by Sue Spaid for the group show at the Baltimore Art Museum 2011

Activist Antics

Political activists increasingly infuse their professional practices with artistic practices (posters, puppets and manifestos), yet artists have been employing antics for political gains ever since Duchamp’s Fountain stunt proved that “not all art is created equally.” Eager to provide greater pedestrian rights and to draw attention to society’s increasingly authoritarian governments, Italian Patrizia Giambi and her collaborators painted-in “zebra-crossings” over night in Italian cities such as Forlì, Ravenna, Bologna, Genoa, Milan and France’s Nice during the month of May 1997. Later that year, she exhibited Millemiglia, a related poster project at Amsterdam’s W139 and Los Angeles’s Lasca Gallery. By exhibiting “how-to instructions,” she transfers her desire to take back the streets, however temporarily. As illegal pedestrian crossings, her interventions are typically short-lived, yet mightily appreciated by those who experience them first hand. As Mauro Panzera notes, “A constant [theme in Giambi’s work] is the attention paid towards the codes that we share -whether the alphabet, writing or measure. Now the zebra crossings represent the breaking of the code from inside the code itself. Whoever crosses it is committing an illegal act, but complying with the rules, the code." [4] Wild Korea (2005), Korean Gimhongsok’s fictional, documentary-style narrative about Korea, is simultaneously an everyday hoax, riffing on absurd urban myths and “wishful thinking” and an activist tour-de-force, helping Koreans re-construct their national identity as a defiant, irreverent people. Wanting to draw people’s attention to the hypocrisy of democracy, freedom and openness, Los-Angeles-based My Barbarian’s video Time to Socialize (2011) features the trio dancing and singing a critique of American values with D.C.’s Washington Monument and in their midst.

Although the global Yes Men, the most notorious activist artists, produce films, their hoaxes (their preferred term) impact the real world from the onset. For their first antic, they switched Talking Barbie® and GI Joe® voice boxes and returned the dolls to store shelves, so that shoppers would purchase gender-bending Barbie and GI Joe. In 2001, Andy’s presentation to World Trade Organization/GATT representatives was meant to convince factory managers to wear golden unitards with T.V. screens projected from their groins so that they could easily monitor their workers. On the 20^th Anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, Andy Bichlbaum appeared on CNN as a Dow Chemical representative declaring Dow’s desire to award Bhopal survivors massive reparations. Even though they immediately declared this a hoax, as they typically do, Bhopal survivors felt vindicated because of the increased media attention to their plight, resulting from their particular prank. The Yes Men’s official-looking, fictitious Halliburton website, created by this “identity-correcting” duo, explains why fifteen U.S. corporations have conspired to create the SurvivaBall (2006), an inflatable spherical suit that allows humans to live comfortably, while corporations continue to neglect industrial practices that pollute water, exploit nonrenewable resources, engender algal blooms, facilitate global warming, etc.[5]

 

Artworld Pranks

Artworld pranks take place within the context of the artworld and typically address artworld concerns.

Gimhongsok’s Bunny Sofa (2007) tends to frighten museum visitors who immediately imagine a human being, supposedly an illegal immigrant, lying inside. Taking advantage of his mundane “day job” shooting celebrities for Flaunt magazine, Los Angeles-based Larry Hammerness suddenly realized a previously untapped wealth of “wardrobe malfunctions” –slip-ups and slip-offs –culminating in over 160 photographs of “celebrity boobs” (boob is synonymous with gaffe). A highly sought after “X-sports” photographer, Hammerness once exhibited dozens of large-scale photographs of celebrities without their make-up. Unless there’s someone out there who can’t take New Yorker Larry Krone’s “musical career” seriously, he himself is hardly prone to pranks or hoaxes. But then again, one just might consider his “campy” country-western crooner-persona an artworld prank in itself. Having never heard him perform, it’s difficult to judge the impact of his “live acts.” Either way, his wall works and theatrical props riff on the hoaxes (improbable premises and false promises) explicit in country-western lyrics and implicit with studly cowboy characters. Given the “studded” showmanship of country-western stars with their “big hair,” bodacious lyrics and “bling bling” (“diamondized” rings, costumes and microphones), Damien Hirst’s diamond skull seems superfluous. Because the Geneva-based Italian, Gianni Motti refuses to let his work lie “frozen” in art spaces, he declined to contribute video documentation of past antics for this exhibition. To celebrate this sardonic prankster’s spirit, one finds instead Gianni Motti IS INNOCENT (1998), his poster juxtaposing Clinton’s infamous claim regarding his relationship with Monica Lewinsky and the recognizable and loveable Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist posing as “that woman.”[6]

In 2009, the New York Observer dubbed Brooklyn-based Willaim Powhida the “Art World’s Prankster.”  When experienced en masse, his drawings: 1) confront the twisted relations and conflicts of interests prevalent among artworld power-brokers—critics, collectors, gallerists and artists alike, 2) discuss both the fictional William Powhida “character” and “himself” as the subject of his drawings, and either 3) push people away, given their over-the-top rants and shameless self-promotion, or 4) engender solidarity among readers who commiserate with his brusque criticism of blatant injustices that go under-reported. The Brooklyn Rail commissioned three covers (How the New Museum Committed Suicide with Banality (2009), Institutional Celebration (2010) and Game (2010)) and he’s “leaked” three works (The Odds, Why You Should Buy Art and You) to the online digital-print store , affording hundreds of people the chance to collect his art (prices range from $20 to $200, depending on scale and edition size).

