1/of One No. 1: Mildew'd Acreage
$45.00
1/of One No. 1: Mildew'd Acreage
$45.00
Very limited edition of 1 experimental sonic composition/decomposition/uncompostisition on Kass!-ette Tape.
The post-World War II avant-garde, experimentalisms, activities, theories, and writings still offer us these 80-odd years later many strategies to mine, explore, agitate and counter-attack. Post War, in my estimation, is very roughly from about 1943-47 to about 1980. I have chosen these dates because the four years include a domain in which world powers were yet still in combat dominated by what is referred to as theaters of war, rather than the preceding century's (yes, centuries prudent reader) skirmishes of strategic combat and re-learning what Sun-Tzu in China had already instructed to us centuries before the last one before the last one. I am also using between 1943 and 1947 as those years (not only those years) were significant, in terms of activity of the Ur-artist Maya Deren, who does not need any introduction from myself other than to inform you that her shadow looms large on any person, no matter what category I could conjure, who is rigorous about exploring the boundary-and-beyond limits of their discipline or disciplines in a way that is rigorous, playful, requires exactitude both of self and audience and is self-reflective in a personal and personable way about those creative explorations. I chose 1980 as a possible ending (or if not ending certainly dwindling) point of the twentieth century avant-garde because the end of the 70's, much of the experimentalism for its own sake in art and music and the social and spiritual reward to be gained from what might be called living a carefully or carefree-ly considered creative life in all areas of one's existence so that life/art/music/partnerships/child-rearing are indistinguishable from one another--had receded into a fucked-out, drugged-out, utopian promise turned shit-show, not unlike the once happy marriage that disintegrates into abject contempt and bewilderment. The rebellious spirt of labor movements of the early 20th, the socialist anarchist iconoclasts of the 20s, 30s, 40s and their passionate rhetoric, the Beats, Hippies, Yippies, Diggers, Holy Modals, Fug U's and Demon Brothers vanished unfulfilled--their passion-heart deflated, popped by the righteous thorn of a pearl clutching populace who wanted all the nonsense to stop and were eager to bear the collective brunt of intergenerational trauma to see that the nonsense did, indeed stop. For a while.
This class--the vanguard of the religious right--disintegrated the egalitarian and commune-ist ideals of so many who were both its architects and who were rightly eager for it. I also chose 1980 because it was the year of the ascendancy of the incubi, homunculi, proto-ur-religious right (none of their slogans or arguments or evidentiary findings have changed much, IMHO, as is said inside the comments and posts) in this country with the election of the seemingly good-natured, goober gadfly of governmental largesse--the gruesome goon of the the get-rich gospel and the not passively genocidal, but maybe purposefully genocidal, guffawing gubernatorial goober, ronald reagan.
In this period of artistic activity, there is a thread of--not solely comprised of activity, although it did manifest often as activity/performance, as it is treatment or use or commonality or trend, etc, which is the artists thinking about, use of and delineation or non-delineation of the role of the audience. A brief survey of experimental art in many media would quickly uncover examples of the treatment of the audience as more than passive, part spectator, or a willing, unwittingly, indeterminant, necessary participant/collaborator/co-author in the artworks exhibition--in its Artworking of art, in the multimedia rigor of Allan Kaprow, a great number of the works produced by almost any of the artists associated then and now with Fluxus, the works of John Cage, Ben Patterson (of course associated with Fluxus and who involved the audience so wryly and I think with healthy shit-eating grinned pleasure at the result of his 'Paper Piece'), Yoko Ono, Marina Abramovic et al.
I've been thinking about all of these works and threads and theories and scenarios and musics and performances and films in light of what I might do in my own practice-- this series--not only a sound work, but social composition and one on one interaction between artist and audience member/buyer/commissioning body (hereafter referred to as 'audient' thank you for that one, Frank Rolla!) 1/of 0ne cassette tapes are the result. Each cassette tape is blank. When the audient purchases the cassette tape, they are also engaging in a non-binding contract (an on-paper, good faith agreement) that retains my sonic skills to create a composition that is a collaboration between me and the audient. The audient/buyer, depending on the cassette/composition purchased, will have opportunities to suggest various themes, leidt motifs, appropriations, rhythmic passages, etc. in a dialogue wiht the artist. As the artist, I will send a memorandum to the audient with a reasonable schedule of time it will take to complete the work, considering with regard to feasibility as to what will be included in the composition. The work will originate via the cassette tape medium. The tape purchased is the physical thing that the audient receives when I have completed the work--the cassette and sonic work contained therein are indistinguishable, thus the audient is also participating in a project of rarity and assisting in the creative manufacture of their own objet d'oreille. I will bind myself to the activity by sending the audient--and making public--a notarized document stating approximately when I will complete the work and deliver it to the audient. It will state that a digital version of the piece will be available for exactly 9 days after a period determined by the artist and audient, and free of charge. The document will also state that I will delete/destroy the digital version and any source materials used to create it and revoke any claim to copyright, excepting all of the state of California, to the composition. I will also produce works of artworking using found materials, objects, concepts, images, carpet swatches, bloated farts, meditations and talismans evoked or uncovered during the process of executing the cassette tape recording/work/collage/decomposition/anti-music-------
Limited Edition--1/of One--No. 1, Mildew'd Acreage
