Party Crasher

This Guerrilla Art Party asked more of its attendees than to simply
look at art. We were to dismantle and then “remantle” a piece by
local artist and T-shirt designer Karl Addison in Cal Anderson Park. As
I walked through the apartment door, there it was: Invasion! The
large wall of five heavy wood doors was covered with white paper and 99
paper bags, each plastered with a different expression. Anna, our
charming hostess, offered to keep the piece in her living room when it
did not sell at the artist’s show in May. Addison—who was a
no-show—agreed, as long as it was eventually relocated to a
public space.

The party was slow to start, but that was remedied by Anna’s
penchant for filling everyone’s glasses with whiskey. As we sat
talking by the baba ghanoush and spinach dip, I realized that virtually
all of the attendees had at some point worked in grocery stores, which
inspired a partyer to observe that “it’s a grocer’s world.”

After getting sufficiently drunk, the grocers and I were out the
door, carrying the disassembled work to the park. The scene was
priceless: heavily inebriated guests wielding power tools and a
friendly dwarf named Sammy who was wielding his mace—not the Mace
you spray, but the spiked-ball-and-chain-on-a-handle preferred by
Visigoths. This guy had something to prove. Later, after we reassembled
the installation, Anna scolded Sammy for attacking the art with his
weapon.

Want The Stranger‘s plus one to inform someone that “I
will NOT have 17th-century sex with you!” at your house party?
Send the date, place, and party details to partycrasher@thestranger.com.