Open Canvas- 12/2/07

Another vigilante mission from the Army's most vigilante-ish performer!

A bit of background information- Every sunday, Art Bar in riverwest hosts a new artist who paints of the last artists work in an event called the Open Canvas. This event is called the Open Canvas or also the One Week Painting. I was the 28th person to paint on this said canvas. Also, I have absolutely no painting experience what so ever.

The piece went as follows: I set up shop, wearing a plain white shirt, a red bandana and a navy blue beret, armed with nothing but a tube of black paint, a tube of red paint, and one paint brush. I began painting the whole canvas nothing but black. Black, black black black black. While doing so, I talked extremely loudly about what I was doing and how this is the greatest work the world will ever see. Some of the better quotes:

"Picasso is committing suicide in his GRAVE because this is so good."

"The painting works as a metaphor, with the black being all of history blurring into one, leading up to the climactic event which is this painting."

"Should I really be doing this? I mean, I'm ruining painting and art forever."

"Dude, seriously, I am fucking incredible"

"In the 1950's, John Cage rendered innovation useless. Im rendering rendering innovation useless useless."

After about 4 1/2 hours of painting nothing but black, I proudly proclaimed "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! I AM NOW RENDERING PAINTING USELESS!" and I scrawled Hurns across the canvas in thick red letters. For those not in the know, Hurns is the sound of failure.


Why I enjoyed this:
-I think it combined a lot of recent work I have done, specifically themes from Made in the Mouth (Arrogant artist made to look ridiculous because of the work he creates), Pete-za (vulgar narcissism) and E=MC Hammer (absolutely meaningless creation, plus Hurns is part of the band now).

-I also like it because it gave me a bit of focus coming off of Mouth. I realized that I have a great opportunity to continue the dadaist ideas that have fallen by the wayside as of recently for me, but now with even more focus. What I want to do is divide myself in to: me as the artist and me as the figure. As the artist, I will create stuff like Raperies and most of my plays, working "behind the scenes" and focusing my ideas elsewhere. But as the figure, i.e. made in the mouth and this last performance, I will creating an entirely new identity, one that remains eternally awful but completely arrogant. Basically, this is the continuation of Pete-za that I needed. I'm taking all of the themes from Pete-za that have universal appeal (so basically the project minus the punk rock critique) and using them in a new setting. I'm kind of excited! (Also, E=MC Hammer does not fit into this model. Thats on a completely different level.)


The painting, if you wish to see it, will be hanging in Art Bar until 12/9/07, when someone else will be painting over it.

Until we smash the world again,
Peter J Woods