‘The girl chewing gum’ (1976) by John Smith
(via Limbo Youth)
Tag Archives: performance
Diana Duta
Diana Duta, ‘Keeping time’ (2010)
Diana Duta translated the lyrics of Romanian pop-songs from her birthyear to phonetic English. These lyrics were sung by her (non-Romanian) friends and recorded to tape with Duta playing drums in the background. During the exhibition ‘If you say something, see something’ at Tent., Rotterdam, she asked employees of the space to wear T-shirts she had silkscreened with the lyrics.
Check the edit she made of the recordings here.
Rafal Bujnowski
Rafal Bujnowski, ‘Visa’ (2004)
Preparing for a studio stay in New York, Bujnowski painted a photo-realistic self-portrait in black and white, had it photographed and enclosed the picture as his official photo in the U.S.A. visa application form. The consulate workers failed to notice the manipulation and, eventually, the artist received a passport with a replica of his own painting. Using this document Rafal has crossed the U.S. border, the project was supplemented by the fact that the artist has attended a pilot’s course, which featured a training flight over Manhattan – this event was recorded by Bujnowski as a video, part of which is shown below.
‘Flying lessons’ (2004)
Thank you, Willum!
Simon Senn
‘Clichy-sous-Bois’ (2010) by Simon Senn
Two young residents of Clichy-sous-Bois are introducing themselves and are answering the questions from the interview given to them. The questions are constructed from derogatory stereotypes associated with youth and are openly provocative, moralistic and pejorative. Gradually, they begin to get excited and end up by attacking the cameraman who runs away.
The video is separated in two episodes: the interview and the attack. By reversing the temporality of the narrative in showing the violent reaction before its provocation, the video starts with a spectacular action.
and…
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Oscar Muñoz
Oscar Muñoz, ‘Re-Trato’ (2003)
A video of Muñoz painting a portrait in water on a hot stone over and over, while it evaporates and vanishes.
Vito Acconci
‘Blinks’ (1969), by Vito Acconci
Acconci set himself the task of walking a continuous line down a street, holding a camera aimed away from him, ready to shoot. He tried not to blink. Each time he did, he snapped a photo.
K Foundation / KLF
K Foundation, ‘K Foundation burn a million Quid’ (1994)
On the 23rd August 1994, in a boathouse on the Scottish island of Jura, Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, formerly known as the most succesful British 90s pop group the KLF (which stands for Kopyright Liberation Front and also known as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords and other names), then known as the K Foundation, incinerated £1,000,000 in cash. This money represented the bulk of the K Foundation’s funds, earned as the KLF.
The burning was witnessed by an old friend of Drummond’s, freelance journalist Jim Reid, who subsequently wrote an article about the ceremony for The Observer. It was filmed on Super 8 by their friend Gimpo. Reid admitted to first feeling shock and guilt about the burning, which quickly turned to boredom. The money took well over an hour to burn as Drummond and Cauty fed £50 notes into the fire. Drummond later said that only about £900,000 of the money was actually burnt – the rest flew straight up the chimney. The press reported that an islander handed £1,500 into the police; the money had not been claimed and would be returned to the finder.
Click here for Reid’s article on the burning and its aftermath.