You can't call that Art, you Whore

"Sex Workers’ Art Show" is the topic on the DAMage Report today at 2:30pm PST

"In a cabaret-style mix of music, drag, spoken word and multimedia performance art, The Sex Worker’ Art Show hopes to reinforce the notion of sex workers as artists. Performances will provide a variety of perspectives on sex work. Ideas range from prostitutes’ rights to “views from the darker sides of the industry. The Sex Worker’s Art Show aims to extend past the taboo to comment on class, race, gender, labor and sexuality." -   http://www.sexworkersartshow.com/

You can't call that Art, you Whore

Hookers, strippers and drag queens performing in a traveling show that discusses the adult entertainment industry? 

That's not art! 

That's just ...well... nasty. 

What would they know about art? 

Okay, so the complaints aren't about whether or not the show is art - it doesn't even make it that far out of the discussion bag. 

The fact that **gasp** porn stars and prostitutes would DARE show their faces to the good, decent people and TALK and SING about their experiences seems to be all it takes to cause an uproar. 

Actually.... the uproar seems to be more of a bored whimper. When you look at who ACTUALLY showed up at the public forum to "debate" the show's viability, there were only 30-40 people in attendance and most of those faculty (hall monitors.)

There was quite alot of  coverage in the various media on the "controversy" of strippers putting on a show, but very little (read nothing) on the show's content. 

It seems the focus was entirely on the artists and not the art. At all.

To add insult to injury there was whining about it not being controversial enough. 

No, really: "Most agree that the controversy this year has been less charged, both because the controversial Century Project has taken attention away from the show." 

So this is a case of "Wahhh, who stole my controversy?" 

The sad thing is that if the "controversy" of the show was spin, then it deflected from the potential message of the show and turned the whining around it into nothing more than a bored, half-assed pissing contest.  

One woman wrote to the newspaper and asked "Doesn’t presenting such a show trivialize and possibly even encourage the degradation and exploitation of women inherent in “sex work?” How does presenting a show like this encourage the search for truth and knowledge that universities claim to advance?"

Ohhh - let me answer that one! It opens the topic for discussion and provides access to info and viewpoints you couldn't easily get ... unless you wanted to start interviewing "ladies of the night." 

Instead of walking around with victorian era protests of morale outrage at the audacity of them 'hos, wouldn't it be great if people would open their minds a little and try to walk a few inches in someone else's FMPs? 

Is the show great art? Oh, hell if i know. I couldn't find out anything about it beyond those obligatory gasps of "How dare they!" and  "It's so controversial!" and "It's not controversial enough, damn that Century Project for stealing our thunder." 

But a peek at the bios of the performers leads me to think that these professional artists and art school graduates have themselves a showman's angle for the performance and probably make for more of an entertaining evening than an educational one. But y'all - whether they are performers or ladies of ill repute (heehee - i love that phrase - so damn funny) it is art and they are trying to convey a message. 

Resources:

• Sex Worker's Art Show - the controversy: http://www.counton2.com/cbd/news/weird_news/article/college_of_william_and_mary_hosts_controversial_sex_show/22554/

• low attendance at forum: http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/williamsburg/dp-local_sexworkers_0324mar24,0,2389583.story

• fourth showing at the college: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDQyYzY5OTY2Zjg3ZmYzZGYxNzQyMDlkOGNjMzVjYzg=

• general info:   http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1630511

• The Show returns days after The Century Project closes on campus: http://flathatnews.com/content/70376/speaking-sex-work-and-art

their site: http://www.sexworkersartshow.com/about_03152009.html

Oh, Those Wacky, Wacky Artists

Age old question: "what is art."
There really is no field of "work" more subjective than the arts, relying entirely on the reactive impact of the viewer for its validity.
"I like it."
"I don't like it."
And artists....hoo boy... they will do some crazy things in the name of "art."
Sometimes for attention.
Sometimes to communicate an idea.
Sometimes to wake the great slumbering beast that is the public.
Part of the magic of art is that it pushes at some and pulls at others. What is tragic is when someone takes the word of another on how they should feel about a certain piece. It is easy to do. We can do it without thought; never delving deeper to examine the "art" in question to develop our own opinions.

I almost made that mistake this week after reading a letter to the editor of the New York Times that popped up on my news feed entitled "Madness Disguised as Art."
In reaction to a story in the NY Times about Teching Hsieh, the author of the letter said,

"Art, it’s generally understood, is a carefully executed endeavor that enhances the emotional or intellectual experience of the viewer or audience, giving pleasure and, perhaps, a greater understanding and appreciation of the human condition. As I read about Tehching Hsieh, I sought insight into what his masochistic exercises might mean to anyone else. This poor fellow locked himself up for a year behind bars in virtual isolation, then for another year deprived himself of sleep and most human contact by punching a time clock every hour, then for another year shunned shelter. And much, much more, including jumping out of a second-story window and breaking both ankles. The article rattled on about Mr. Hsieh’s “art” instead of his obvious mental illness."

My initial reaction was complete agreement. The "so-called" artist sounded like another nutcase seeking attention by "acting out" in ludicrious and dangerous ways. I almost moved on. My perception on the artist was signed, sealed, delivered and wrapped up in a nice little package with someone else's opinion stamped all over it. But for some inexplicable reason I clicked on the link to the original story that had inspired the empassioned rant. And discovered a fascinating story about a struggling asian artist trying to communicate, through performance art, the complete alienation he was experiencing as an illegal immigrant to this country. If that was all his performance work conveyed it would have possibly made it as a footnote in the art history books, distinguished only by artistic extremes.

But when you delve into the pieces he created, look at how they relate to isolationism in humanity, to despair, to the "rat race" at large, they begin to take on relevance and significance.

"For decades he was almost an urban legend, his harrowing performances — the year he punched a time clock hourly, the year he lived on the streets, the year he spent tethered by a rope to a female artist — kept alive by talk."

In performance art, the artist themselves are the work of art and Mr. Hsieh created art out of extreme action in a very calculated manner in order to communicate his concepts. It is ironic that he is receiving recognition at museums such as the Museum of Modern Art thirty years later, after he has denounced himself as no longer an artist. Apparently the decision has been taken out of his hands by the art world. The irony ties in so very nicely to the bleak fatalism behind his work.

"“If art good, people remember. If art bad, history clean up.” - Teching Hsieh

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/arts/design/01sont.html?_r=1&ref=arts

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/03/01/arts/20090301_HSIEH_SLIDESHOW_index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/arts/08alsmail-MADNESSDISGU_LETTERS.html?_r=1

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/arts/08alsmail-TEHCHINGHSIE_LETTERS.html