No, It’s Not Good, But There Is Lots Of It
Hot from Helsinki, the works of Finnish artist Iiu Susiraja. First, her dazzling 2018 performance piece, Big Melody:
If the charms and profundities of the above should somehow remain elusive, clarity is offered by the following:
Her lethargic positions, situated in what we can assume are the confines of her own living room and bedroom, suggest marginal degrees of effort, imagination and intention. She sublimates herself as an object among curated objects, reminding us with each iteration that she is an imposition on space and space an imposition upon her. She is a weight on the world and the world unto her a weight.
Invigorated by such insights, you’re going to want more, aren’t you? As if I need ask.
Via Trevor, to whom our gratitude is inexpressible.
Every now and then, I wonder why I spend ten or more hours a day exhausting myself doing medical research after years of extremely challenging training and education to become qualified to do so.
It seems I could have found easier ways to put food (a lot of it, too) on the table.
Via Trevor, to whom our gratitude is inexpressible.
*cracks knuckles*
With apologies to Arthur C. Clarke, it seems that there may now be a Law for Performance Art:
Any sufficiently progressive performance art is indistinguishable from an OnlyFans page.
Here I am, slaving away to bring you wonders from around the world. A buffet of cultural nourishment.
…suggest marginal degrees of effort, imagination and intention…
“Suggest”, yes, in much the same way Fat Man and Little Boy were suggestions.
That there is some weapons grade great artiste gibberish, hoowever, Mr. Thesaurus strangely does not list Brobdingnagian as a synonym for “sumptuous”.
Via Trevor, to whom our gratitude is inexpressible.
Yes, thanks one hell of a lot, especially since the electrical outlets are US/Canada which appears to mean that she has decamped Finland for our sunny shores.
Got a chuckle from those. The sort of thing you’d find, say, on a YouTube troll video but she appears to have got artistic grants for them.
*cracks knuckles*
Are you auditioning for a henchlesbian opening?
suggest marginal degrees of effort, imagination and intention
And this from an apparent admirer, who adds:
She is a weight on the world and the world unto her a weight.
There’s no arguing with that.
I rather think she ate it all before we got here, David.
Yes, thanks one hell of a lot, especially since the electrical outlets are US/Canada which appears to mean that she has decamped Finland for our sunny shores.
I take it you are not a regular at New York’s prestigious Ramiken Crucible, venue of her seminal 2020 exhibition Dalmatian.
Philistine.
venue of her seminal 2020 exhibition Dalmatian.
If anyone’s getting aroused by this thread, I’m charging extra.
I came here this morning knowing that our host, fresh from his exhilarating and life-affirming haircut, would have something special in store for us.
It’s quite something, I must say. Performance tinkle. Let’s hope there’s not a Part II out there somewhere.
I had assumed, having followed the link here from Chris Snowdon’s (pbuh) place that the headline was going to refer to university education following the latest claim that insisting students pay attention to spelling and the like is a Bad Thing. I rather wish I’d been right…
Render her into lamp oil to repay every penny she was ever granted.
It is the only way to be fair.
I take it you are not a regular at New York’s prestigious Ramiken Crucible…
No, I live in a civilized state.
When does the art start?
When does the art start?
Good question. Having watched more of these things than a sane man should, I see no aesthetic, only a contempt for aesthetics, and a disdain for an audience that might still expect such things when hearing the word art.
That’s pretty much the level these things seem to work on.
A buffet of cultural nourishment
“A”? As in just one?
No, I live in a civilized state.
Once lived in NYC, but I moved to Texas, so…
Arts grants usually come with a questionnaire and you must produce at least some sort of precis about what your art will entail.
I pity the poor bugger who had to read this one.
Then again, his life (sorry, zer life) must be an unending multitude of such horrors on a daily basis. Sort of like a fishmonger in Innsmouth.
venue of her seminal 2020 exhibition Dalmatian.
Based on the reply, I’ll pass on clickage…
Innsmouth.
Rough place, so I’ve read. She’d fit right in.
fishmonger in Innsmouth.
First lol of the day. Thank you.
To click or not to click, that is the question.
New strategy, read comments first, and see if anyone had seizures from viewing vid.
Warning for future generations.
I think she went pee on a drum.
