vendredi 8 mars 2013
Jesse Helms humor
Tim Miller
Tim Miller is a Los Angeles-based performance artist, and a key founder of P.S. 122 in New York and Highways Performance Space in Los Angeles. He's one of the 4 performance artists who was denied funding and sued the National Endowment for the Arts (the NEA Four).
"I sometimes feel this border between my body and some friends who are really sick right now. It's like this nice coastline on your arm here. It's a border I want to cross, though. A coastline I want to pull people to. Maybe you have brought a special life preserver and you can teach me how to use it and we can throw it to all our friends who are sick and we can pull them back to shore. I want to hold these bodies really close so that not one more slips away." (Miller, My Queer Body)
"Mourning and celebration are the two poles of this life. I know they are often hovering quite near the surface of the community that gathers to see my work. These charged feelings are quite present in the theatres that I step out into, asking spectators to shout out a favorite place on their bodies. I know I am a queer performer presenting my homo-content work in a time of crisis. My work is also filtered through a complex set of political events around the right wing's attempt to censor lesbian and gay artists. Perhaps this makes these human gatherings for the work more pregnant with feeling and need. The call to community more pointed. I want to feel the full blast of the humanness of the situation. I want, as a performer, to be pulled and challenged" (Miller and David Román, "Preaching to the Converted," Theatre Journal. 47:2, 1995)
"The financial vulnerability of the queer arts is most often the result of an anti-art sentiment endemic in contemporary U.S. culture and, more directly, of the cultural wars fueled by the ongoing crisis of the National Endowment of the Arts; it is not the result of the artistic failure of queer artist" ("Preaching to the Converted")
"Performance artists are tackling the blood and bone of the society...A lot of it is not pretty, but our culture is not about Swan Lake" (Miller, qtd. in People Magazine)
mardi 5 mars 2013
John Fleck
John Fleck, one of the 4 performance artists censored by the NEA, performing at a protest in Los Angeles against NEA's denial of funding.
"People in the audience were calling me a pervert, hissing at me, trying to paint me as some obscene decadent who's trying to destroy the country. I love this country. But I'm very frightened about the future of intellectual and artistic expression here." (John Fleck, quoted in People Magazine)
Fleck says that the NEA funding controversy "made me realize there must be something important to what we're doing if it gets such a reaction from the conservatives," (Fleck qtd. in LA Weekly)
A 1-hour video of Fleck's performance of A Snowbell's Chance in Hell, his response to the NEA censorship:
John Frohnmayer
Frohnmayer personally overrode the recommendations of a panel of experts in order to deny funding to individual artists (the NEA 4). He also instituted a policy requiring artists to sign an anti-obscenity pledge.
Headlines and Quotes
"All artists are interconnected," says Papp. "The most outspoken people help other artists take chances. Once you start to cut at the fringe, you start to cut at the entire body, and then you'll get second-class stuff—art that is afraid." (Joseph Papp, head of the Public Theater, quoted in People Magazine)
"NEA Chairman's abiding by a policy of fear" (Eugene Register-Guard)
The Villains of the Culture War
President Ronald Reagan
President George H. W. Bush
North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms
NEA Chairman John Frohnmayer
Orange County Representative Dana Rohrabacher
Dick Armey, Republican House Majority Leader
Pat Buchanan, senior advisor to Ronald Reagan and 1992 and 1996 Presidential candidate
lundi 25 février 2013
dimanche 24 février 2013
Holly Hughes
One of the NEA four, Holly Hughes is a lesbian performance artist who was denied a grant for her work. Her play, "Preaching to the Perverted" tells the story of the experience.
Quotes from Hughes' interview with the First Amendment Center:
"The government spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to prevent three homos and one feminist from getting $24,000 in hard-earned tax money."
"It was really about targeted homophobia, and — although, as I say that, I feel like, “I hope Jesse Helms would not like my work. Then I’d really have to commit suicide.” It is controversial, and it is provocative, and I think that should have a place in a country that pretends to be a democracy.