In addition to illustrating art articles, Powhida drawings have appeared as “illustrations” in underground magazines such as Art Lies, Sleek, FUKT, Useless and BlingBling. Not surprisingly, his drawings anticipated his becoming a much discussed artist. Drawings situating his “character” as the subject of articles in the New York Times or New York magazine precede his actual 2009 Times and New York debuts. For example, his drawing The Bastard (2007) depicts “The Genius,” a story about Powhida’s “character” in the January 2010 New York magazine article; exceeding his actual entrance into its pages by nine months, since The Odds (2009) accompanied “The Opportunist’s Guide” in the April 26, 2009 issue.[7] Giving credence to the view that art collecting is tantamount to colonization/ownership/control, several collectors whom he’s characterized in a bad light retaliate by purchasing his drawings. The infamous Greek art collector Dakis Joannou, a primary antagonist in Powhida’s New Museum drawing, purchased this drawing’s print version for $1500,while Jerry Saltz, a regular Powhida target, told one reporter, “It’s always fun to see bigwigs get bitch-slapped, including me!”[8]

For Back to Back (New York)(2006), two of the world’s most hilarious and poignant renderers created a free-standing drawing bearing their comical antics. Romanian Dan Perjovschi’s signature caricature commentaries appear outside, while Bulgarian Nedko Solakov’s intimate notations occur inside. Good friends in real life, this drawing doubles as an exhibitional prank that facilitated a career “boost,” when the one shared his New York City solo exhibition opportunity with the other who is unknown here, though renowned in Europe. Like Siamese twins, these unique drawings are forever sandwiched together, destined to survive as a double act. Back to Back incidentally suggests a capitalist prank, since this artwork entices investors to appraise it as 18 component panels, as they would real-estate properties, businesses and commodities.

For “Proposed and Delivered,” Kentucky-based Joey Versoza proposed Open (2002), his scheme to “force open” the door separating the Cincinnati Art Museum from the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Timothy Rub, the then museum director, granted Joey his way, if only on opening day. Confounding the many museum guards who had never even noticed the door before, passersby slipped instantaneously between the adjacent institutions, rather than walk around the buildings as they had for decades. For The Ballad of Toma (2003/2011), Versoza stumbled across an online text written by an anonymous blogger named Toma the Great Explorer. This text became the source material for Dana Ward’s lyrics and musical composition, which Bob Kellison, the Contemporary Arts Center’s piano-playing Development Director, transcribed into sheet music.

 

Theatrical Antics

Artists included in this section are artists who routinely appropriate theatrical practices, running the gamut from musical spectacles and staged events in “public” spaces (theater typically entails staged events in private places) to hiring professional voices. For nearly a decade, the Chicago-based Kendall Bruns has organized events that amuse and bewilder participants. The Haircut (2006), his seminal prank, is a documentary featuring a team of five jurors engaged in a rather heated debate as they select his next haircut from over 70 proposed styles. Other antics include Kendall Bruns: Artist-Therapist (2003), for which scores of Cincinnatians told Bruns their problems, while he returned “on the spot” personal advice; his artworld Spelling Bee (2002), whose total seriousness seemed like a prank; and Mild & Crazy Guy (2001), a musical riff on Steve Martin’s Wild & Crazy Guy album.[9] Inspired by Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum’s giant whoopee cushion currently on view in “Smile,” Bruns created Big Whoop, his visionary version for the Contemporary Museum’s very-own Ikea benches. His newest video LOL (2011) amasses countless LOL logos from online sources juxtaposed against speaking voices.

In the wake of 9/11, the Ashland-based Kahty Chen Milstead flew to London with literally one thing on her mind, the chance for two gals to cloak themselves in a glittery get-up and spy on guys through slits cut in front and back. Meant for a central-London milieu, this alluring disguise spoofs Islamic veiling. After the voyeur detected her desired prey through a peep hole in Sue Spaid Boywatching Blind, London (2001), her “wing-woman” could either “capture” that fellow on camera or videotape Londoners “ogling” these gals in dismay. For “Comestible Compost” (1998) Milstead (née Chenoweth) and her then collaborator Lynne Berman presented a cake-decorating demonstration adjacent to the in-store sushi chef. After carving dozens of cakes into hundreds of spongy wedges, they proceeded to construct a cake mountain using tooth picks and blue frosting as glue. Stopping astonished shoppers dead in their tracks, this spectacle prompted one customer to phone friends to come see it, while blue trails eventually defiled store aisles. Back then, cell-phone owners and grocery-store sushi chefs were rare treats. During the 2003 Venice Biennale, she hung around Venice for a week or so, offering strangers hugs if they acquiesced.

