Spider-Man’s Unwell Cousin
Because I know you love it, here’s more “guerrilla art” on a bridge. Or more specifically, an “infiltration in public space.” This time the venue is Pier 66 at the 2011 Fountain New York Art Fair, where Canadian performance artist Martine Viale thrills and captivates passers-by, armed only with a carrier bag of bobbins and a head wrapped in yarn. The powerful climax is rather special.
A triumph, I think you’ll agree.
Ms Viale regards her body as “a place of research” and her “artistic practice” is, needless to say, terribly intellectual, indeed profound, focussing as it does “on ‘process-action’ and the corporeality of space and time that allow for simultaneous multi-dimensional developments.”
Ms Viale’s other, no less mighty works include Intra Muros 1, highlights of which can be seen here, Elongation, a “physically demanding” work that involved stepping from one bowl of blue paint to the next, and which, for one reviewer, “evoked a metaphysical cloud of unknowing,” and Ma Interval (Tel Aviv), in which our fearlessly transgressive artist wrapped wool around some bus station benches and then stood motionless for over an hour, presumably waiting for applause and recognition of her talent.
You’re spoiling us, David, you really are.
You’re spoiling us, David, you really are.
No, don’t thank me. You deserve this.
I know, you’re hungry for more.
“Wealth and fame, (s)he’s ignored”.
Heh.
It has to be said that “guerrilla art” does look uncannily like “busking”. Only with a more self important name. And no artistic or entertainment value.
a “physically demanding” work that involved stepping from one bowl of blue paint to the next, and which, for one reviewer, “evoked a metaphysical cloud of unknowing,”
I bet it did.
Is the woman in the background holding up the bridge?
Is the woman in the background holding up the bridge?
Well, given the weight of talent bearing down upon it…
In fact that’s Ms Sandrine Schaefer, another performance artist. She’s also “infiltrating public space” with some “guerrilla art.”
Can’t you tell?
*sigh*
I must have missed the climax. It happens all the time.
Shouldn’t that Post-It note read “Kick me hard”?
I must have missed the climax.
Yes, it sort of dwindles aimlessly then fizzles out, making it hard to tell whether the art is actually happening. Which, on reflection, is a problem throughout the piece.
The only way that “work” could have been more profound is if the yarn had been purchased at Hobby Lobby.
‘Geurrilla art’?
Bananas more like..
If she had used her supposed arachnic talents to scale the bridge with pot and brush in hand, then entirely re-painted it in an attractively subtle colour, not only could she have claimed for her actions any limitless number of spatio-temporal theories of intervention and reclamation, but would at least have been of some bloody use to someone..
There’s another (presumably) mentally ill attendee in a haz-mat suit standing and staring.
I wish I could make up success factors for my job the way these artists make up the artists define the purpose and impact of their work. MANAGER: “Why was the project late and over budget” ME: “Due to fact that the corporeality of space and time failed to allow for simultaneous multi-dimensional developments my process actions did not produce an installation grounded in performance.” MANAGER: “OK. Here’s a brochure for out-patient counselling services”
BTW as a Canadian i can say that no one does artsy-crazy like Quebec does artsy-crazy. They are on a level all their own.
Vogon performance art?
I didn’t see the monkey. Where was the monkey!
Worst. Superhero. Ever.
So is doing really shit performance art on a bridge a thing now?
There was a massive breakout from the Canadian Institute For The Artistically Pretentious a few years ago, and it took a while to round up the escapees. Our apologies.
So is doing really shit performance art on a bridge a thing now?
I’d guess it’s a forced proximity thing. I mean, if you’re “infiltrating public space” with “guerrilla art,” you don’t want your hoped-for audience crossing the street to avoid the needy narcissist arsing about in front of them. Though it seems that even if you oblige members of the public to walk within spitting distance of the transgressive “infiltration” – in this case, some tragically untalented bint wafting strands of cotton – the passers-by just pass on by.
