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
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Guerilla Noise- 11/12
After being removed from the Army of the Arts for an extended period of time, due to Lucky and Pozzo doing what it was supposed to do and thereby making me horribly depressed every time it happened, I decided to return, without warning, in a vigilante style mission.
Setting up shop outside of the Raynor Memorial Library on the Marquette Campus (roughly 14th and Wisconsin) with two small amps, a handful of pedals, a mic, a mixer and a table at around 2:30, I dove head first into a fifteen minute improvised noise set. . Varying between low end rumbles (which unfortunately just sounded like static due to the small amps) and panning throat singing, I'd have to say I was pleased with the set. It's been a while since I have taken the "plug in and play" style of performance, so getting that out there felt kind of awesome.
Judging the reactions of the audience proved almost impossible. I threw my hood up and faced away from the general public to better focus on what I was doing, so I couldn't really see what was going on. A few familiar faces stopped and talked to me afterwards about what was going on. They said a pretty decent crowd formed about half way through the performance, but moved on before I ended. The majority of the crowd was apparently male (the potential female audience members mainly just stopped their conversations on their cell phones long enough to give me a strange look).
The only interaction I had with the audience came about half way through the set, when a bearded, older man approached me with an angry/concerned face, and demanded to know what I was doing. I responded, tongue firmly in cheek, that this is "noise, man, its the wave of the future" (note: that's compeletely wrong. Noise started in the 1800's with Luigi Russolo, but I find that answer hilarious). The man said "Ok," and walked on.
Although I consider this a success, improvements need to be made for next time:
1. Louder amps that are still portable. (Has to be a combo of some sort, maybe on wheels. Anyone have a Roland keyboard amp?)
2. Less gear. (This is easily achieved. The next set will probably drop the mixer, table, and 4 of my 6 pedals.)
3. A better visual aspect. (Next time around, I want to have a written message plastered on my back, so its not just a guy with pedals, but a guy with pedals and a purpose)
So until next time, ask not what the arts can do for you, but what you can fucking smash with that hammer.
Peter J Woods
Setting up shop outside of the Raynor Memorial Library on the Marquette Campus (roughly 14th and Wisconsin) with two small amps, a handful of pedals, a mic, a mixer and a table at around 2:30, I dove head first into a fifteen minute improvised noise set. . Varying between low end rumbles (which unfortunately just sounded like static due to the small amps) and panning throat singing, I'd have to say I was pleased with the set. It's been a while since I have taken the "plug in and play" style of performance, so getting that out there felt kind of awesome.
Judging the reactions of the audience proved almost impossible. I threw my hood up and faced away from the general public to better focus on what I was doing, so I couldn't really see what was going on. A few familiar faces stopped and talked to me afterwards about what was going on. They said a pretty decent crowd formed about half way through the performance, but moved on before I ended. The majority of the crowd was apparently male (the potential female audience members mainly just stopped their conversations on their cell phones long enough to give me a strange look).
The only interaction I had with the audience came about half way through the set, when a bearded, older man approached me with an angry/concerned face, and demanded to know what I was doing. I responded, tongue firmly in cheek, that this is "noise, man, its the wave of the future" (note: that's compeletely wrong. Noise started in the 1800's with Luigi Russolo, but I find that answer hilarious). The man said "Ok," and walked on.
Although I consider this a success, improvements need to be made for next time:
1. Louder amps that are still portable. (Has to be a combo of some sort, maybe on wheels. Anyone have a Roland keyboard amp?)
2. Less gear. (This is easily achieved. The next set will probably drop the mixer, table, and 4 of my 6 pedals.)
3. A better visual aspect. (Next time around, I want to have a written message plastered on my back, so its not just a guy with pedals, but a guy with pedals and a purpose)
So until next time, ask not what the arts can do for you, but what you can fucking smash with that hammer.
Peter J Woods
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Lucky and Pozzo at Buskerfest
posted by R Winsome
We got back to Buskerfest, Kate dug through some trash, tried to climb a building, went "home" (sitting in an alley) Then we swapped out for Tim and all kinds of danger, violence, sex, and poetry. this outing had it all.
Highlights:
- climbing a building (tim got his fingers over the top of the building, but couldn't get any further, fell into a dumpster on his way back down.)
- Wrestle this guy (the guy was some kind of wrestling man. He promptly pinned Tim in the doorway of Nomad- where else would we get such a request? The bouncer came out and broke it up, the guy foolishly turned his back on Lucky, who then pounced to the great delight of the crowd. He pulled the guy down on top of him, the bouncer yelled some more and we broke it up. The guy came to shake my hand and tell me how stupid we were for taking his friend's ten dollars)
- the bachelorettes. We encountered a bachelorette party and helped them cross off $5 worth of their list, including: a lap dance, tie removal and replacement, plucking a chest hair, exposing his treasure trail, and some other thing.
- Drink some of my tequila, not a lot, well, as much as you want. Tim filled his mouth full and swallowed it.
