It’s The Stuff Of The Soul
I think it’s time we elevated the tone with some coverage of the arts. Beginning with the colossal creative talents of Ms Sandrine Schaefer, whose collected Goose Studies are presented below. The opening extract, a site-specific installation, was performed in New York in October. The organisers of the event, titled Performance Is Alive, tell us that in order to avoid being “vapid,” they curate only “the best projects based on the merits of the work.” They are, we learn, presenting “art that’s critical and progressive and transgressive.”
For those prone to erotic inflammation, a word of caution. The following video does contain traces of obligatory boobage.
As you can see, the audience for Ms Schaefer’s display of aesthetic tumescence was vast and suitably awed.
Having shared in that awe, albeit fleetingly, readers will be intrigued by the forthcoming Performance Is Alive Miami event, opening its doors on Thursday. There, gathered talents will “investigate a wide range of social and political topics” while engaging in “durational performance actions” that “allow artists… to employ repetition and endurance.” Because if there’s one thing art should be, it’s a test of one’s endurance.
Amanda Kleinhans, for instance, will be thrilling visitors with her “explorations of the fat body and fat experience,” and by “making connections between bigger bodies and landscapes or natural phenomena.” Bold and profound questions to be ruminated at length include “Can I fit in that seat?” and “Do I fit into these pants?” Alas, no preview of the forthcoming piece is currently available. However, I am able to share with you a brief appetiser of an earlier effort, titled Fitting XV, in which Ms Kleinhans channels the power of radical rotundity:
Tickets for the Miami happening can be purchased here.
For those worried that it might not be, “LGBTQ+ diversity” will of course be “proudly celebrated.” Again.
Well, particularly for events that keep abreast of things, and given a girth of focus, it’s all certainly under the sole, but would that be right sole, left, or anything goes?
. . . “making connections between bigger bodies and landscapes or natural phenomena.”
Right, here y’are with a bigger bodies and natural phenomena . . .
Must be viewed in widescreen.
in order to avoid being “vapid,” they curate only “the best projects based on the merits of the work.”
*raises hand*
I have a question…
They are, we learn, presenting “art that’s critical and progressive and transgressive.”
I think I see the problem.
I think I see the problem.
It’s not a promising start, no. It does rather suggest that any discernibly aesthetic considerations will be at best incidental, and that the “wide range of social and political topics” may in fact be quite narrow.
My much more wholesome performance art piece entitled ‘Big Bu**er Chases Birds and Falls Over’.
These people have been taking the piss for so long there can’t be a single drop left in the entire cosmos.
Where’s a near sighted goose hunter when you need one?
“Where’s a near sighted goose hunter when you need one?”
Oh please – what are you going to shoot that with? Nowhere on that monstrous girth could a shot penetrate to a vital area – presuming she has one. And obviously, no point shooting her in the head.
Geese, on the other hand…
This is the reason I’m not a Dr.
I really couldn’t take this sort of thing.
…a word of caution.
Not to worry, there is nothing even vaguely erotic about that boobage, though I am wondering why the “studio” in the first video needs an Armco barrier.
Kills the meme of the “poor starving artist”.
explorations of the fat body
Not today, thanks.
How much tax money went to fund that garbage?
I call this one Woman In Background.
It seems to me the premise of “durational performance actions” is a bad one, a non-starter. In that, while I can imagine performances that require stamina from the artist, it’s probably unwise to faff about doing something so tedious, so devoid of beauty or pleasure, or of any discernible point, that it has to be endured by the audience too.
Such as it is.
“Bold and profound questions to be ruminated at length include ‘Can I fit in that seat?’ and ‘Do I fit into these pants?’”
“Does anyone want the last muffin?” “Are you going to eat that?”
“These people have been taking the piss for so long there can’t be a single drop left in the entire cosmos.”
The hamsters seem to have plenty left. Can anyone recommend a good drycleaner?
“Does anyone want the last muffin?” “Are you going to eat that?”
Well, instead of making unimpressive self-preoccupied art, Ms Kleinhans could redirect her efforts to something more useful. Say, dialling back on the carbs and sugar.
I think I see the problem.
As so often with Ms Schaefer’s offerings, and those of her peers, it’s almost a kind of gaslighting. In that, some pretentious, needy inadequate with negligible talent tries to convince an audience of equally pretentious inadequates that the toss and flummery on offer is somehow important, even profound, and deserving of applause. It’s almost like a dare. Sort of, “How far can I push it before they give up on trying to excuse my obvious incompetence?”
