Playing upon the role of the piñata as a sacrificial object, she depicts herself as a martyr/totem, but she does not see her sculptures in a wholly negative light. “I suppose there is an aspect of masochism in the work,” Cranston states, “though in my view the masochist is a sort of grandiose daredevil who endures humiliation to prove they are invincible.” Cranston calls her sculptures “Magical Death” after a 1973 ethnographic film by Napoleon Chagnon and Timothy Asch, which vividly depicted the shamanic ceremonies of the Yanomamo Indians. In the film the Yanomano symbolically murder or “inflict” a “magical death” upon the children of enemy tribes to insure their own survival.
‚The Inquisitive Musician’ by Cindy Bernard & David Hatcher:
A translation and adaptation of a 17th century German satire attributed to Johann Kuhnau, “Musicus Curiosus, or “Battalus, the Inquisitive Musician; the Struggle for Precedence between the Kunst Pfeifer and the Common Players,” which pits itinerant “beer fiddlers” against the official “Stadtpfeifer” in an argument over who is the better musician – those who play tunes by ear and memory or the “Stadtpfeifer” who relies on printed music in order to perform. The project is open-ended and will take multiple forms including prints, video and performance. A one hour video, The Inquisitive Musician: Screen Tests featuring readings by Sam Durant, Raymond Pettibon, Joe Potts, Tom Recchion and Dave Muller among others, was completed in November 2004.
Sam Durant:
In 1964 Robert Morris visited Dusseldorf for a Fluxus Festival and met Beuys. Beuys formulated a performance called The Chief (Der Chef) which he performed at Renee Block’s gallery that year. Beuys lay on the floor rolled up in felt with a microphone for about six hours. The audience had to watch from the doorway. Robert Morris was supposed to do the same performance in New York simultaneously, a kind of mirror in America. Morris never did the performance, Beuys called him and he never called back. Some have suggested that Morris discovered felt as a material from Beuys. My work is a representation of the first breakdown between Beuys and America; Morris’ decision not to echo Beuys action begins the problematic relationship. The vitrine contains a pile of felt scrap into which a microphone has been placed. The signal from the mike goes out to a Boss digital delay effect processor and then to the amplifier under the vitrine. Since there is no signal (the felt is mute) there is no ability to produce an echo with the effect processor. ’
Jill Miller:
This video addresses John Baldessari’s 1971 video-performance piece, I am Making Art, with humor and scrutiny. The younger artist, Miller, brings Baldessari’s tai chi-esque movements into contemporary times by transforming his original meditative gestures into breakdancing moves. Miller then inserts herself into the new video footage and dances around Baldessari. Missy Elliott’s Work It backs up the new Baldessari-Miller collaborative dance. The three artists (Baldessari, Elliott, and Miller) form a new collaboration. The video approaches a variety of questions relating to: women’s roles in art history, artistic authorship, younger artists’ attempts at appropriation/homage, the nature of the artistic gesture in video art.
Jason Rhoades:
„4800 Black and White Stills from a Structuralist Movie“, refers to an installation which was entitled „perfect world“ at the Hamburger Deichtorhallen. Rhoades had built the largest indoor art installation and had turned the whole exhibition space into a huge workshop in order to create a modell of the perfect world.
The space was divided into two, an upper and a lower half, almost depicting a profane lower and a paradise like upper world. The piece changed constantly and was what he calles a „Processing sculpture“. The screen depicts in 4800 stills the construction work as it developed.
We like to thank Galeria Emi Fontana Milano, Hauser & Wirth Zürich, Michael Janssen Köln and Plattform Berlin for the kind collaboration.
