there is so much, really, to write about this piece. it's too much really. i feel overwhelmed by it. blurring the boundary and the field of production in my "fine" art in this way, sets me adrift in a wide and salty sea that i can't really sort out too quickly ... taking my work out into this territory makes me feel like a blind lone sailor who's gonna be ten month at sea! it seems pretentious of me to share all of my thoughts on this work in such a public forum ... so i hesitate in keeping up with writing in the blog. i mean being a skinscribe is pretty heavy duty stuff psychologically ... at least for me ... and i definitely had my own brand of friday the thirteenth luck.
when i am "working" as a conceptual artist on life genre work it is very easy --very simple.
i do the piece (whatever it is) i live it, and i journal about it --its ramifications, and effectiveness, without ever re-contextualizing it into the art world.
one of my big critiques of allan's work was exactly that: in all of his little actions, his life genre work, he would publish writings and documentation, reinserting the stuff back into the art world ... and this seemed to be a glitch to me ... i mean, if one is doing life genre work, then it should remain deconstructed, right?
like baroness von elsa ... what she did during her lifetime was an amazing accomplishment ... and she died in obscurity and abject poverty while duchamp took her brilliance -the r.mutt piece -all the way to the bank (read the book, and you'll understand)!
i tattooed my knees with skulls in honor of her) ... my friend cindy lou invited me up to louisville to perform in the "cakewalk" event at adorno studio in 2008 ... i decided on my performance: tattoo my knees with skulls and then do a dance in the cakewalk. since i don't drive a car (another life genre piece), i was unable to attend, even though a local acquaintance went up for it. she couldn't take me along, because she chose to leave the night before to see her sister... and i had to stay in lexington to work at the shop! so i tattooed my knees and danced in the kitchen at home. har!
this friday the thirteenth work is the first time ever that i have done something that rides between the commercial and the conceptual like this ... it is mind blowing to me ... it is an exchange on the most intimate level and yet oh so commercial!! it is taking place outside of the art world; yet centered in a frame (the tattoo world) that is it's wicked step child!
of course, i love the dynamic this sets up.
the boundaries between life and art and commercial exchange are so fuzzy, and the territory so expansive, that it starts to cloud my brain ... and my brain tries to focus all of this beneath its microscopic lens to inspect and analyze it!!
it's the first time that i have scripted a life genre piece to unfold with an audience who not only completes the piece metaphorically, but becomes it!!!!
the participants (whether they be percipients or consumers) are in fact, the piece!
the "art" is made up of a group of physical, sentient beings ... those who choose to have the tattoo become the ipso facto embodiment of this work!
if one ends up with all three tattoos, i have attempted to construct something that is an amulet of sorts, a bit of magic ... the old shamanic aspect of tattooing.
i don't want to talk about it too much, because i want folks to interface with this piece on their own conceptual level ... as with any other life genre work of mine, i learn from how the dynamics of the "work" plays out and effects the social milieu ...
No comments:
Post a Comment