This blog will follow my process of getting ready for my next show in October 2012, at the Carnegie Art Center, in Mankato MN. I will post photos of work in progress, updates on other shows that I may be having, and injuries that incur from working in ceramics (there's bound to be some).

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Vulture Culture, Performance Art, Cake Batter Vomit.

I had the opportunity tonight to go to the opening of Vulture Culture.at Minnesota State University, Mankato's student union gallery.  It was a group show highlighting a select artist from each concentration in our art program. I first heard about the show this summer, tagging along side a friend who was curating the show and also showing in it. Her vagueness to the concept and participating artists aroused my curiosity to what I was in for on opening night. Any glimpses into the gallery through the wall of glass were shut down by the large ambiguous collages (a work of art in itself) that lined the glass.

Finally, opening night arrived. To get first grabs at the food, I arrived a bit early. The doors opened and i was awash in media. two projectors spewing videos of abstraction and what looked like Nazi propaganda, walls of chaotic installation and a collection of other work all connected by concept. while all the work had an equal allure and aura to them. One piece had a overpowering draw from the crowd. Dana Sikkila's "Peppermint Puke" was a mix media performance piece that consistently had a crowd surrounding it. Dana laid in a puddle of pink cake batter, amid a pile of cupcakes and wrapped around a toilet that was spewing an organic mass of pink and orange matter. Her body seemingly unconscious to the viewer. Flies flew and crawled around her cake batter laced hands. An aroma of strawberries and sugar contradicted the depressive scene. The crowds consensus was that she had to move at some point, though no one really knew what was going to happen. I stuck around to watch what might happen. slowly, her body convulsed for a period of time, and her head rose from the pile of filth, only to vomit out another puddle of cake batter. drenched in batter and glitter, Dana got up and nonchalantly walked out of the gallery.

I had never seen performance art in person and before tonight, I never had much respect for it. My eye lids were torn off tonight to the potential for performance art and the raw unadulterated feeling it can evoke.

I highly encourage anyone stop into the CSU Gallery between now and October 19th to see the show and the remnants of the performance.

All Good Things,

Michael Cimino
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)