So is doing really shit performance art on a bridge a thing now?
Happily, apparently not likely. The last round of flailing about on a bridge that David discovered was 2010, this one is 2011 . . .
As a contrasting note, and noting current performances, there was a particular concert locally a few days back, where a singer and her band wound up sharing the stage with a rapper. One attendee and reviewer commented that the singer did very well and clearly was on top of her form, where the rapper apparently just showed up. Another reaction I saw was a note to the singer, basically stating Dear [singer’s name], thank you for having the rapper on stage during your concert, it gave me a pee break.
At my local supermarket they charge 1p for each plastic bag. As our inelegant artiste was carrying three, I calculated her value to be about 3p.
imbecile!
One thing which strikes me about these public performances is how . . . lame and amateurish they are. It reminds me of what happens when a six-year-old decides to put on a puppet show for Mom & Dad: the six-year-old makes a puppet, maybe makes a set, fusses at everyone to be quiet because the puppet show is about to start, and then . . . flails about kind of randomly because the six-year-old never bothered to write a script or rehearse the puppet show before the performance.
One would think that guerrilla art process-action focusing on simultaneous space-time events would be exhaustively scripted and rehearsed. That every movement would be planned carefully in advance as part of the cumulative artistic effect. That the whole thing would be a hypnotic and fascinating display of skill and discipline and creativity.
One would think, but one would be wrong. Apparently once you’ve had lesbian sex with someone on an arts granting board, you can pull shit like this on the public dime and spend the rest of your time watching True Blood.
Most of the passersby wisely ignore Ms. Viale and her bobbins.
The trailer for the movie ‘Bound’ is more a more entertaining example of Girlilla Art…=)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kA0K66yQxo
I mean, if you’re “infiltrating public space” with “guerrilla art,” you don’t want your hoped-for audience crossing the street to avoid the needy narcissist arsing about in front of them.
So doing ‘guerrilla’ performance art is a lot like selling the Big Issue.
So doing ‘guerrilla’ performance art is a lot like selling the Big Issue.
Only without the respect and affection of the public.
Big Issue sellers look down on people doing performance art.
These “artists” always seem to be young white chicks. Why is that?
Well, I am grateful that this work elicited the phrase “metaphysical cloud of unknowing.” That I am going to remember, and use, to describe the outcome of the endless public idiocies I am confronted with almost daily.
Meanwhile, England’s attempt is curtailed by poor reviews and police negotiators:
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/commuters-face-train-cancellations-after-suspected-burglar-is-chased-off-rail-track-and-hides-out-in-tree-in-south-east-london-9666512.html
Ah yes, I get it. Mirror neurons and empathy. Well played, Martine.
I feel so much empathy with this guerilla artist, I begin to cry. Am I looking at myself? Where does my Self begin, and where does the spiderweb of cultural normativity bind my disfigured adult Self into submission, forcing me to cast fleeting glances back upon my inner childhood mime-Self, standing in the doorway of ritual?
Truly we are disfigured by our own spiderwebs; silk made strong by the habits of tradition and custom.
So just stroll on by, commenters, stroll on by over the abyss. Me and Martine stop waiting somewhere for you. Transgressive, transcendent, and alive on that bridge.
You’ll never understand.
Shouldn’t she be fined for littering?
That’s not art, THIS is art:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mccormickphotography/5603668059/
A veritable transgressive masterpiece that overlays rural sensibilities with urban sophistication. My Governor General’s Award (with ensuing bucketload of grant money) will be arriving shortly. Just you wait.
Climax? There was a climax?
Looks like Chris N has a career in Art Criticism ahead of him…
Well done.
That’s not art, THIS is art:
‘k, let’s have a look . . . . and we get:
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Eeeeehhhnnn . . . . Careful about hoping for that prize. So far you’re presenting merely a most basic first layer demonstration of bureaucratic obfuscation and complication. Besides, it’s actually already been done.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mccormickphotography/5603672139/in/photostream/
soft glow
very sweet
. . . stepping from one bowl of blue paint to the next, and which, for one reviewer . . .