As an exercise in bad faith, in mutual dishonesty, it’s quite a thing.
I’d like to see her do that with a real canada goose like this one. Now that would be transgressive.
Oh, and someone should sic PETA on her setting up a progessive battle royale.
It’s perhaps worth remembering that Ms Schaefer teaches performance art to those less gifted than herself, and is a recipient of the Boston ICA’s 2015 Foster Prize.
She has been described by the ICA’s senior curator as “amazing,” “compelling” and yet inexplicably “underfunded.”
About that there erotic inflammation…
Yeah, yeah, we know. “Credit note only. No refunds”.
Yeah, yeah, we know. “Credit note only. No refunds”.
After the recent ‘Darleen’s-go-go-boots-and-miniskirt’ saga, something had to be done. I’m restoring balance to the universe.
Who let the air out of Bibendum?
I’d like to see her do that with a real canada goose…
Note she doesn’t use swans. There are some things even Zeus cannot be talked into.
“About that there erotic inflammation…”Credit note only.”
Ceftriaxone or doxycycline would probably work better.
Unlike the rest of you plebs, I do find artistic meaning in the second video*. See, much like how Corbyn’s massive ego results in honestly conveying his unwillingness to kill ISIS leaders, Amanda Kleinhans’ engorged cake holder covers the unkempt horror lurking between her legs.
In both art and life people’s biggest flaws can often be their greatest attribute, especially where the public is concerned. Or something.
*admittedly based solely on the screencap – credit note in the mail I trust?
*admittedly based solely on the screencap
I think you need to behold its full majesty.
“…And obviously, no point shooting her in the head.” Y. Knott
Why not? A few new holes might let some light in.
Leda and the Swan continues to inspire the greatest artists of every Age.
Amanda Kleinhans, for instance, will be thrilling visitors with her “explorations of the fat body and fat experience,”
Is she melting?
These people have been taking the piss for so long there can’t be a single drop left in the entire cosmos.
Check with David on that, he seems to have found a steady supply.
Check with David on that, he seems to have found a steady supply.
All my instincts tell me our host’s wheelings and dealings are better left uninvestigated.
There are some things even Zeus cannot be talked into.
You beat me to it.
Whoever said “Art is beauty” obviously never clapped eyes on Ms Kleinhans.
I’m restoring balance to the universe.
I was tempted to take that as a challenge; however, I’d run out of 70’s pics of me long before you’d run out of Ms Kleinhans and ilk.
I’ll just sit here quietly and again wonder who hates art this much that they underwrite Ms. Kleinhans’ grocery bill.
FELINE BETTER NOW
however, I’d run out of 70’s pics of me long before you’d run out of Ms Kleinhans and ilk.
I do seem to have built up quite a collection of soul-withering pseudo-art, the only value of which is anthropological.
Something that serves as a cautionary tale.
“I do seem to have built up quite a collection of soul-withering pseudo-art, the only value of which is anthropological.”
Yes, the modern crop of artists seems to have missed the whole “starving in an unheated garret” meme (particularly the “starving” bit), or at least decided that if doing so is the break-point between the ancient masters and themselves, they wouldn’t turn-out as many masterpieces.
Or ANY, for that matter.
Fitting background music for the Goose presentation.
A fitting contrast ….. heh.
Can’t provide direct link but “YouTube Frankie lane wild goose” will get you there.
Sound quality is terrible with small speakers but if that’s what you got it’s what you’ll get.
First heard this as a young boy. Still love it.
Completely OT
Whatever you do, DO NOT go to Twitter and scroll, much less participate in, #TrollingtheGuardian.
“Look at MEEEEE, daddy!”
“Look at MEEEEE, daddy!”
If you poke through Ms Kleinhans’ social media, you’ll find the usual signatures of the type – alternately green or purple hair, serious weight issues, facial piercings and numerous deliberately unattractive tattoos. What these things signify – as opposed to what the people making these choices imagine they signify – I leave to the reader.
Can’t provide direct link but “YouTube Frankie lane wild goose” will get you there.
Pity it wasn’t ducks, else I’d pull out my favorite Kinks song.
Off topic, but everyone’s favourite transgender activist is back in the news. Jessica Yaniv can’t understand why a gynecologist won’t see “her.” Can another human rights tribunal be far off?