Is there a word for art which induces vomiting in the observer?
Gawd I wasnt ready for that…
New strategy, read comments first,
Oh, that’s no fun. You should just jump straight in, full of hope, expecting wonderment, awe, and sensual ecstasy.
Once it moved to a position over the toy drum, I pretty much knew what the “performance” was going to be. If something becomes boringly predictable does it still qualify as “art”.
Is there a word for art which induces vomiting in the observer.
The Germans must have a word for that, surely?
Ein gaggenlooker or some such overly consonant laden nonsense.
Is her “art” subsidized by the government?
If something becomes boringly predictable does it still qualify as “art”?
I honestly don’t know. Sometimes it feels as if whatever my reaction is, the “artist” stubbornly chooses the diametric opposite conclusion. They might say this work is “enlightened”.
“If anyone’s getting aroused by this thread, I’m charging extra.”
Don’t hold your breath. As Roger Ebert said in his critique of the movie Pearl Harbor {courtesy of Faisal’s Quotes page}, “although you may walk out quoting lines of dialog, it will not be because you admire them.”
Big Melody?
I’m confused. I thought you said her name was Liu.
Oh, and as an artist, she is indeed Finnish[ed].
Ein gaggenlooker
German is like LEGO with words.
German is like LEGO with words.
In the seminal DOS for Dummies book, the author talks about the relative value of different languages for communicating technical information; his comment on German is that it is possible to construct a single word that means “please don’t spit on the floor”.
German is like LEGO with words.
Exhibit B:
Rhababerbarbarabarbarbarenbartbarbierbierbarbärbel
The Germans must have a word for that, surely?
Germans are good at cramming words together to create new ones, or so I’m told…I now see DR alludes to such. I think the word for this would be something like Reachingformyrevolver. I’m sure it sounds better in the German.
Ah…and there it is…should have looked first…I believe it is Greifenachmeinemrevolver. I really need to try harder at these things…
TBH, could only watch for the first few seconds, then needed a drink. Bottle of your best Chardonnay please, no glass needed (saves on washing up and just slows me down)
Also, as a very trivial note, it is an IKEA doona cover I note ( have one on a guest bed)
it is an IKEA doona cover I note
Heh. I see your attention wandered. Were you not captivated?
It’s amazing how much contemporary art, especially this kind of performance drivel, celebrates ugliness on so many levels.
“Were you not captivated?”
Another quote, Peter Puppy this time:
“It’s… too… HORRIBLE… and yet I stare, perversely fascinated…”
At least Le Petomane could fart out a recognisable melody.
I couldn’t tell what tune she was trying to play.
It’s amazing how much contemporary art, especially this kind of performance drivel, celebrates ugliness on so many levels.
It’s the reliance on, and retreat into, banality. An artless, deliberate, self-satisfied banality, as if the expectation of aesthetics and accomplishment, any sense of wonderment, were somehow gauche and contemptible.
I recently found myself watching YouTube videos by cake makers and watchmakers, things I wouldn’t normally seek out. But the obvious care and craft and attention to detail – the measurements and precision, and the maddeningly small components – was fascinating. I found myself vicariously sharing their dedication, their joy. Which was rather nice, and unexpected.
But this kind of experience is not offered by Ms Susiraja and her peers, who are fundamentally interchangeable and seemingly unburdened by talent. There’s just a uniform attitude.
( have one on a guest bed)
Really. I’m getting a warrant. You’re suspected of harboring Liu Susiraja who is wanted for art crimes against humanity.
But the obvious care and craft and attention to detail – the measurements and precision, and the maddeningly small components – was fascinating.
And our Betters(tm) would say that that joy at accomplishment, that flaunting of hard work and talent is White Supremacist privilege out to oppress the less talented and lazy. How dare Ms Susiraja, et al, be considered lesser-than based on White Western ideals?
What have we become where once we could look at a sculpture by Michelangelo or listen to Handel’s Messiah by a full orchestra or even admire an exquisitely carved newel post and be thankful that such artists exist, to a “culture” run by emotional toddler-thugs whose only joy is in destroying things they could never create?
What have we become…
When I watch these things – which I do for you, dear readers, honest – I don’t see any art. I just see the same unhappy psychology.