Hmmm.
It has been noted here in past pages by Natalie Loveless that a regeneration of performance art is taking place in Boston.
Ack!! Get out the scalpels! Do brief the CDC . . .
Artists and organizers such as Test Performance Art Event and The Present Tense formed their own collective entities . . . .
. . . better than forming someone else’s I presume, but whose else but their own would they form?!?!?!
. . . and have been producing events in Boston for the past three years. Contaminate II, . . .
Right. CDC it is.
. . . a festival featuring 16 artists, held at the unfinished “café” . . .
Um, the quotes because one should be extremely wary of the menu?
. . . space of the redeveloped, post-industrial Midway Studios, March 9th and 10th, was such a joint venture. Their productions must be welcomed and attended given the dearth of alternative spaces with live art programs in Boston.
. . . . Ah . . Why must be???
Programming in unusual spaces has become a desirable and expeditious strategy, in and of itself, for groups and organizations to get their mission across and to realize their work on its own terms.
. . because if you go into a “usual” space, someone might actually assess the show on its own terms?
Test’s and Present Tense’s do-it-yourself approach is refreshing and necessary, both as a testament to the nature of performance art and their need to purvey it.
. . . . Refreshing?? Need???
This kind of talent needs to be funded by the taxpayer.
Heck, it’s a frontline service.
I think she should start using det cord instead of yarn. It would increase the viewers pleasure lol
Speaking of art and the dichotomy between the art world and the general public (aka the “hoi polloi”). I was recently editing an audio oral history recording. It was of an artist-in-residence in a local gallery. She was preparing an installation of artefacts such as Islamic prayer mats and weavings and so forth. She’d gotten to know the local Afghan refugee community and was very sympathetic to them. When asked who she was looking forward to viewing her exhibition, she listed: her peers, and the local Afghan people she’d met. Can anyone see what substrata of society she completely missed listing?
“very sweet”
Why, thank you. I have also done live coverage of important political protests. Watershed moments in our development as a nation.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mccormickphotography/5603671283
“SafeSearch is a feature that allows you to control what turns up in your searches on Flickr, and it’s on for everyone by default.”
I apologize. I had forgotten that I flagged that photo as being unsuitable for general audiences (because, kerbangers, right?). In that event, Yahoo/Flickr expects you to sign in with one of their free accounts to prevent minors from being exposed to the offending artwork in question.
It’s a close-up of some bull bollocks.
In my defence, I was feeling impoverished and depressed. Nothing like rolling around in some freely provided taxpayer cash to alleviate those dark feelings. Alas, lacking Sarah Polley’s connections — not to mention her marvellous chest — I continue to find myself underfunded as an emerging Canadian artist. Fear not, my upcoming series on climate change (there is a Barbie doll freezing into a bucket of water as I type this), will change all that. I have a good feeling about this.
…to walk within spitting distance of the transgressive “infiltration”…
Now there’s a thought. That’s what I’d call performance art.
In the old world this lady would have been in the sanitarium, either way her insanity is on the public dime.
What would be fun, put something like this on a leftist website and make them disown it. We never make them disown their crazies.
Climax? There was a climax?
Did you not feel it? Deeply, in your mind?
In other news, I checked the Vimeo stats and I appear to have boosted the viewership of Ms Viale’s performance, hitherto neglected, by a considerable margin. She will no doubt be thrilled.
‘Care in the Community’ clearly isn’t working.
profound, focussing as it does “on ‘process-action’ and the corporeality of space and time that allow for simultaneous multi-dimensional developments.”
What the FUCK is THAT meant to be, for a pile of goboldygook shite?
What the FUCK is THAT meant to be, for a pile of goboldygook shite?
It’s just the postmodern version of bullshit bingo.
