Slang Editorial :: Never Underestimate The Value Of A Holla'

Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Icelandic Insanity

Just a brief photo update on the craziness from last week that EK and I attended, which, again, was from this show, Melanie Bonajo's "As Thrown Down From Heaven". I thought it was just going to be a photo exhibition, but, while there were indeed MB photos, it turned out to be some totally mental and insane performance art.

This first photo, taken on my iPhone, shows the beginning of the show where Melanie, in tie-dyed onesie, gave the crowd a warm-up during some technical difficulties by singing a Whitney Houston-esque ballad. She then told us that the show was ready to begin, which meant she began bleating crazed, guttural scream-vocals over a tribal-hardcore techno beat until the collapsed on the floor in a heap.

At this point EK and I decided to leave but as we headed into the hallway we saw this train of people we realized were "performers" and it became immediately obvious that we needed to go back inside:

Little known fact: pans work just as well as underwear at protecting yr junk, and also keep out unwanted visitors.

Ummmmmmmmm... Yes. Your eyes are not deceiving you: that is indeed a naked woman with household objects--including a chair, lamp, and broom--tied to her body and a bucket on her head. What. The. Fuck. ...? And you can't tell from the photo but there were three other equally crazily dressed people standing with these two; obviously, I was mesmerized.

A moment after snapping this photo, these folk then walked into the gallery and upon exchanging, "We can't not go back in, right?" glances, EK and I followed them inside.

Thankfully at this point, EK pulled out and handed to me her nice point-and-shoot so I could take some shots above the standard crap-level of the iphone camera.

It was really crowded and the crazy people had left me momentarily stunned, so I'm not entirely sure how Melanie made it from the front room with the mic to this next room, but when we arrived inside the room, the scene looked something like this:

Yes. A full on altar on the ground like something out of Twin Peaks' Black Lodge. The five performers were kneeling on the ground around Melanie performing what appeared to be funeral rites, until after a moment the fifth (and, incidentally only semi-normally dressed) person got up and began floating around the room blowing sage incense on people.

She was then followed by the other naked girl, this one clothed only in a red hat pulled down entirely over her face but cut out on top so that her long dark hair came out. The "hat" had long, blobular tassle-like pieces that on some tiny level covered parts of her upper body, but she was largely exposed to the elements and looking mega crazy. All of which you can see in this next photo:

Our naked friend then began looking even crazier as she commenced "dancing" across the room, locomoting in a semi-rhythmic too-nuts-for-modern-dance motion that consisted of graceful bodily improvisation alternating with primal body-grunt thrusts. This resulted in her frequently landing on the floor with a bang, including in the above photo, in which she fell upon a pile of dirt at my feet.

Of the other three fairies, the furniture-bound naked one continued with the funeral rites, while the other female seemed to disappear (at least from my view) from sight. The last "performer", a large terrifying-looking man wearing an adult-sized pink Care Bears costume (complete with bear-eared hood) then stood up and walked over toward me. Picking up a shovel along the way, he began scooping up dirt from the pile at my feet and placing it on another part of the floor nearby. After 5 or 6 scoop dumps, he then began scooping up dirt and carrying it back to the altar where he dumped it on Melanie's stomach.

Every single minute and movement of this was blowing our minds and EK and I continually looked back at one another mouthing "Seriously?!?! What the fuck!??!". Finally, after about 20 minutes of nonsense, all five fairies rejoined Melanie in the center circle (the disappeared one appearing from nowhere crawling on all paws) for the conclusion, which you can see here:

This may look like same photo as the one above but it isn't.

I don't remember exactly what happened to end things but basically they started humming and then finally collapsed forward and the music stopped. I'm sure by then many people were just wondering when it would be over, but I couldn't keep my eyes off the Care Bear's foot, which was so close to the candles that I expected his costume to ignite at any minute (see photo above).

And then a minute later it was over and all six performers immediately filed out of the room to who knows where.

So, all in all: keeping real, keeping it crazy, keeping it Beaumont.

Labels: art, CRAZY, fucktactics, INSANITY, photography, quicksnaps, REAL LIFE IMs, thoughts

posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 5/19/2009 12:24:00 AM 0 comments

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