Mattes Paintings and the Beuys of Summer...

"Look, but do not touch the merchandise!" Here we are roving around a pile of broken columns (known in politically correct circles as a post-colonial clearcut) doing our best to out-snub each other by keeping our public traps (mouths) shut - how post-minimal and post-modern is that? For a second there, I thought I was no longer in Second Life at all but rather attending a typical gallery opening in Vancouver ;-)

Hey there performance art and conceptual art fans,

Phew! My RL wedding has finally taken place so now I can continue where I left off and blog the text-waste out of my system again...

About 12 hours ago, I was invited by Pei Twang (Eva Mattes) and Pei May (Franco Mattes) to appear as an actor/actress (actron) for their documentary on their 7,000 Oaks remediation series based on Joseph Beuys' original installation at Documenta.

At first, I thought they would be interviewing me about the Oak I installed outside my PR office but once I got there, I realized that The Mattes (Eva and Franco) were actually organizing a a rigidly disciplined and purified conceptual piece of their own (minimalist) making. I liked this "documentary" idea alot and I think the Mattes produced a very appropriate stand-alone artwork that transcends mere video-documentation and had in fact, entered the realm of "conceptual virtual performance"....ooooooooooo....sounds sorta intellecual-ish, eh?

Well, let me explain this whole lofty concept a bit more for you...

Basically, we (the actrons) were allowed to walk around but were not allowed to chat in public nor were we allowed to sit down and modify the landscape...the whole experience was very performative and much like some sort of Zen Group meditation in Canada... Unlike Canadians, I thought that Italians were perfectly comfortable with overt urban alterations of the landscape? I thought it was only part of the Canadian mentality that forced the artist to stare blankly in awe of the landscape without acknowledging the presence of their colleagues nor the potentials for urban renewal.

Nationalism aside, I actually needed to meditate in some way as I was really stressed with my life outside of my Second Life and I also had an Avatar Orchestra Metaverse rehearsal to attend to as well as an offworld interview with Jessica Werb from Vancouver's Georgia Straight Magazine later in the evening...

Well, this was not the only reason why I played along with this whole kinetic "Mattes Painting" since I fully understood the conceptual intent behind their "documentary" footage. It was definitely High Art (although not as High as I usually like to get....heheheheheheh). I am sure the machinima that they will be producing from the event will be very surreal and eerie...silent, yet deadly ;-)

This was indeed a Stealth-u-mentary.... Here are some more pix...

Here we all are again...still looking cool and refusing to speak to each other lest we break the minimal sanctity of the "documentary" performance. At this moment, you would expect the Mattes to say "Act Natural!" or something like that... ;-)

As part of my performative contribution, I decided to play strictly by the rules while subverting them as much as possible. So, while still keeping my mouth shut, I did my best to raise as much suspicion as possible without actually doing anything. Here I am getting a little too close to the Mattes for comfort. They must have known I was posing in front of them to take a very opportunistic yet stealthy photo-op for my blog...one might almost think if they were to judge this pic based on their first impressions that The Mattes are my loyal and intimate collaborators...heheheheh.

Once again, the Champions of Post-Minimalism tacitly survey the post-mortem remains of mute Josepherian "nature" (or something lofty sounding like that). We love Cosmos Island and Cosmos Island Loves Us!

Finally! We were allowed to sit down....Woo Hooo! wOOt! wOOt!

Here I am sitting with my good friend (and performance art colleague), Fau Ferdinand. She found a way to sneak in her own voice via the method of thought balloons...I bet the Mattes were sweating pixels once we arrived on the scene ;-)

At the point this pic was taken, I was offered a beer by SLEnquirer's CEO, Lanai Jarrico. I must admit that I am a very cheap drunk...I can even get tipsy off of a single freebie...whoa!

Here we are running towards a hill or something for some sort of photo-op...ummm..I have no idea what we were doing really at this point but looking pretty. Check out the chat-history for the Sound of Music reference....It was more like the Sounds of Silence...sigh!

...and for our final group photo, we posed in front of the main building facade on Cosmos Island... It was somewhere around this time that Nilo Oh OD's on some virtual substance and we were obliged to revive her... Geez, is conceptual art, the opiate of the masses these days or what? Sigh!