This was an experiment in participation, performance structure, cliche and political language.
I was asked by Outpost for Contemporary Art to revisit a score of an Allan Kaprow Happening for LA MOCA's exhibition Allan Kaprow Art as Life. I was drawn immediately to the score for Household as it was both allegorical and dialectic but ridiculous at the same time. Anarchic. Also I was psyched that Kaprow's score clearly states that no one was to watch his happening when it was being performed... all would participate. Household had a ritualistic air, and I wanted the same thing to.
Elements from the score:
Embodyments arrive on site with clothing that embodies there ideals of ecological harmony or world peace.
Through movement Embdoyments perform action that embody their ideas of world peace or ecological harmony.
After Protaganist arrives, the Embodyments "speak and listen".
Embodyments march together.
Embodyments appear placards and move in rhythmic manner.
Embodyments surround Protaganist and exert force around it.
I'd been drawn to Happenings for as long as I can remember, and to Kaprow since college. The opportunity to revisit his working methods was something I was excited about.
An object of fascination for me is the transference of the term "happening" itself from a particular art term to a general term used to describe a be-in, a gas, a party. The art term describes an event where an artist sculpts time through a score played out by participants. The general term describes a manufactured event (acid test, dance, rave), a context, where a large group of participants perform for themselves and others. In the first, the hand of the artist is all-present, with the second the generator of the context can disappear entirely as a massive and impersonal crowd fulfills the context through spectacular representations.
With my artwork, Household Revisited: Peaceniks and Treehuggers (a reworking of Allan Kaprow's Household from 1964), I hosted a happening drawing upon the contemporary phenomena of participatory art. I developed a framework for a group to play out ideals of utopia and resistance. Through collective creativity I hoped new political subjects would be constructed.
The conceit of Peacenik and Treehuggers was to update the gender based dialectic of Kaprow's original Household with a dialectic of utopianism and distopianism. This played out between the Embodiments (the Peaceniks & Treehuggers) and the Protagonist (War).
Working with choreographer Hana van der Kolk , I developed an open-ended movement based score. It set the barest of structures for happening participants to explore ideas of symbolic and active struggle. The happening began at a preliminary workshop held at LA's Outpost for Contemporary Art weeks before the actual event.
There we explained that participants would be the Embodiments. They would embody utopianism. The Protagonist was I, "War". I would come in and crap on everyone's idealism. The Embodiments would react to this disruption through a series of protest tropes: speaking and listening, marching, creating solidarity, using bodies directly in blockades. The end of the score was a free for-all, the participants figuring out how to end the performance.
At the workshop I explained the idea of embodying an ideal. We discussed artist Alison Smith's Muster, superhero's clothing, the Village People; all moments where costume holds up a value beyond looking "right". The workshop participants were asked to arrive at the happening site with clothes embodying their idealism, movements that performed these ideals, and a declarative slogan. I was curious to see how participants would relate to these broad idealizations.
On the day of the happening, everything went great. Lee Anne Schmitt with the help of Jim Fetterly did an amazing job filming. Lee Anne and I have reworked the footage into a 30 minute video (contact me if you want to see it) that stands alone as an artwork/document of that day.
The happening was a fun and serious experience. The Embodiments started as strangers and ended the day lying in each other's arms. They experienced acts of solidarity which have come into use in actual protest scenarios since our art happening.
The context of global warming and the "War On Terror" formed this event. They exist as abstract terrors- idealized as horrors in our subconscious. The war is over there in Iraq, global warming is projected for the future. These idealized horrors are represented by the very same clichés as their obverse. That day we all came together to perform these platitudes- to then see what perhaps we might create anew.
Embodyments arrive on site with clothing that embodies there ideals of ecological harmony or world peace.
Through movement Embdoyments perform action that embody their ideas of world peace or ecological harmony.
After Protaganist arrives, the Embodyments "speak and listen".
Embodyments march together.Embodyments appear placards and move in rhythmic manner.Embodyments surround Protaganist and exert force around it.I'd been drawn to Happenings for as long as I can remember, and to Kaprow since college. The opportunity to revisit his working methods was something I was excited about.
An object of fascination for me is the transference of the term "happening" itself from a particular art term to a general term used to describe a be-in, a gas, a party. The art term describes an event where an artist sculpts time through a score played out by participants. The general term describes a manufactured event (acid test, dance, rave), a context, where a large group of participants perform for themselves and others. In the first, the hand of the artist is all-present, with the second the generator of the context can disappear entirely as a massive and impersonal crowd fulfills the context through spectacular representations.
With my artwork, Household Revisited: Peaceniks and Treehuggers (a reworking of Allan Kaprow's Household from 1964), I hosted a happening drawing upon the contemporary phenomena of participatory art. I developed a framework for a group to play out ideals of utopia and resistance. Through collective creativity I hoped new political subjects would be constructed.
The conceit of Peacenik and Treehuggers was to update the gender based dialectic of Kaprow's original Household with a dialectic of utopianism and distopianism. This played out between the Embodiments (the Peaceniks & Treehuggers) and the Protagonist (War).
Working with choreographer Hana van der Kolk , I developed an open-ended movement based score. It set the barest of structures for happening participants to explore ideas of symbolic and active struggle. The happening began at a preliminary workshop held at LA's Outpost for Contemporary Art weeks before the actual event.
There we explained that participants would be the Embodiments. They would embody utopianism. The Protagonist was I, "War". I would come in and crap on everyone's idealism. The Embodiments would react to this disruption through a series of protest tropes: speaking and listening, marching, creating solidarity, using bodies directly in blockades. The end of the score was a free for-all, the participants figuring out how to end the performance.
At the workshop I explained the idea of embodying an ideal. We discussed artist Alison Smith's Muster, superhero's clothing, the Village People; all moments where costume holds up a value beyond looking "right". The workshop participants were asked to arrive at the happening site with clothes embodying their idealism, movements that performed these ideals, and a declarative slogan. I was curious to see how participants would relate to these broad idealizations.
On the day of the happening, everything went great. Lee Anne Schmitt with the help of Jim Fetterly did an amazing job filming. Lee Anne and I have reworked the footage into a 30 minute video (contact me if you want to see it) that stands alone as an artwork/document of that day.
The happening was a fun and serious experience. The Embodiments started as strangers and ended the day lying in each other's arms. They experienced acts of solidarity which have come into use in actual protest scenarios since our art happening.
The context of global warming and the "War On Terror" formed this event. They exist as abstract terrors- idealized as horrors in our subconscious. The war is over there in Iraq, global warming is projected for the future. These idealized horrors are represented by the very same clichés as their obverse. That day we all came together to perform these platitudes- to then see what perhaps we might create anew.