"A lot of the people who were arguing for funding for the NEA really wanted to talk about it in the most bland, First Amendment terms and, you know, not specifically talk about the work that was under attack. And the work that was under attack, from Serrano to Marlon Riggs to my work and lots of other people, is provocative work. It is — it, it’s intentionally designed to raise questions, and, a lot of times, it was questions about sexuality and sexual identity. Maybe it was about the American flag. Maybe it was about use of Christian symbols. And the left didn’t make a good case for why, why work that raises uncomfortable questions should be funded."
"The NEA was set up to fund work that wasn’t going to be necessarily funded by the marketplace and this recognition that there is a lot of culture that isn’t going to reach a mass audience and that that’s an important part of, you know, our heritage. And, also, it makes — you know, a lot of popular cultural events are not accessible to, you know, working-class poor people, even middle-class. I mean, think about, like — I would have loved to see the Barbra Streisand concert, but it was a little beyond my means. And public funding meant that a lot of people who weren’t privileged had access. It kept ticket prices down and sometimes free. So, it made art accessible to a lot of people who are cut out of the marketplace."
---
"This part of the script isn’t finished. My role in the Culture War is still very much a work in progress, a story that I’m telling as I’m living it. But the point is, it needs to be performed in front an audience. If I’m ever going to be able to write this wrong, I’ll need your help" (Hughes, Introduction to Clit Notes) "'If any of us were producing pornography,' Hughes points out, 'we wouldn't bother to apply to the NEA—we'd be raking in the big bucks.' (Hughes, Quoted in People Magazine)
"We were all dealing with sexuality and gender and the body at a time when the country was just in a state of panic, particularly about HIV and AIDS...AIDS sent this huge panic through American culture, which the right exploited and pressured the government to respond. Instead of helping people with HIV, they attacked art and attacked work" (Hughes qtd. in LA Weekly)
Ambiguïté
Voici tout d'abord le personnage de "The rocky horror picture show"


Il y a un film à voir sur cette danse qui s'appelle Paris is Burning. Il y a des extraits sur youtube.
Sinon par rapport à Lady Gaga, qui multiplie les références ou citations contemporaines passant de Marcel Duchamp à Damien Hirst, il y a une video qui montre plusieurs références (Bowie, Hirst, Orlan, Warholl...)
D'ailleurs Scott, il y a le chapeau que je cherchais l'autre jour, il est de ce genre là. Il y a pas mal de choses à voir au niveau de l'ambiguïté aussi par les vêtements, les chorégraphies etc. Forcément chez Madonna aussi il y a beaucoup à voir, elle a tant fait et puis Lady Gaga n'est que ça "fille" ^^.
vendredi 22 février 2013
Louise Bourgeois
jeudi 21 février 2013
Michaël
L'idée directive c'est l'évolution ou la transformation d'un individu dans la relation à l'autre. référence à Pirandello (Six personnage en quête d'auteur), à scott (pour une représentation de la transformation et l'utilisation d'un médium qui guide la représentation : la lettre, pour lui c'était le portable) et à quelque bookin comme La prose du monde de merleau ponty. Mais aussi joseph beuys qui fait largement penser à une photo quand il est avec un coyote, sauf que moi j'ai un feutre (marqueur) dans la main et c'est de la ouate et non du feutre...
Avec un peu de recule, il parle pour rien dire puisqu’il démontre plus ou moins bien, qu’on peut pas se comprendre, alors envoyer une lettre à quelqu’un n’a pas de sens. Le pire c’est qu’il à pas compris que le type d’avant, c’était lui... »
Après tous ce travail d'écriture, voila ce que cela donne à la fin:
https://vimeo.com/66482149
mercredi 20 février 2013
(Constellation)
Qu’ils soient fictions, ordinaires, amusés, aventuriers, fabuleux, tristes, banals, à l’odeur de la pluie, éclatants, sonores, à vif, épuisants…
Ils se tissent entre eux, s’imbriquent, se séparent, se ressemblent, se rassemblent.
