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May 12, 2005
The Art of Inanity
If you walked past the Corcoran Gallery of Art in downtown DC yesterday, you might have seen Melissa Ichiuji on a platform in front of it, barefoot, dressed in drawstring pants and a sports bra. You might have seen the clear jars that stood on the platform with her. Some were full of urine, because she had been using them as a bathroom since the previous morning, wrapping herself in a blanket when it came time to do her business.
But, according to WaPo, "it turns out she's neither a crackpot nor an extremist"; she's an artist.
This particular piece of performance, or rather "non-performance" art actually preceded Ichiuji climbing up on her stage. It began gradually, with her abstaining from various indulgences like coffee, soda, etc., gradually working her way up through television and newspapers to a self-imposed ban on pretty much everything but pretentiousness, including speech, food, and shelter.
Her point has been made more eloquently and with a lot more sincerity by any number of devotees to the world's great religions. Nuns practice self-denial in order to get in touch with their spiritual side too. Among the differences are that nuns don't feel compelled to make a spectacle of themselves, and they usually keep at it for a little longer.
But a passing jogger in a "Run Against Bush" shirt was impressed. "Can I come do this with you?" she asked the artist, who ignored her.
"Maybe this will bring peace," opined the Bush-basher, before jogging off.
The public platform part of the performance was slated to last 36 hours, starting at 6:00 Tuesday morning. A reverent art fan observed of Ichiuji's performance that "To fail here is worse than making a bad painting. It's like you weren't able to overcome your physical self. It's more personal."
A moment later Ichiuji, still not talking, climbed down from the platform and wandered off, leaving her audience "speculating about art without an artist, about the vacuum of meaning and the loss of center." After awhile, she came back and resumed her performance, sitting on the platform and sipping on something that presumably made its way eventually into one of the jars.
By way of explanation for her absence, Anthony Cervino, the Corcoran's director of college exhibition, would only say, "She was laying in the bathroom with her face pressed against the floor."
Prior to its conquest by moonbattery, Western art produced Michelangelo and Rembrandt. Now it produces a kook piddling into jars in public. This might help explain why moonbats should not be elected to political office.
Hat tip: The MaryHunter.
Update
This just in: according to a reliable source, Ichiuji actually called a premature halt to her "non-performance," on the grounds that it was too hot out.
Posted by Van Helsing at May 12, 2005 6:32 AM
Comments
"Maybe this will bring peace," opined the Bush-basher, before jogging off.
LOL! Are you serious? Thanks for pointing out the loony lefties.
Posted by: Jay at May 12, 2005 11:14 AM
This is actually on the level.
Posted by: Van Helsing at May 12, 2005 12:39 PM
I am sure this nut will have an impact on peace, isn't this the way we ended World War II? She appears to to be right out there on the foreskin of modern art. I wonder if she is currently working under a grant from the NEA. Maplethorpe(?) would be proud, all that pissing in an empty maynonaise jar.
Posted by: Eneils Bailey at May 12, 2005 7:47 PM
At least she was decent.
You have to give the moonbat some credit.
On the other hand perhaps she should've been stark naked to stimulate more vigorously the coming of peace.
Next time, perhaps.
Posted by: Felis at May 13, 2005 5:48 PM
And this is why I sometimes cringe when people ask me what I do for a living.
I am an artist....
Posted by: christmasghost at May 13, 2005 10:32 PM
