Carole Garmon pointed me to a beautifully disturbing re-enactment of a performance piece by Allan Kaprow’s “Shake It,” (1972) or at least that’s what I think it’s titled. I didn’t know anything about Kaprow before Carole explained his influential role in defining the concepts of performance art as well as helping to develop the “Happening” in the late 50s and 60s.
I dug a bit more on Kaprow, and I fascinated with his notion of “un-art.” He has a couple of essays on the subject titled “Art which Can’t be Art” and “The Education of an Un-Artist,” the last essay suggests an interesting confluence with a mashup un-artist who may have very well be exploring Kaprow’s themes given his deep knowledge and appreciation of all things avant-garde (just a theory). I also found two books of essays, “Untitled Essay and other works” (1967) and “Some Recent Happenings” (1966), on UBUWEB.
I admit, I read Kaprow’s piece when I was in school – though I can’t remember a thing about it. So, just well-read enough to be derivative, but not not enough to be, um, well-read.
I look forward to checking this out.
Trippy!
@Brian: I’m doing my research on you, buddy. Soon I’ll be able to write my 15 page research paper on Brian Lamb mashups, but the way he uses allusions and the convoluted influences and sources are making my works cited page a bitch.
@Alec: Trippy, indeed. In fact, it was the first word that came to my mind too :0