Il y a ceux qui se content au coin du feu, ceux dans un commissariat gris et fade, ceux qui vibrent, qui se glissent sournoisement dans nos rêves et cauchemars. Ceux qui s’échangent sur la table d’une cuisine, au marché, entre deux “il est frais mon fromage!” Ceux qui s’échappent par les livres, qui libèrent et apaisent.
Chaque vie est un récit puissant et profond qui vient en nourrir d’autres.
PORTAIL
Place à la performance testée ce mardi : j'essaie de trouver un espace adapté à mon corps, passant d'un objet à un autre. Ce sont des endroits où se réfugier, qui peuvent créer un cocon. Je me réfugie finalement dans le coffre du canapé. Je ne sais pas encore si je dois intégrer le texte, et comment je dois l'intégrer... Voilà pour l'instant où j'en suis ! Merci de votre attention, à très vite !
David Wojanarowicz
Excerpts from "Fire in My Belly." At 2:38, he performs a piece saying "And in the face of this, in the face of this, I will continue to explore my body and the bodies of other men and find the possibilities of pleasure and connection, and this will be done with responsibility and need. And this will be done with deeper understanding of touch and fantasy and areas of pleasure I have still to reach, and I will not be silent about this. I will not crawl into some media grave and die quietly"
Dick Armey on NEA funding
mardi 19 février 2013
Jesse Helms
Excerpts from 1998 film Dear Jesse, in which a gay filmmaker explores his relationship to Jesse Helms. Helms was an American politician and extremely conservative U.S. Senator who became the face of anti-gay censorship. In 1987, Helms was responsible for enacting a ban that prevented people with HIV from traveling to the United States. This ban was in effect until President Obama appealed it in 2009.
Helms was also the key figure in denying funding for gay artists through the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). In 1989, Senator Helms publicly denounced Andres Serrano's photograph, Piss Christ, which was being displayed as part of an NEA-funded exhibition.
Helms claimed "There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy" (States News Service, 5/17/88, qtd. in a FAIR.org press release) and described homosexuals as "weak, morally sick wretches" (Newsweek, 12/5/94, qtd. in Fair.org press release)
In 1995, for example, Helms told The New York Times that the government should spend less money on people with AIDS because they got sick as a result of "deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct." (qtd. in the Washington Post). “We’ve got to have some common sense about a disease transmitted by people deliberately engaging in unnatural acts,” (Helms in the New York Times, qtd. at Americablog). “Nothing positive happened to Sodom and Gomorrah,” he said, “and nothing positive is likely to happen to America if our people succumb to the drumbeats of support for the homosexual lifestyle.” (Helms qtd. in the New York Times)
In 1989, Helms proposed an amendment to the NEA budget that would restrict the organization from funding "obscene or indecent" art. This is known as the "Helms Amendment." Congress passed a bill that banned federal funds for art that "may be considered obscene, including but not limited to, depictions of sadomasochism, homoeroticism, the sexual exploitation of children, or individuals engaged in sex acts and which, when taken as a whole, do not have serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value."
Koch, Cynthia. "The Contest for American Culture: A Leadership Case Study on The NEA and NEH Funding Crisis." Public Talk: Online Journal of Discourse Leadership. 1998. University of Pennsylvania. 19 Feb. 2012. Web.
Helms called the NEA "the upholstered playpen of the arts and crafts auxiliary of the Eastern liberal establishment" (exhibit on editorial cartoonist Pat Oliphant from The Library of Congress)
Helms on art: “The self-proclaimed, self-anointed art experts would scoff and say, ‘Oooh, terrible,’ but I like beautiful things, not modern art,” (Helms, qtd. in the New York Times, 1989)
lundi 18 février 2013
Just Dance
Juste au cas où cela vous semble trop haut front ...
mardi 12 février 2013
"Idée"
Ne sachant pas qui va lire ce message, je vais me présenter rapidement. Je suis étudiant aux Beaux arts de Quimper en 3ème année et fait parti de ce projet dans le cadre d'un stage.