Founded in St. Petersburg in 2003, Chto Delat? (What is to be Done?) is best known for their political activism. This Russian theater-based activist group mostly creates musical videos that humorously debate various political issues, such as “what is to be done” in light of perestroika’s societal impact, the remaining Communist sympathizers and the proposed Gazprom skyscraper. Included here is their most recent work Tower: A Songspiel (2010). As part of “InSite” (1994), the Brooklyn-based Nina Katchadourian worked with two fellow UCSD MFA students, Mark Tribe and Steven Matheson, and 50 volunteers, to hatch their scheme to get 3500 Southwestern Collegecommuters to park their cars in fourteen parking lots designated for particular car colors (white, red, dark blue, light blue, purple, etc.). The vast majority of people acquiesced, but as the video Car Park (1994) illustrates, a handful couldn’t be bothered. While on a 2001 artist retreat in Trinidad, Katchadourian noticed an uncanny resemblance between the warning calls of tropical birds and car alarms. Natural Car Alarms (2002) depicts three cars rigged by Katchadourian to emit 18 different bird calls whenever the alarms were tripped by timers. 

Pruitt-Early were among the most “riotous” of the early nineties artists. Their exhibitions remain legendary- Sculpture for Teenage Boys (1990), Artwork for Teenage Girls (1991), stickers stuck on beer cans stacked like pyramids and a video of artworlders dancing to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power.” Even more legendary is the urban myth that Cocaine Buffet (1998),an extra-long cocaine line supposedly exhibited in Jennifer Bornstein’s loft, jump-started Rob Pruitt’s art career following Pruitt-Early’s earlier demise. Pruitt’s artworld caper, “101 Art Ideas You Can Do Yourself” (1999) took New York City, and then Cincinnati (2001), by storm, launching his career in multiple directions. A decade later, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Art tapped him to organize their annual $1000/plate fund-raiser entitled “Rob Pruitt’s Art Awards” for which he designs everything from the award trophy to decorations and selects the entertainment. Strangely unassuming, Pruitt’s Kitlers (2010) feature a wall of online cats “impersonating” Hitler (a type of cat-acting). The proliferation of such images via the internet exemplifies the internet’s role (the origin of “LOL”) in generating and dispersing antics en masse via youtube etc..[10] A theatric project that is not an antic is Jonathan Borofsky’s Johnny Hitler (2007), which bizarrely juxtaposes pictures of the artist and his parents with those of Hitler and his parents.

As part of “Cremolata Flotage” (1999), Alysse Stepanian and her composer-husband Philip Mantione launched an impromptu talent show aboard the Andrew J. Barberi Staten Island Ferry (bizarrely, the very same ferry that crashed twice). They asked people to do something “interesting” in exchange for a beer and a “Certificate of Interestingness.” Surprisingly, dozens of people, including Nina Katchadourian, performed live aboard the Staten Island Ferry. Although they edited auditionherefreebeerelevenyears ago, this is the first time they’ve had the opportunity to present this video. David Schafer’s June New View installation, “Richard Serra: The Signature Series” features a yellow neon signature of Richard Serra, the world’s most famous sculptor, positioned over a black trapezoidal graphic spanning both windows. If Schafer’s prank proves successful, this stunt just might entice passersby, who see this signage as insinuating a serious Serra show, and inspire them to step inside. In response to the 1950s’ record set English Speech Instruction: A Condensed Course in the Correction of Frequent Mistakes in Enunciation, Schafer addedover 130 sound effects to the introductory lecture as well as layered the classroom exercises to create the soundtrack for Untitled Expression: The Enunciation Lecture (2009). This humorous and alarming “talking sculpture” is sure to cause listeners to reflect upon their diction and delivery.With Choreography for Mime: Making a Sculpture (2009), Schafer worked with a mime who acted out the associated motions and emotions that may be involved with the making of anabstract welded metal sculpture in a studio. Although the artist has in a sense abstracted the laborof making a physical sculpture, the mime is still hard at work.

 

A Modest Proposal

The greatest lesson I learned as a teen at summer camp was this: “once is funny: twice is obnoxious.” Similarly, pranks performed by outsiders are funny, while those done by insiders are obnoxious. Pranks prove authentic and interesting when they’re performed by outsiders endeavoring to raid exclusive clubs or de-stabilize gate-keepers. That’s why we tire of pranks by the likes of Damien Hirst or Maurizio Cattelan, schemes dreamed up to keep collectors attuned to their brand, but barely touching the lives of others. In contrast, we egg-on schemers who still have enough energy to challenge the status quo and are clever enough to puncture walls previously deemed insurmountable. As Angie Bray reminds me, “part of being an antic artist is spending time doing things that are wonderfully useless.” I would counter that actions done absent clear motives often trigger the greatest impact, so they are hardly useless.