“She is a weight on the world and the world unto her a weight.” That’s straight-up Newton! Two objects will attract each other in proportion to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of their distance. Her [m]ass is just larger than most.
From the look on its’ face, my guess it was performing kegel exercises the whole time.
Render her into lamp oil
We’re gonna need a bigger lamp.
The Germans must have a word for that, surely?
Die pissendrummer ?
Some pieces will be missing: Human Remains Found Near Ikea
seemingly unburdened by talent
Is there really any doubt? Even her aim was awful!
I’m not calling it art until she straps deli meat to her face.
I’m not calling it art until she straps deli meat to her face.
Ah, yes, those shifting paradigms.
I’m not calling it art until she straps deli meat to her face.
Just be thankful that I don’t now how to insert images.
Her vapid, expressionless face and her rumpled, pathetic bed both elicit the same emotional response. Abject hopelessness.
Her vapid, expressionless face
I’m guessing it’s supposed to be droll.
It’s amazing how much contemporary art, especially this kind of performance drivel, celebrates ugliness on so many levels.
Q.E.D.:
1. There was this putz of a modern “artist,” one Damien Hirst, who spoke of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as “kind of like an artwork in its own right,” and about the perpetrators, that “one level they kind of need congratulating.” (I thought I remembered some such sentiment from someone else too, but I can’t find it now.)
2. Another more recent putz who altered pictures of victims of the Khmer Rouge to add smiles to them.
So yeah, celebrating ugliness is pretty bog-standard for these types.
joy at accomplishment, that flaunting of hard work and talent
One of the more interesting things I ever heard from a mentor was “I’m not good at my job because I like it. I like it because I’m good at it.”
Another more recent putz who altered pictures of victims of the Khmer Rouge to add smiles to them.
His explanation doesn’t ring true to me, although I will admit that human motives can be very strange. Caveat: I haven’t read the Star Tribune article as it is behind a firewall.
Until now I neither feared nor loathed the internet. I should probably thank you, assuming I ever stop gagging
A buffet of cultural nourishment.
More a trough in this case. Perhaps a bucket. A pile?
Jim Henson before the Muppets. Can I interest you in some Wilkins coffee?
Je vends des accessoires au propane et au propane.
So kind.
*checking my pockets for stray crumbs*
We’re gonna need a bigger lamp.
It is proper that an artist illuminates the lives of the people.
Since she’s a fucking fraud she can illuminate an Eskimo’s fishing shack instead.
What do you have against Eskimos?
TEST
Nobody told me there would be a test today!
I see now that I have not really understood transgenderism until today.
Yes, please, cut it off. I’m done.
(Watching such an expression of pure mental illness is like voyeurism minus the fun of titillation. I feel dirty.)
“neither feared nor loathed the internet.”
Isn’t unlimited mass communication wonderful?
ANONYMOUS has been posting that “Kalemkarian” comment on sites all over the internet. I recommend that in this case the troll’s coat should be set on fire in the street while he is still wearing it.
Her vapid, expressionless face and her rumpled, pathetic bed both elicit the same emotional response. Abject hopelessness.
That would be Darwin’s response, as he throws a rope over a joist in his garage.
an Eskimo’s fishing shack instead.
Eskimo is now considered rayciss. Please update your database of micro-aggressions accordingly. /s
She wouldn’t last long among the Inuit. She looks too much like their food.
Have they defenestrated Esquimaux yet?
What do you have against Eskimos?
Just keeping it legal.
“(I thought I remembered some such sentiment from someone else too, but I can’t find it now.)”
Elizabeth Wurtzel on seeing the buildings collapse: “It just slid like a turtleneck going over someone’s head … It was just beautiful.”
Have they defenestrated Esquimaux yet?
Yup. Even though the french supposedly means netter of snowshoes those who want to be insulted had already convinced themselves that Eskimo meant eater of raw meat from some native language which of course can’t be verified because they have no writing. Even though the Inuit were actually eaters of raw meat.
The football team caved to the name change despite the fact that the majority of fans and a number of Eskimo groups were fine with the name Eskimos.
I’d never even heard of this Deadmau5 until a friend pointed it out very recently. Good music for tasering leftists.
Uma Thurmond’s Feet: thanks.
