hello how many of you saw the post-it
notes out there and how many of you
posted on them very good thank you
and for those of you who haven’t or did
and would like to do some more I would
like to ask of your assistance see I
would like for you to write on more of
these post-it notes and if you would
like to I’m actually asking of you to
please come to my assistance at the
stage right there
so really yeah there you go awesome you
can use as many as you wish I want you
to write on them how you’re going to
concretely change the world in small and
big ways I want you to write on them
what you truly fear yes and then I want
you to post them on me yes on me I
promise it’ll be fun I promise and then
I will take your words and make art of
them truly see I am an artist and some
of us artists we dismember ourselves and
feed ourselves to you so that you may
make your own art it was back in the
early 90s I had just arrived into my
adulthood at the same time I arrived in
San Francisco right here in the South of
Market area death and grief so thick in
the air sex too often equaled death and
the grasping for love and connection
often meant pain and rejection now I
understood in my bones pain and
rejection or
but the joy of pleasure ought not to
have been tainted by the spectre of
death for somebody so young as so many
of us were but there I was finding love
and kinship among the rejected and I
suppose I didn’t know any better I found
myself falling into this rogue band of
the eternally hopeful they were
creatively charming charming creative
powerful and unapologetically erotic lee
life for many of them took to the
streets others still laid down their
bodies against the brutality of fear and
law enforcement and they were the heroes
they are still the heroes but me I
didn’t go that route and you know maybe
it was the crowds maybe it was over a
confrontation but I didn’t feel like
that was how I couldn’t make change
happen instead I donned a campy wig
painted my lips put on the cheap sexy
outfit and we the merry band of lustful
do-gooders we went out into the night we
climbed onto the stage in the platforms
among writhing bodies at the queer dance
clubs and the Dyke sex parties oh yeah
the word Dyke back then I was a proud
word of self reclamation and the word
queer was hotly contested among the
generations now the words change but the
exciting friction still remains so there
we were on the stage in the platform’s
climbing up there lifting our skirts
ripping open our flies dental dams
condoms gloves and lube we camped it up
but we went out of for real live love on
stage for safer sex controversial
certain
save a few lives possibly shift
paradigms definitely see we were
unencumbered by government funding or
agency controls other organizations
fighting the good fight trying to stave
off the pandemic they didn’t have that
luxury those organizations with all
their good intentions they had to stay
in their booth meekly handing out
condoms dryly preaching rationality in
the midst of CEO passion how were they
to affect change alter behavior and
establish a new erotic Norma and how are
we to take emotion to action and prepare
for the new reality their latex glove
hands were tied we wanted so much and
yet we had to span the gap of good
intention and action
all of this happened here in soma love
grief and creative force here to began
my performance art and my social
practice humans are creative people
create we can’t help it
oh but we’ve been taught too well to be
the audience that the artist and the
audience are oppositional that one
produces while the other consumes but
what if the creation and the consumption
the revealing and the obliterating were
the same thing when I create I am
simultaneously destroying the raw
materials art whether wood paper fabric
flowers or blowup dolls are permanently
altered and damaged
permanently in order to create something
new the moment before the act of change
is long silence that’s intense
and delicious the moment after creation
is exhilarating the decision to destroy
to the action of creation is a
transformative eternally long nanosecond
oh this this is a love seat yes it’s
called the low C that’s actually made of
real blow-up dolls actual blow-up dolls
tied onto a frame it’s meant to be sat
on and the conversation it generates oh
my the conversation that generates I
call it the loveseat effect in this
piece
mooom yoga me the god of no name
I am literally a white paper canvas for
you to leave your mark upon strangers
leave indelible marks upon us all in
ways that we may never see but what if
we took a moment thought about it and
chose to leave a mark
unique and eternal for having taken that
action and for having taken that action
we are all changed
I hold my post until all have done what
they must Oh kimono to what we wear in
this piece I come wandering in from the
audience wearing Mickey Mouse ears
Captain America’s shirt and drinking a
coca-cola and then I dress myself in a