- Draw pictures. Tim rendered the scene (outside a street vendor selling CDs) beautifully, in sharpie on scrap paper.
- the moon walk. (Tim gave them Neil Armstrong until they complained enough for Michael Jackson, and he gave them a bit of that)
- "crank that" (some ass wanted Tim to sing a chachi song by someone named soldier boy. Not knowing the words, Tim improvised it. The guy followed us for the next half hour attempting to discourage customers.)
- a couple asked tim to think, which he did, from memory, and i provided them with the text so they could read along. Then got them to pay me another dollar to make him shut up.
- Switch roles. Someone asked if I ever play lucky and i suggested she ask us to, for a dollar. We stripped to out skivvies and I got to have some Lucky action, which i think i may regret if i ever decide i want to have children.
- back at Nomad, everyone wanted to see me hurt. Twice i had to chase a poorly thrown football into traffic, i had to break dance, then do the fish, which on concrete is less than comfortable, then let a kid throw the football at my stomach, and then an adult (since the kid's dad wouldn't let him) threw it at my crotch, even though i stared at him as piteously as i could, then i did push ups with the kid sitting on my back. I was told to do shakespheare but i couldn't get out more than two lines of the sonnet i had memorized only a few weeks ago. Oh well.
We got back to Buskerfest, Kate dug through some trash, tried to climb a building, went "home" (sitting in an alley) Then we swapped out for Tim and all kinds of danger, violence, sex, and poetry. this outing had it all.
Highlights:
- climbing a building (tim got his fingers over the top of the building, but couldn't get any further, fell into a dumpster on his way back down.)
- Wrestle this guy (the guy was some kind of wrestling man. He promptly pinned Tim in the doorway of Nomad- where else would we get such a request? The bouncer came out and broke it up, the guy foolishly turned his back on Lucky, who then pounced to the great delight of the crowd. He pulled the guy down on top of him, the bouncer yelled some more and we broke it up. The guy came to shake my hand and tell me how stupid we were for taking his friend's ten dollars)
- the bachelorettes. We encountered a bachelorette party and helped them cross off $5 worth of their list, including: a lap dance, tie removal and replacement, plucking a chest hair, exposing his treasure trail, and some other thing.
- Drink some of my tequila, not a lot, well, as much as you want. Tim filled his mouth full and swallowed it.
- Draw pictures. Tim rendered the scene (outside a street vendor selling CDs) beautifully, in sharpie on scrap paper.
- the moon walk. (Tim gave them Neil Armstrong until they complained enough for Michael Jackson, and he gave them a bit of that)
- "crank that" (some ass wanted Tim to sing a chachi song by someone named soldier boy. Not knowing the words, Tim improvised it. The guy followed us for the next half hour attempting to discourage customers.)
- a couple asked tim to think, which he did, from memory, and i provided them with the text so they could read along. Then got them to pay me another dollar to make him shut up.
- Switch roles. Someone asked if I ever play lucky and i suggested she ask us to, for a dollar. We stripped to out skivvies and I got to have some Lucky action, which i think i may regret if i ever decide i want to have children.
- back at Nomad, everyone wanted to see me hurt. Twice i had to chase a poorly thrown football into traffic, i had to break dance, then do the fish, which on concrete is less than comfortable, then let a kid throw the football at my stomach, and then an adult (since the kid's dad wouldn't let him) threw it at my crotch, even though i stared at him as piteously as i could, then i did push ups with the kid sitting on my back. I was told to do shakespheare but i couldn't get out more than two lines of the sonnet i had memorized only a few weeks ago. Oh well.
Lucky and Pozzo at the Artwalk
posted by R Winsome.
Bad times. We had a gap in buskerfest between 3 and 5. Kate and I traveled to Riverwest, suited up and started trying to get the artwalkers.
Unfortunately, there seemed to be sparse attendance at that time, in the places we went. Center street, down to the co-op, over to bremen, and then back up to center. Most of the people we encountered didn't seem to know the artwalk was happening, so we were just a couple freaks wandering through a residential area.
Scared some people, ran into some kids who hate art. They made Kate jerk off in the general direction of some old ladies, didn't do much else that's memorable. Then we headed back to brady street to get a head start on busking there.
We did a bit more and then Tim showed up.
Bad times. We had a gap in buskerfest between 3 and 5. Kate and I traveled to Riverwest, suited up and started trying to get the artwalkers.
Unfortunately, there seemed to be sparse attendance at that time, in the places we went. Center street, down to the co-op, over to bremen, and then back up to center. Most of the people we encountered didn't seem to know the artwalk was happening, so we were just a couple freaks wandering through a residential area.
Scared some people, ran into some kids who hate art. They made Kate jerk off in the general direction of some old ladies, didn't do much else that's memorable. Then we headed back to brady street to get a head start on busking there.
We did a bit more and then Tim showed up.
Rex Winsome Explains Everything
posted by R Winsome
On Oct 6 We did two actions on Brady street in association with Milwaukee Public Theatre and Buskerfest. First, we did a new peice, in which Rex Winsome explains everything.
