Performing and Reading.

Soooooo last monday was part two in a three part series, "The Justin, James, and Kat" show. We painted with tampons. I was lying in bed one night, thinking about tampons(like all normal 20 year old men do), and was like "LET'S PAINT WITH THEM!" So I shot out of bed and wrote it down, and then went to sleep, thinking about how outrageous that was, and how to expand.

Only when I got to class did I realize the full implications of actually holding a tampon.

So, I would say that I think we had a nice idea/concept/whatevs... we didnt really have an end point though, which I guess showed. We actually did talk about how to end it prior, and it was more of a "just end it when you're done," which sorta worked and sorta didn't. Maybe next time we could've waited for all of us to finish individually... each turning around with our canvas when we concluded.

I was really embarassed when talking about it though lol... menstruation is not something I'm used to talking about hahah, which is sorta what it was all about. Men and tampons.

About the reading... it made me laugh right away with “A bunch of weirdoes who love to get naked and scream about leftist politics.” (Yuppie in a bar) I think jokes about liberals are funny. But yea, anyway, it kinda sucks that Performance Art even needs an essay to defend it. But I guess all new ideas get that treatment. *shrugs* I think new art forms should just be accepted... I think all of that should've been broken down after Duchamp displayed a urinal. It is sorta just a tsupid idea to discriminate against something because it's not normal or w/e... If it's interesting, or conceptually viable... then who's to say it's not art? The critics, I guess... well, to that I say, in the great words of the rap collective Niggaz With Attitude(or NWA), "Fuck tha Police." Tha Police, in this instance, being a metaphor for a greater sense of "authority." And the police literally too... because it's the hip thing at this college to hate the po-po. And I LOVE being hip. /sarcasm

I liked when he said "We are what others aren’t, we say what others don't..." I think that's a pretty good idea about what Performance Art tries to get at. Or at least what I think it should be... it should be trying to break down social norms, or as he says later in the essay "questioning imposed structures and dogmatic behavior wherever I find it."

We interrupt this program to bring you some break news. My hair is 8 inches long. I just measured for the first time ever. I think that's pretty groovy. Now back to our main story...

"Our bodies are also occupied territories. Perhaps the ultimate goal of performance, especially if you are a woman, gay or a person "of color," is to decolonize our bodies and make these decolonizing mechanisms apparent to our audience in the hope that they will get inspired to do the same with their own."

Oh my god, I hate that stupid race card. Just let it gooooooo. It's so annoying that everything gets drawn back to race. I mean, I know he's saying that the ultimate goal is to make it so they are "not colonized," but the average white male is not out to get you. I'm sorry, we just don't care. You're not being oppressed ... If anything, we're being oppressed now, with Affirmative Action, and all the negative energy directed towards us. Hmm... preference to one race over another? Sounds strangely familiar. The phrase "back of the bus" comes to mind. I remember stressing out my senior year of high school because I thought I was going to have a terribly hard time getting into a college because I had no defining racial aspects... I had to simply check the "Caucasian" box. How messed up is that? Like seriously... why does it matter? Especially in art.... like, let's say you are a woman, black, or w/e artist... shouldn't you want to distance yourself from that so you don't become a gimmick? Like, if you're broadcasting the fact that you're "a Woman Artist" or "a Black Artist" or "a Woman Native American Artist with a father who married a black woman" then that's all anyone is going to see... your race or gender, you become a gimmick. Why would anyone want that?

Or maybe thats the point, that they shouldn't have to distance themselves. But I'm just saying, I wouldn't want to label myself as "White Male Artist James Giblin," I just want it as "Artist James Giblin."

That's why I respect someone like Laurie Anderson. From what I know and read about her art, she doesn't base it around the fact that she is a female. It's about concepts and it's about art. She doesn't make it a gimmick, and she doesn't make me feel bad for being a white male.(Not to mention that Lou Reed is awesome.) While I like and respect the work of someone like Cindy Sherman... it kinda bugs me that it's all about her being the misrepresented female in a world filled with males.

Or whatever, maybe what I just said is just what happens when you grow up in the burbs. Lot's of tangents today... back to our story...

the paragraph entitled "I Dreamt I was a Pop Celebrity" was entertaining. Although a dream, it definitely seems like something that would happen... where a mistake becomes genius... It reminds me of an episode of Doug, where he was painting in the park one day on a canvas, when it got knocked onto the ground and Porkchop(his dog) and a raccoon ran into the paint and all over the canvas, and Doug became a famous artist for the rest of the episode until he showed his real work and was then dropped.

Anyway, I feel like I've written too much... so I'll conclude with saying that I really enjoyed the article, even though I don't think I really talked much about what he said about performance art. I liked his ideas about performance art(and i guess art in general) as a vehicle to make people think, and his ultimate goal to change someone's life, or whatever. Maybe I'll end with this quote from the interview at the end, which sorta struck a chord, just because the limits of our freedom is something I think about a lot...

Journalist: I don't get it. What is the function of performance art? Does it have any?

GP: (Long pause) Performance artists are a constant reminder to society of the possibilities of other artistic, political, sexual or spiritual behaviors, and this, I must say, is an extremely important function.

Journalist: Why?

GP: It helps others to re-connect with the forbidden zones of their psyches and bodies, and acknowledge the possibilities of their own freedoms.

James