vintage kimono layering on the makeup
representing idealized beauty
nationalism even the yellow face
black eyeshadow red lips white over
medieval Japanese brow white over red
rising some quite over
bright yellow slanted eyes white over
and finally wearing a wooden no mask and
bound under my own creation the
attendees are invited to quite over me
who is responsible for the destruction
of the authentic where is the line
between self creation and self
obliteration where is it an internalized
truth and externally imposed oh the
dining room now say who doesn’t secretly
revel in the thrill of breaking things
mm-hmm yeah yeah you and you and you
yeah so I invite you I invite people to
come break dishes with me hundreds and
hundreds of plates saucers cups and
dishes smashed it’s exhilarating and
it’s deliciously it just feels
deliciously forbidden yeah and then the
shards created from that we sweep that
up into an installation the cacophony
and the sound of shattering turns into a
long silence a reflection
let me read your post-it notes I fear
only fear it so I will change the world
showing golden rule is still golden I
will change the world by being
relentlessly kind I will change the
world by paying attention when it’s
easier to turn the other cheek I will
change the world by small acts of
kindness hartmark I will change the
world by educating others about HIV
people believe there is no danger of HIV
anymore
right on and I fear unknown of death I
will change the world by sustainable
business there’s so much talk of how
we’re going to change the world change
is creation the impulse to change and
create is woven in with the fears from
within our shadow embrace the fear
embrace the creation embrace the change
creation is uncomfortable change is
unsettling speaking of unsettling I
remember years ago when I visited
Thailand and I was surprised even
shocked to find the Buddhist worshipers
putting gold leaf upon the sacred
statues in Japan where I’m from the
images and the statues of the
Bodhisattvas are often hidden behind
screens not to be touched much less
altered so I was put off at first
offended even and then I was fast
the gold leaves our wishes hopes fears
and aspirations made physical thought
and concept turned to action into
tangible materiality action and
materiality bring forth the change so
you have posted upon me thank you
you have buried me thank you I am NOT
the artist not anymore
oh thank you you are the creator now and
you have always been thank you
you
notes out there and how many of you
posted on them very good thank you
and for those of you who haven’t or did
and would like to do some more I would
like to ask of your assistance see I
would like for you to write on more of
these post-it notes and if you would
like to I’m actually asking of you to
please come to my assistance at the
stage right there
so really yeah there you go awesome you
can use as many as you wish I want you
to write on them how you’re going to
concretely change the world in small and
big ways I want you to write on them
what you truly fear yes and then I want
you to post them on me yes on me I
promise it’ll be fun I promise and then
I will take your words and make art of
them truly see I am an artist and some
of us artists we dismember ourselves and
feed ourselves to you so that you may
make your own art it was back in the
early 90s I had just arrived into my
adulthood at the same time I arrived in
San Francisco right here in the South of
Market area death and grief so thick in
the air sex too often equaled death and
the grasping for love and connection
often meant pain and rejection now I
understood in my bones pain and
rejection or
but the joy of pleasure ought not to
have been tainted by the spectre of
death for somebody so young as so many
of us were but there I was finding love
and kinship among the rejected and I
suppose I didn’t know any better I found
myself falling into this rogue band of
the eternally hopeful they were
creatively charming charming creative
powerful and unapologetically erotic lee
life for many of them took to the
streets others still laid down their
bodies against the brutality of fear and
law enforcement and they were the heroes
they are still the heroes but me I
didn’t go that route and you know maybe
it was the crowds maybe it was over a
confrontation but I didn’t feel like
that was how I couldn’t make change
happen instead I donned a campy wig
painted my lips put on the cheap sexy
outfit and we the merry band of lustful
do-gooders we went out into the night we
climbed onto the stage in the platforms
among writhing bodies at the queer dance
clubs and the Dyke sex parties oh yeah
the word Dyke back then I was a proud
word of self reclamation and the word
queer was hotly contested among the
generations now the words change but the
exciting friction still remains so there
we were on the stage in the platform’s
climbing up there lifting our skirts
ripping open our flies dental dams
condoms gloves and lube we camped it up