I wrote the outline of a two hour rant where i cover, from the abstract to the specific, my views on why i do everything and anything i do. Then i rehearsed it a little over the course of the week, both in writing and out loud while doing dishes or riding the bus, then i stood on a soap box on bready street with a hat and a sign and recited the rant.
it went really well, talked about billy goats when some kids got bored, then their parents got bored when i got to billy goat capitalism. Politicians, dog walkers, families, artists all stopped and listened, a few bitter old hippies tried to argue with me, a sociology student took issue with half what what i was saying and i recorded the whole thing, i'll try and get an audio sample up on the website sometime.
here's the outline:
KNOWLEDGE
limits to understanding
limits to expression in language
scientific knowledge (superior)
religious knowledge (superfluous)
what is science not doing yet?
EXISTENTIALISM
cogito ergo sum + free will
utility- self determined values
defined by actions
intentionality + responsibility
OTHERS
basic needs
necessity of others
maleability of others
SOCIAL STRUCTURES
historical development
anarchy - government
GOVERNMENT
progress toward dissolution
amoral
efficient
utilitarianism
ECONOMICS
as understructure of society and gov't
historical development
capitalism
capitalism requires gov't
capitalism must be abolished
REVOLUTION
defined - violence?
historical example- feudalism to capitalism
preconditions of a revolution
1. obsolete old system
2. new system
-classes
-basic relationship
-products
3. new technologies
4. old legalities
CURRENT SITUATION
preconditions are met
1. capitalist excesses
2. creative class, art as mode of production, arts+entertainment as new product
3. internet
4. copyright laws
PRAXIS
start in developed capitalist country
gain control of a rising power, ride the rise
theatre, MKE,
HUMAN INTERACTION
globally - citizen not consumer
directly- overtly selfish, use-value, honesty, emotional
responsiblity, challenging not coddling
On Oct 6 We did two actions on Brady street in association with Milwaukee Public Theatre and Buskerfest. First, we did a new peice, in which Rex Winsome explains everything.
I wrote the outline of a two hour rant where i cover, from the abstract to the specific, my views on why i do everything and anything i do. Then i rehearsed it a little over the course of the week, both in writing and out loud while doing dishes or riding the bus, then i stood on a soap box on bready street with a hat and a sign and recited the rant.
it went really well, talked about billy goats when some kids got bored, then their parents got bored when i got to billy goat capitalism. Politicians, dog walkers, families, artists all stopped and listened, a few bitter old hippies tried to argue with me, a sociology student took issue with half what what i was saying and i recorded the whole thing, i'll try and get an audio sample up on the website sometime.
here's the outline:
KNOWLEDGE
limits to understanding
limits to expression in language
scientific knowledge (superior)
religious knowledge (superfluous)
what is science not doing yet?
EXISTENTIALISM
cogito ergo sum + free will
utility- self determined values
defined by actions
intentionality + responsibility
OTHERS
basic needs
necessity of others
maleability of others
SOCIAL STRUCTURES
historical development
anarchy - government
GOVERNMENT
progress toward dissolution
amoral
efficient
utilitarianism
ECONOMICS
as understructure of society and gov't
historical development
capitalism
capitalism requires gov't
capitalism must be abolished
REVOLUTION
defined - violence?
historical example- feudalism to capitalism
preconditions of a revolution
1. obsolete old system
2. new system
-classes
-basic relationship
-products
3. new technologies
4. old legalities
CURRENT SITUATION
preconditions are met
1. capitalist excesses
2. creative class, art as mode of production, arts+entertainment as new product
3. internet
4. copyright laws
PRAXIS
start in developed capitalist country
gain control of a rising power, ride the rise
theatre, MKE,
HUMAN INTERACTION
globally - citizen not consumer
directly- overtly selfish, use-value, honesty, emotional
responsiblity, challenging not coddling
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Saturday 9/22: Shakesphere, with Tomatoes
posted by R Winsome
Dinner Theatre and Shakespheare are two pretty unlikely areas for Insurgent Theatre to get into, but we'll always rise to whatever challenge presented to us. When Renee, the organizer of this event asked us to come up with a street theatre performance about tomatoes, we quickly brainstormed the following: a cafe where the theatre is on the menu and the food is thrown at the actors. We put the deadliest theatre we could think of (Shakespheare) on the menu and got messy.
It went amazingly well, some lucky breaks, tons of press, and only a few assholes who thought the point of the thing was to throw the tomatoes as hard as possible at our faces and hurt us.
Good times! Keep an eye out for pics, video of the channel 4 coverage (if we can find it) and other links.
doesn't typically truck in such things, but, thisweekend, we're combining all three.Come to the east side for a tomato themed street festival and have anopportunity to experience Insurgent's detourned approach toShakespearean dinner theatre, where the theatre is on the menu and thefood is thrown at the stage.This Saturday, Sept 22nd, The Tomato Romp! On North Ave betweenOakland and Prospect. Fest starts at ten and ends at 4, we'reperforming between noon and 3.
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