Elizabeth Wurtzel on seeing the buildings collapse: “It just slid like a turtleneck going over someone’s head … It was just beautiful.”
“I had not the slightest emotional reaction [to watching one of the World Trade Center Towers collapse]. I thought: ‘This is really a strange art project.’… It was a most amazing sight in terms of sheer elegance. It fell like water. It just slid, like a turtleneck going over someone’s head. … It was just beautiful. You can’t tell people this. I’m talking to you because you’re Canadian. … I just felt, like, everyone was overreacting. People were going on about it. That part really annoyed me.”
I think our culture is too tolerant of monsters like Wurtzel. Much too tolerant.
TIM KALEMKARIAN as Liu Susiraja’s drum!
(One should live up to one’s handle every so often.)
I started watching that and as soon as she straddled there drum, I thought, “Bitch is going to fucking piss, isn’t she?”
And then she did and I noped out of that video.
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE? I swear to God, there are days I understand spree killers’ mentality. Thank God for alcohol, snark, puppies, Tom Ellis’ ass, Dragnet reruns, Coen Brothers movies, and one hit wonders from the 70s – they help to keep people sane.
Tom Ellis’ ass,
[ Picks up napkin, fans Stephanie, concerned she may overheat. ]
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?
As Mark Steyn said, politics is downstream from culture. In the name of “tolerance” and “not hurting anyone’s feelings”, we’ve allowed people with deep-rooted psychopathologies free rein.
I recall the various forms of pop culture from my youth, nearly all of which had some form of “be yourself/bullying is evil/getting along is the highest good” message; as Mark Evanier once said, one of the rules children’s TV had to work under in the 1980s was “the complainer is always wrong”.
Combine this with the aggressive, coercive “anti-bullying” programs currently in vogue and its easy to see how we got to the point where forcefully pointing out that someone pissing on a toy drum is engaged in seriously disturbing behaviour and needs to stop will get you in more trouble than actually pissing on a toy drum.
The second video- I’m impressed by the strength of the bed, less so by the novelty razor.
I keep getting emails offering “free bottle of Spectator gin [worth £30 ] when you subscribe for just £12”. Will it help me endure Liu Susiraja’s videos?
Good music for tasering leftists.
I see what you did there and endorse.
I was away from the lab yesterday, so I only saw this post while squinting at my phone on lunch break. I saw the video still and thought “Is she going to use the chamber pot standing up? Why is she holding chopsticks?”. After reading the comments and seeing the video still on a computer monitor, it seems I wasn’t too far off the mark. I still don’t know what the drumsticks are for, and that’s ok. You can lead this rat to “Art”, Dear Host, but you can’t make her nibble. Nope, nope, nope!!
Thank God for alcohol, snark, puppies, Tom Ellis’ ass, Dragnet reruns, Coen Brothers movies, and one hit wonders from the 70s – they help to keep people sane.
I second this wholeheartedly!
My friend has NetFlix and I do not, so when I am house/dog sitting for her, I bingewatch Lucifer on her big screen TV.
That is one fine ass indeed.
On Netflix, I heartily recommend Cobra Kai. Refreshingly free of woke pieties and the gender dynamics are downright subversive by pomo standards. There are, however, no asses of any particular note.
I bingewatch Lucifer on her big screen TV
the gender dynamics are downright subversive
There’s an interesting juxtaposition. I dropped Lucifer about two minutes into S2 when it became obvious they were going to neuter him in favour of the rah-rah grrl power angle.
As an artist, she owns the standing urination on a drum meme. Anyone else peeing on a musical instrument henceforth is just a tosser.
You will also have to admit that the performance can’t be improved upon.
You will also have to admit that the performance can’t be improved upon.
She could put that on her resume.
I’m so scarred by this kind of material that I found myself relieved that she merely urinated on the drum.
Man, ASMR got weird.
For real though, that first one caught me completely off guard. I found myself having the same reaction to the second video that Franklin had to the first. I was waiting for some horrific and equally unexpected happening to occur- but huzzah, the second one was, comparatively, fairly tame. I mean it definitely made me… you know, hate capitalism and objectification.. or whatever, but in a more subtle way, so subtle that I couldn’t really explain it, like the videos themselves.