Réfléchissant à l'idée de transmission et à ce qu'elle était, je me suis dis qu'il serait peut être intéressant de travailler la parole. De transmettre un message par le biai de la parole en incarnant une personnalité ou artiste spécifique, comme si cet artiste disparu, prenait emprise de notre corps (ou corps de l'acteur). Cet artiste parlerai dans et grâce à notre corps, créant ainsi un trouble. Apparition soudaine d'un fantôme.
J'ai déjà expérimenté cela pour mon propre travail. Dans une performance, j'ai pris la parole d'un personnage féminin littéraire tiré d'une autobiographie : Lambeaux de Charles Juliet. Ayant des points communs avec cet "être", un trouble se créer. On ne sait plus si c'est le personnage ou moi-même en tant que personne qui parle. Voici le texte énoncé pendant cette performance :
« _ J’étais l’ainé(e) et c’est moi qui devait m’occuper d’elles.
Petit(e) paysan(ne) dans un village de l’Ain, très tôt astreint(e) aux soins du ménage, je ne voulais que fuir. La mère était dehors à travailler avec le père. J’étais seul(e).
Toute fuite était vaine et je le savais.
Je détestais le père.
Un jour, j’ai rencontré un jeune homme, étudiant à Paris. J’étais amoureuse, il était différent du père. On se voyait tout les dimanches. J’étais heureuse.
Puis un dimanche, il n’est pas venu. J’ai appris qu’il était mort.
Pour la première fois, il m’est venu le désir de mourir.
Je sombrais.
Je me suis marié(e) avec Antoine, un gars du village. Je suis ensuite tombé(e) enceinte. Je le voyais de moins en moins, j’étais seul(e) à garder mes enfants.
Et un jour, j’ai tenté(e) de me suicider. La voisine m’a retrouvé(e) et j’ai été interné(e). On m’a donné une blouse et on m’a rasé les cheveux. Antoine venait de moins en moins me voir.
Un matin ils ouvrirent la porte.
J’étais morte.
Morte de faim à trente-huit ans. »
Sinon dans une seconde performance, je me présente physiquement comme un homme au public. Par le geste (se mettre du rouge à lèvres), je deviens autre, je deviens une "femme". Ensuite cette femme parle à travers mon corps et créer l’ambiguïté.
Voici le lien youtube, si cela vous intéresse : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L0BIvGm87Q
Je pense que ça peut être une approche possible, après je ne sais pas si c'est le chemin à prendre.
En espérant ne pas vous avoir ennuyé avec ce post.
:)
jeudi 31 janvier 2013
Klaus Nomi - Musician and Performance Artist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKYpepxGkyY&feature=share&list=AL94UKMTqg-9AVZep6sHMmBEXMfRI8Gxam
Dramaturgie culturelle
SIDA et les annees 80s.
"Les personnalités fabuleuses années 1980 à New York"
Ron Vawter, Performance Artist
Ron Vawter playing Jack Smith in "Roy Cohn/Jack Smith"
Ron Vawter was the quintessential downtown performer and a founding member of The Wooster Group, an internationally known theater collective based in NYC. He brought to the world of the avant-garde a unique combination of life experiences, including training as a Green Beret in the US Special Forces and his work as a chaplain. In the words of the Village Voice, “Vawter’s resolution of the tensions between theatrical passion and military precision….have not only helped make the Wooster Group a controversial and intellectually assaultive ensemble but Vawter himself a legendary and explosively controlled actor.” In 1993, Vawter, who also appeared in films like Swoon, Philadelphia, Silence of the Lambs, and sex, lies, and videotape, wrote and peformed in his final play, Roy Cohn/Jack Smith, a one man show in which he explored the themes of sexual identity through these two infamous men, both of whom died of AIDS. Vawter died one year later on a plane from Zurich to New York, of an AIDS-related heart attack, at the age of 45.
mercredi 30 janvier 2013
mardi 29 janvier 2013
Ethyl Eichelberger - Performance Artist
Go to 1:37. This is Ethyl just before he died - days, in fact. Speaking about political cuts to arts funding due to homosexual content.
Ethyl's costume! Femininity was about power for Ethyl.