Saturday, May 21, 2011

Tripping the Light Transgressive


What is it with British art students? First we had Jammie Nicholas who decided to create a perfume from a BM instead of flushing it down the toilet. Now we have Leah Capaldi, one of five artists shortlisted for The Catlin Art Prize in England. Emma Love in The Independent describes her entry:
Leah Capaldi’s performance piece involves two actors at a time (one female, one male), who will each be sprayed with a whole bottle of Chanel Allure or Allure Pour Homme. They will walk among visitors at The Tramshed in London . . .
What do you mean, you don’t get it? Have you no appreciation for Art? Alright then, let Ms. Capaldi spell it out for you:
“The idea came from when I was at the British Museum a while ago looking at a statue and a woman walked past me wearing so much perfume it was unbelievable. I found it stifling and had a real physical reaction; I had to walk to the other end of the gallery to get out of that space,” says the RCA sculpture graduate Capaldi, who has already sprayed herself with perfume and travelled on public transport around London in the rush hour to see how people would react.

Now do you get it? Brilliant, yes? She’s grossing people out with perfume. It’s transgressive. Therefore, it’s Art.

Ms. Capaldi is a multi-media artist; she also uses a giant Mickey Mouse head and chocolate cake.

Sounds like fun and free government grant money to me. I’m already working on my first performance piece. It involves students from the Royal College of Art, his-and-her thongs printed with the Union Jack, and a bucket of KFC Fiery Buffalo Wings. The piece is called “Flaming British Assholes.”

Transgressive!

11 comments:

Carrie Meredith said...

Hah! Art, indeed. Ear no Fart.

Brian said...

At least they're not using good stuff.

Avery Gilbert said...

Carrie Meredith:

The late comic actorLeslie Nielsen used to enjoy setting off a fart-noise device in crowded elevators. Sure, he was doing it "to see how people would react", but he never claimed it was Art.

Seems to me Ms. Capaldi is ripe for being pwned. Look at all the sombre, ultra-serious, male art students watching the topless sculptress thrust her head into a chocolate cake. All it would take is one fellow slipping a pound note into her G-string and she could kiss her artistic pretensions goodbye.

Avery Gilbert said...

Brian:

Heh.

I wonder how the Chanel folks feel about her stunt.

And how original is it? It's basically a riff on Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me.

The Frowzy Chickadee said...

Sounds like a "pay back" project to me and she was close to deadline--think fast, think fast!

Vanessa said...

A whole bottle? That will take some serious nozzle action.

I once watched a man in a German department store spray his entire upper torso including underarms and chest and back *through his T-shirt* with a tester bottle. Am happy to say it was Bvlgari Homme, but it was still shocking!

The Frowzy Chickadee said...

Hey, the Germans are big!

Avery Gilbert said...

Frowzy Chickadee:

Honestly, most of the projects on Ms. Capaldi's resume look like they were thought up in about 20 seconds. I could be wrong--maybe she sampled 200 different colognes before selecting Chanel Allure. And who knows how many types of cake she face planted before going with chocolate. Imagine the planning that went into the video piece where she shoves her bare ass against a window pane then cleans off the cheek prints with some Windex and a towel?

Avery Gilbert said...

Vanessa:

Awesome image!

The pathology behind deliberate self-overdosing might be sort of intriguing . . .

But Ms. Capaldi, after her initial pilot spritzing, is having stand-ins do the smelly work. Not very avant garde of her.

Here's something I'd pay to see: Capaldi in a thong being sprayed by Jammie Nicholas with an entire bottle of his fecalicious perfume.

Double extra transgressive!

Perfumeshrine said...

We're obviously in the wrong business :D

Forget about scaring anyone's wits out by the suffocating cloud dragged through the streets. What happens with the actual wearer himself and herself? What happens if they faint from the stinky mess? Oh wait, there will probably be an ambulance in tow and the proper research team (on another gornment fund) jotting down the risks of overexposure to perfumes. Pffft...

Perfumeshrine said...

It's "government"...typos, typos...and not checking what I wrote before hitting publish.