but we went out of for real live love on
stage for safer sex controversial
certain
save a few lives possibly shift
paradigms definitely see we were
unencumbered by government funding or
agency controls other organizations
fighting the good fight trying to stave
off the pandemic they didn’t have that
luxury those organizations with all
their good intentions they had to stay
in their booth meekly handing out
condoms dryly preaching rationality in
the midst of CEO passion how were they
to affect change alter behavior and
establish a new erotic Norma and how are
we to take emotion to action and prepare
for the new reality their latex glove
hands were tied we wanted so much and
yet we had to span the gap of good
intention and action
all of this happened here in soma love
grief and creative force here to began
my performance art and my social
practice humans are creative people
create we can’t help it
oh but we’ve been taught too well to be
the audience that the artist and the
audience are oppositional that one
produces while the other consumes but
what if the creation and the consumption
the revealing and the obliterating were
the same thing when I create I am
simultaneously destroying the raw
materials art whether wood paper fabric
flowers or blowup dolls are permanently
altered and damaged
permanently in order to create something
new the moment before the act of change
is long silence that’s intense
and delicious the moment after creation
is exhilarating the decision to destroy
to the action of creation is a
transformative eternally long nanosecond
oh this this is a love seat yes it’s
called the low C that’s actually made of
real blow-up dolls actual blow-up dolls
tied onto a frame it’s meant to be sat
on and the conversation it generates oh
my the conversation that generates I
call it the loveseat effect in this
piece
mooom yoga me the god of no name
I am literally a white paper canvas for
you to leave your mark upon strangers
leave indelible marks upon us all in
ways that we may never see but what if
we took a moment thought about it and
chose to leave a mark
unique and eternal for having taken that
action and for having taken that action
we are all changed
I hold my post until all have done what
they must Oh kimono to what we wear in
this piece I come wandering in from the
audience wearing Mickey Mouse ears
Captain America’s shirt and drinking a
coca-cola and then I dress myself in a
vintage kimono layering on the makeup
representing idealized beauty
nationalism even the yellow face
black eyeshadow red lips white over
medieval Japanese brow white over red
rising some quite over
bright yellow slanted eyes white over
and finally wearing a wooden no mask and
bound under my own creation the
attendees are invited to quite over me
who is responsible for the destruction
of the authentic where is the line
between self creation and self
obliteration where is it an internalized
truth and externally imposed oh the
dining room now say who doesn’t secretly
revel in the thrill of breaking things
mm-hmm yeah yeah you and you and you
yeah so I invite you I invite people to
come break dishes with me hundreds and
hundreds of plates saucers cups and
dishes smashed it’s exhilarating and
it’s deliciously it just feels
deliciously forbidden yeah and then the
shards created from that we sweep that
up into an installation the cacophony
and the sound of shattering turns into a
long silence a reflection
let me read your post-it notes I fear
only fear it so I will change the world
showing golden rule is still golden I
will change the world by being
relentlessly kind I will change the
world by paying attention when it’s
easier to turn the other cheek I will
change the world by small acts of
kindness hartmark I will change the
world by educating others about HIV
people believe there is no danger of HIV
anymore
right on and I fear unknown of death I
will change the world by sustainable
business there’s so much talk of how
we’re going to change the world change
is creation the impulse to change and
create is woven in with the fears from
within our shadow embrace the fear
embrace the creation embrace the change
creation is uncomfortable change is
unsettling speaking of unsettling I
remember years ago when I visited
Thailand and I was surprised even
shocked to find the Buddhist worshipers
putting gold leaf upon the sacred
statues in Japan where I’m from the
images and the statues of the
Bodhisattvas are often hidden behind
screens not to be touched much less
altered so I was put off at first
offended even and then I was fast
the gold leaves our wishes hopes fears
and aspirations made physical thought
and concept turned to action into
tangible materiality action and
materiality bring forth the change so
you have posted upon me thank you
you have buried me thank you I am NOT
the artist not anymore
oh thank you you are the creator now and
you have always been thank you
you
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