POST-ironic PARADE theorY
Iggy Igloo replied:
On the point of making points, I have several points to make...... Here I drop a line First off I say that I enjoyed the article and think it among the most important Onion articles I've read. I'm glad you gave me the link because the article about the performance artist who "awakens the nation from apathetic stupor" has given some more focus to my idea of pointed art/actions. I thought the main idea of the article was this: most 'profound' performance artists lack an audience, or lack a real communication with an audience; therefore, despite all attempts to save the world by sun-tanning with raw meat, most of them end up "Lost Freaks on the Street"...insane, misunderstood, drug-addicted, street-preachers. How much merit does an apathetic american allot to a crazy person...in person? (I'm reminded of a short story in a book of memoirs by David Sedaris called 'Me Talk Pretty One Day'-check it out; some good and funny stuff-in this one story he talks about his days as a performance artist)...anywayz...The reason why the onion's satirization of the performance artist who reformed American minds was succesful was because the person who designed the article was the one who was truly being critical and creative and being an important performance artist in his own write. Most artists/activists don't acheive 'prolific' status without a good sense of time and space...good framing and staging...an understanding of the public mind and not just the public body. "Flag Fuck 17B" is like saying: No shit the system is fucked up, I'm glad you made your little observation, now go jump on the bandwagon of clisched protest, preach to the placebo nihilist connesours, create feilds of alienation between yourself and the rest of the world, and tell us how we're stupid and fucked up while we ignore you...you who dances naked in the basement of a coffeehouse craving the worlds attention.(I can relate, having experienced manic episodes) There's a kind of performance art that John and Yoko practiced in the seventies, and which Madonna toyed with in the nineties referred to as media art, where you use your fame as part of the art. Know as you read this stuff that I am not a master of art history or art terms. With media art, I think the idea is that since you are garaunteed people's attention, you have the power to conciously manipulate it by whatever course of actions you choose. The Lennon's lives were not always 'milk and honey' but they advanced causes like interracial-marraige, non-conventional domestic roles, cultural tolerance, and ultimately peace...simply by being public about their lives and guiding the media eye as best they could.
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