborhood in that city,
at the most densely populated time in that neighborhood
a game for the people, a game to reclaim their city and raise their spirits.
(photo by David Weinstein)
(photo by Eric Clinton Anderson)
(photo by David Weinstein)
(photo by Eric Clinton Anderson)
(photo by M. Elizabeth Barrett)
MIDTOWN GAMES: EVENT TWO - 100M DASH
October 23, 20091pm
New York City
6th Avenue, between 46th and 47th
In the most densely populated city in the United States,
in the most densely populated neighborhood in that city,
at the most densely populated time in that neighborhood
a game for the people, a game to reclaim their city and raise their spirits.
(photo by Eric Clinton Anderson)
(photo by Eric Clinton Anderson)
(photo by Eric Clinton Anderson)
(photo by Eric Clinton Anderson)
(photo by Eric Clinton Anderson)
FREE NUTS: REINVESTING IN HARLEM
This project was done at The Studio Museum in NYC between 11/12/09 - 3/14/09 .
Piyara at the nutstand on 125th street
Things are grim right now.
No joke. Houses, businesses, organizations, cooperatives, institutions,
all of these things are shifting and the upshot is that people are being laid off,
houses are being foreclosed upon, banks are collecting and people are losing.
Nowhere is feeling this pinch like Harlem is right now.
When I was approached to do a postcard for the Studio Museum, I was thrilled.
Literally, my heartbeat quickened and I was smiling like an idiot. I love this museum.
Thinking about what to do for the project was a different matter though.
A million ideas popped into my head; letter to Bill Clinton’s office, paper airplane outline,
finger puppets, highlight of my favorite mixed CD bought from 125th st, etc…
But above the din of this ruckus came one that immediately outshone the others.
I live in Brooklyn. Harlem is an hour train ride from my house.
I am essentially a tourist to Harlem, I come, I buy a few things and leave.
I love it here, but I don’t live here.
By taking the money that the Studio Museum gave me to do this project
and going back to Brooklyn to spend it in restaurants, grocery stores and rent,
I am taking money out of Harlem. This is the kind of bleeding that Harlem can’t afford right now.
Miah at the nutstand on 125th street
“Free Nuts: Reinvesting in Harlem” is a project that I came up with
in an effort to keep money inside Harlem. I used the artist fee that Studio Museum gave me
(plus a donation from the generous art collector, E.C. Hall)
to purchase nuts from a roasted nut vendor directly outside the museum on 125th street.
The nut stand is run by a woman named Piyara and her husband Miah.
Museum goers brought a free postcard from inside and exchanged it for nuts on the street.
GUGGENFIGHT
March 21, 20091pm
The Guggenheim Museum
New York City
50 performers actively involved and another hundred as surprise participants
in a massive foodfight inside the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
(photo by Eric Clinton Anderson)
(photo by Eric Clinton Anderson)
(photo by Eric Clinton Anderson)
(photo by Eric Clinton Anderson)
(photo by Eric Clinton Anderson)
(photo by Eric Clinton Anderson)
(photo by Eric Clinton Anderson)
OCULARPATION
7:30min, video
2008
The space known as the cubicle, is one that we as a race have become very familiar with.
Three partitioned dividers, desk, monitor, phone, coffee cup. This is the modern life for untold millions across
the globe, regardless of nationality, creed, race, age, or sex. This is not a new story, it is one of the best
told of our time. Ocularpation is a retelling of this classic tale.
Ocularpation is a new contraction. It's root comes from occupation, with the dual connotation of both a job
done for money, as well as a military or strategic encampment. Ocular, or pertaining to the eye, cements
the meaning of the word in a visual context. This is an act of optical guerilla office bivouac.
A crew of six in a white van pull up to a curb in downtown at 7:45am, Monday morning at the busiest
intersection in the city. Unloading full office accouterments, they set up a replica of the modern
cubicle in under two minutes. Situated next to the largest subway exit in the city, hundreds are
getting off the train and passing as this event unfolds. One man exits the metro in a suit and in
5 degree Celsius chill, enters the stage. Beginning with the quintessential motion of hanging up the
jacket on the coat rack, he then carries the gesture one further and removes his dress shirt and hangs
it up. The rhythmic motion continues ad absurdum, as all of his clothes come off, pants, shoes, socks,
undershirt, and finally boxers. On to the coat rack they go and off to work he goes. Coffee in hand he
begins typing and answering phone calls. Jotting notes and setting meetings. All of this within
a traditional framework of a corporate pastime, but recontextualized to the nth degree by the daft fact
that he is twofold mad, both for repurposing the office setting as well as being completely naked and
vulnerable to the world.
The reaction this produces in the passerby is truly the crux of this piece. Whereas some see it as a mockery,
others see it as high humor, others stop and gawk, others take cellular pictures, others couldn't be bothered
and are already at work in their mind. The insane moment blends into so many other ludicrous events in the
life of a city dweller that this becomes simply a ripple in a tumultuous sea of delirium. This desensitization
lies at the heart of the Ocularpation. What does it take to crack this office shell? How are we to advance
beyond the monitor, watercooler, and time clock? Is our very humanity slipping under the heels of pie chart
progress reports? What lies in wait for us when we've already surrendered to the fluorescent life?
Fainting
(Excerpt of full 2:53 min video)
The inspiration for this video came when my grandmother died 10 years ago and was brought back to life 5 minutes later. She said she visited heaven and proceeded to tell me all about it. Since that time I have tried to get as close to the edge of the divine as possible. This is a game we used to play as children. One of us would hold our breath and the other would choke us until we fainted. Then, as our blood deprived brains were dying the little death, we would travel time seamlessly, sometimes weeks into the future. This is the physical document of that slipstream eternal moment.
Fainting: The Collapse
oil on canvas, 2008
30x30 inches
Fainting: The Grasp
oil on canvas, 2008
30x30 inches
VAMPING: PART ONE, TITS AND PICKLE
(VIDEO 1:48MIN)
This is the first in a series of reinterpretations of classic works by modern masters. This piece is based off of James Rosenquist's irreverent and iconic "Playmate as Fine Art", 1966 (supposedly based upon a pregnant Playboy playmate).
In this video, I extrapolate the subtext of the painting and give voice to the sensual suggestions underlying the work. Raunchy, dirty and fast, this piece is half fetish film and half high art.
JAMES ROSENQUIST "PLAYMATE AS FINE ART" 1966
Fainting
(Excerpt of full 2:53 min video)
The inspiration for this video came when my grandmother died 10 years ago and was brought back to life 5 minutes later. She said she visited heaven and proceeded to tell me all about it. Since that time I have tried to get as close to the edge of the divine as possible. This is a game we used to play as children. One of us would hold our breath and the other would choke us until we fainted. Then, as our blood deprived brains were dying the little death, we would travel time seamlessly, sometimes weeks into the future. This is the physical document of that slipstream eternal moment.
Fainting: The Collapse
oil on canvas, 2008
30x30 inches
Fainting: The Grasp
oil on canvas, 2008
30x30 inches