Can Yaniv be charged with some kind of public nuisance or something?
Can Yaniv be charged with ___
What part of “Protected Class” are you not understanding?
As long as we are going off topic, the stupidest thing you can read today, shade inequality.
Seriously, this encapsulates everything wrong with leftist thought; poor people in LA have less shade than the mainly wypipo in Beverly Hills and Bel-Air so they have to stand in “the blistering sun” (average August high all of 84F, daily mean 74F – “blistering”) at bus stops because there are fewer trees than Beverly Hills and Bel-Air, not that the people there ride busses anyway. The solution is to hire a “tree czar” and spend a small fortune to plant 90K trees (picture at link) which won’t provide shade for 20 years, assuming they don’t all die before then. Of course there are fewer trees because of police. Climate change too is a culprit in all this mess.
RTWT.
Farnsworth
The supply for woke-mining has not yet outstripped demand, so why prolong this tedium with a click? They will keep finding
the Virgin Mary on tortillasoppression untilRaptureall straight white males have transitioned to dead white males.Re: Shade Inequality.
Farnsworth, sir, you don’t seem to understand that white people trying to plant trees in less-white areas would be racially insensitive “arrogance”!
https://www.citylab.com/environment/2019/01/detroit-tree-planting-programs-white-environmentalism-research/579937/
It does rather suggest that any discernibly aesthetic considerations will be at best incidental, and that the “wide range of social and political topics” may in fact be quite narrow.
It would be real shame if some
counter-revolutionaryfilthy pleb were to burst into one of their little happenings and disrupt things by presenting a work of actual beauty.…white people trying to plant trees in less-white areas would be racially insensitive “arrogance”!
Right you are, how quickly I forgot about these racist trees.
My shame is complete, I can’t wait to try out that Captain Pike looking Chinese regrooving machine.
#TrollingtheGuardian.
Apparently this is how you would behave if you pretended to believe that “Comment was Free”.
Sound advice for machine dating in the age of Ultron.
Please forgive the off topic and such, but in light of the new Clint Eastwood movie coming out about Richard Jewell, the guy the media and FBI bullied/framed for the 1996 Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, there’s a petition to have the White House rename the press room there to The Richard Jewell Memorial Press Room. Needs 100,000 American signatures. Any thoughts on publicizing this would be greatly appreciated.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/richard-jewell-memorial-press-room
rename the press room there to The Richard Jewell Memorial Press Room
Perfect. I’ve signed and shared it to my FB page.
I seem to recall that trees planted in “deprived” neighborhoods had a tendency to not survive. My memory may be faulty so take that with a grain of salt if you wish.
Re: planting trees: the woke Left, especially black radicals, have condemned white interest in parks and nature preserves and camping and hiking as racist. So wouldn’t a program to plant trees in neighborhoods of color be a racist imposition of white values, a virtual invasion? Just asking.
white people trying to plant trees in less-white areas would be racially insensitive “arrogance”
Funny how this review of a book covering the American Dutch Elm, it’s rise and demise, doesn’t ever mention “cops had them removed cuz racism”. Not woke enough in 2003, I guess.
Don’t know if it’s an American Dutch Elm, but the one in my front yard in Central Florida is a PITA. Drops leaves/seeds every fall that like to stick to the sidewalk/street in such a way that it’s extra effort to sweep up. Lately parts have been breaking off such that I’ve finally decided it has to go before it breaks through a roof or window or kills someone. Damn trees are dangerous.
Those ‘deprived neighborhoods’ are better off without them. These f’n do-goody tree huggers. It’s like they don’t understand that trees have killed more people than the cops (or Hillary Clinton, for that matter). It’s a fact. You can look it up.
Minneapolis was full of American Elms when I was growing up there, and watching them come down during the great infestation of the 1970s was deeply disturbing for the young Squid. I remember my mother crying when the City took down the giant elm that grew by the street in front of our house. Subsequently, I wrote a paper in college covering the spread of Dutch Elm Disease across North America. FWIW, the trees are American, and the disease is Dutch (Asian, actually, but it was identified by Dutch researchers).
I realize that any monoculture is just asking to be ravaged by some infectious agent sooner or later, but I don’t think I’ll ever see an urban environment as lovely as the great green archways that covered our residential streets when I was a lad. We’ve had over 40 years to re-grow the urban forest, but the mixed-species canopy just isn’t the same.