April 20, 2011

BLART: Darth Vader in a Rocking Chair

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What it is: Double Vader Vision Quest by Mike Simi, seven-minute video

Where it is: Season

Stranger Personals

Darth Vader is in a rocking chair, wearing a Darth Vader T-shirt. It’s Seattle artist Mike Simi under there. With each rock, he presses a button that flashes a light at him. He’s drinking a bottle of Nyquil and a bottle of Dayquil, routed to his mouth by tubes jury-rigged to the mask, beer-hat-style. Once the medicine kicks in, it’s hard to keep the rhythm of the rocking and the light synchronized. He lurches and tips, his gaze glassy and his pupils never dilating. He’s a parody of self-punishing performance artists, but he’s not just funny, he’s mesmerizing, and he’s really drinking the awful stuff, a medicine man. Simi came of age during the Bush years, when American foreign policy depended on the dichotomies of simpletons. Simi’s silly video is also a meditation on the zone that exists beyond clarity.

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Or the 'zone' that exists when you can't pull yourself out of the vices and bad habits that have started to swallow you and drag you into the quicksand of self pity, thus all you can do is make attempts at 'art' soaked in booze and drugs???

Posted by sucka69 on April 21, 2011 at 9:57 AM · Report

There are myriad avenues of brilliance in this art object. I must say I found it immediately captivating, also possessing intellectual longevity. Unfortunately, I will not elaborate, preferring to keep my personal adulation private. Perhaps this is my unique self-pity.

Sincerely,

Paul Kuniholm Pauper, Curator
Form/Space Atelier

Posted by Paul Kuniholm Pauper on April 23, 2011 at 6:58 PM · Report

"If the artist has total freedom - if art can be anything the artist says it is - it will also never be anything more than that." - Peter Fuller

Posted by alpha unicorn

on April 30, 2011 at 10:32 AM · Report

An important part of art criticism is calling persons to act; to visit art and artists in person. Sound bites and blurbs are no substitute for lengthy, face-to-face exchanges with artists and their representatives and colleagues. I encourage everyone to vote with the feet, be in space with creators and objects created by them. More will be revealed.

Sincerely,

Paul Kuniholm Pauper, Curator
Form/Space Atelier

Posted by Paul Kuniholm Pauper on May 2, 2011 at 10:10 AM · Report