Every lie creates a parallel world... the world in which it's true.

[imomus]

Preparing for my three months of art performance at the Whitney, I've kitted myself out with a new pair of amazingly baggy carpenter's trousers and a small electric bullhorn through which I will issue lies about art.



I may look like a carpenter (well, perhaps more like some kind of art ninja), but instead of a saw I'll turn up for work at the Whitney equipped only with a maxim: "Every lie creates a parallel world... the world in which it's true."

If you're into this sort of stuff, and anywhere near London, I'd recommend a trip to the ICA to see Tino Sehgal's show. Sehgal represented Germany at the Venice Biennale this year, and his performance piece "This is so contemporary" was the one everyone came away from the Giardini talking about. David Byrne's blog describes a visit to the ICA show, and it sounds even more interesting.

Comments

[300letters.livejournal.com]

I have not been to the Whitney in quite some time. I guess this spring is the time to go. Curious to see what paralellw orlds you have in store for us.

[(Anonymous)]

So the concept is that you'll do to other people's artworks what you do to other people's cultures, weblogs, etc?

der.

[mcfnord.livejournal.com]

that show sounds great.

[scottbateman.livejournal.com]

May I record one of your tours for an animation...? :-)

[ohparagon.livejournal.com]

You look awesome. I'm gonna go.

[me-vs-gutenberg.livejournal.com]

Ceci n'est pas un commentaire.

[me-vs-gutenberg.livejournal.com]

No but seriously, every well-formed statement, regardless wether or not it's true in any sense, "creates" a reality in which it is true, by mere virtue of being intelligible.

Forget art horseracing is much more interesting

[sparkligbeatnic.livejournal.com]

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

I am into this sort of thing. But far away from London.... Sort of.
I did something similar while working on a camp for kids last summer(2005) where there was this treasure hunt and a few people including me dressed up in different ways to look like, well, some kind of travellers/natives. We were supposed to be lazy as hell and ask for moeny or massage to slow down the treasure hunt for the kids. That was such good fun plus it rained which probably made it even more horrible for the kids. And alot of people came up with some really interesting outfits too.

pants!

[cperko1.livejournal.com]

sir, where do you get these amazing pants i keep noticing! they look soooo comfortable!

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Fashion ninja!

It's a shame you can't find the same outfit in pink and orange.

Re: Forget art horseracing is much more interesting

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

In my town, you sometimes see little girls washing their horses in the driveway.

[dickon-edwards.livejournal.com]

I have such mixed feelings about this kind of performance art. Although I approve of it, I can't perform or even visit it myself due to sheer embarrassment. I salute Mr Sehgal for making a living from this pretentious conceptual tosh / innovative thought-provoking art (delete as applicable).

I actually auditioned to be in the previous ICA Tino Sehgal piece - and failed! Read all about it here:

http://dickonedwards.co.uk/diary/index.php/archive/the-war-against-pavlovian-whelks/

[anti-peace-riot.livejournal.com]

With you hopping around in these pictures I don't see a fashion ninja so much as a character in some kind of fairy tale. A couple of the poses in these pictures give you a mischevious, almost elf-like appearence.

Of course, I mean this in a good way. Your looking great and I wish I could be at the show but alas, can't make it as I live in Canada.

[(Anonymous)]

Hoodie ninja. You have to try out construction uniforms. Different kinds of bagginess when it comes to the pants. Steel toed tabi shoes too.

I would probably be confused, seeing that I'm not Momus.

[alphacomp.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity, what would you do if your museum-goer "victim" suddenly went "OMG HEY MOMUS!" as you were performing(or something to that effect)?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Dickon, that's a fascinating entry, and a fascinating experience, auditioning for Sehgal's ICA piece. You report it in a nuanced way, keeping your ambivalence intact. I normally share your abhorrence of audience participation, but I can promise you that it isn't the moronic kind you describe, where half the audience claps and the other half sings "Knees Up Mother Brown". At Venice, Sehgal had one room where the guards were just dancing around and shouting "This is so contemporary". All that did was make most visitors smile and stand still. But in another room there were people engaging you in conversations. If you talked long enough about the meaning of art and its relationship to society, you got a refund on the price of your entry ticket. I couldn't engage these people in conversation because they were talking at great length to other visitors (crusty kids who looked like they needed the seven euros more than I did). But in that context I felt no British reserve, I can tell you. (Perhaps more Scottish meanness.)

I was a bit worried by the way your account referenced so many TV programmes, as though Only Fools and Horses, The Bill, Big Brother, The Bill, Casualty, were some kind of unquestionable reality, some bedrock of national values. "This must really be a reality TV show" or "This museum actor must really be an extra in The Bill" is a kind of British insanity, the idea that a less real and less likely scenario could explain an immediate and real situation. Because, in a way, what could be less pretentious than someone just asking you, in an art gallery, what you think about progress? It's a lot less convoluted than an episode of Only Fools and Horses, and doesn't need to be held up against it and found wanting.

[dickon-edwards.livejournal.com]

I don't deny I need to watch less TV, or care about it less.

[dickon-edwards.livejournal.com]

Also, I personally don't think Mr T's stuff is pretentious at all, but fear it does run the risk of being labelled that way, and of resembling a TV sitcom episode's idea of what conceptual art is.

Re: I would probably be confused, seeing that I'm not Momus.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

My interventions are going to be very short and ninja-like. I will drop out of a "tree" (as it were; there are no trees in the Whitney), raise the loudhailer to my lips, suggest a couple of unlikely facts about the artwork people are looking at, then disappear before anyone has time to say anything much at all. Blink and you miss it.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

But who cares what rubbish TV sitcom writers believe about conceptual art? I mean, at least you can accuse rock critics of being failed rock stars; they really, really want to be the people they're describing. But sitcom writers are mostly stand-up comedians who've succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. If they were failed conceptual artists, fine, the bitterness / envy / hero worship might give their pot shots some substance, some emotional content.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

if they were failed conceptual artists

The only comedian I'd actually honour with this ennobling title is Chris Morris, because the Brass Eye Pedo Special was worthy of Dellar, Shrigley, et al.

[dickon-edwards.livejournal.com]

And indeed, who cares what rubbish conceptual artists believe about TV sitcoms? I find both mediums fascinating and frustrating!

[dickon-edwards.livejournal.com]

Well, Nathan Barley was parodying / celebrating pretentious London art-types, wasn't it. It was flawed, but still funnier than the ubquitous and overrated Mr Shrigley.

I was snogged by an actor from NB the other day. At an art show in a Charlotte Street basement, in fact. Now that's my kind of art!

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Your description of the old lift was particularly clever: "as old as Canada and not nearly as friendly." Laughed out loud. Nicely done. I also heartily agree with your point about humor.