You can rearrange it any which way, and it still means absolutely nothing, e.g. “multi-dimensional developments and ‘process-action’ that allow for simultaneous corporeality and focussing on space and time”.
>What the FUCK is THAT meant to be
Someone who likes the idea that they’re as clever and inventive as Einstein, but just is, in reality, cursed with Dunning Kruger.
Someone should introduce her to E Harmony.
A fitting “climax” would have been her jumping off the bridge in the path of a tugboat. They have really big propellers, you see.
Now if she had an open can of tuna,every alley cat in the area could have had a part in this and she might have had some funding from PETA,starving artiste and all that rot ,you know…….Any idea what the waif in the white outfit was supposed to represent?
I see your obscure art peformance, and raise it:
http://www.gay.com/gaynet/man-plans-to-have-sex-with-different-guy-every-day-for-a-year-for-art
It’s art because he’s not that good looking? Umm.
Mr. Rowe, how did you….. never mind…
@David, Glad she is finally getting the attention she craves.
The 36-year-old Russian born, Berlin raised artist says he hopes his performance piece, which he is currently calling “Save the Date,” will challenge ideas of sexuality and homosexuality in the age of dating apps.
How does behaving like a stereotypical promiscuous gay man “challenge” anything at all?
(H)e’ll use hook-up apps and sites like Gay.com, GayRomeo, Gaydar, Scruff and Grindr to turn traditional spaces like supermarkets and motorways into places where humans connect by having sex in them.
Maybe the humans who use those “traditional spaces” will be just too busy doing basic stuff like shopping or going somewhere else; you know, using those “spaces” for their intended purposes, so they will probably miss the point and just be offended.
“Mummy, what are those two men doing?”
“Why dear, they’re exposing our decadent and hypocritical bourgeois sensibilities and lack of empathy for each other by having sex next to the chiller cabinets”.
[Tannoy announcement]: *ding dong* “Staff member- clean-up in aisle 7”.
“I would go to [the park] every night and have sex with guys…until 5 o’clock, 6 o’clock in the morning,” he told Mic.com. “And I was always … I felt very bad. I was crying all the time. I am always sad after these kind of meetings.”
Well don’t do it, then.
And if you must, I’d suggest avoiding the traditional space currently known as the M6, especially in Staffordshire during peak hours. It’s bad enough as it is without someone engaging in homosexual coitus on the hard (*snigger*) shoulder.
How does behaving like a stereotypical promiscuous gay man “challenge” anything at all?
I think you’ve given this more thought than Mr Badasyan has.
“Why dear, they’re exposing our decadent and hypocritical bourgeois sensibilities and lack of empathy for each other by having sex next to the chiller cabinets”.
[Tannoy announcement]: *ding dong* “Staff member- clean-up in aisle 7”.
Heh.
Well done.
Oh, somewhat On topic given the bit of drift, just now spotted Robyn Urback: Protesters fail to shut down men’s issues lecture, celebrate anyway
Campus security was called in to mitigate the disruption, and the event was moved to another location on campus. The protesters ostensibly then went home, or possibly convened elsewhere to celebrate their insurrection. Either way, the lecture continued.
Ooooh, just hate it when event coordination continues to coordinate an event, even through and in spite of situational kerfluffles . . . . . .
Hal,
By the protesters’ later account, however, their rebellion was akin to confronting and conquering proponents of “misogynist” messaging. (The event was actually about the struggles men and fathers face in family court, but that doesn’t really matter).
What occurs to me about these arrogant little tools – besides their mental uniformity and their belief that the campus belongs to them and is theirs to disrupt – is that their places could be taken by students who actually want to learn something. There must be thousands of much smarter, more honest people who would eagerly use the opportunity these obnoxious parasites are squandering.
[ Added: ]
See latest post.
Reminds me of a Dennis Miller line…to paraphrase,
“A video of a kitten playing with a a ball of yarn is only entertaining if kitty accidentally strangles itself.”