An artist that came to Buffalo to perform in an exhibition tracing the development of Chinese conceptual art is now in trouble with the law after trying to perform another stunt.
He Yun Chang, 38, of Beijing sat in a plexiglas box filled with concrete up to his waist on Friday in front of the Albright Knox Gallery totally naked.
Wait! Wasn't he kind of wearing concrete pants? Boxy, concrete pants...
Saturday afternoon, Chang decided to perform another stunt.
State Parks Police say Chang stripped off all his clothing, tied a rope around his waist to some sort of an anchor and walked out about 40 to 50 feet towards the brink of the falls.
Police believe that his plan was to stand out in the water totally naked for 24-hours.
Chang even had a staff member from UB and several people filming the stunt until something went wrong. The rope that was holding him from slipping into the rapids came untied and he had to wade back towards shore.
That's when a tourist spotted the naked man in the water and called police thinking that he may be suicidal.
Tourists! Such philistines!
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12 comments:
Ahhh, the joy of conceptual performance art pieces.
I have fond memories of being handed a sack of sawdust and being encouraged to behave as if it were a baby.
And other memories of watching bearded men (but not naked) smearing oatmeal and yogurt over the body of a mostly naked young woman who occaisonally yelped and squealed suspended about 5 feet off the floor in a cargo net.
(akward post show conversation. . . . what flavors of yogurt did you use? the nipple ring was a nice touch, did you put that in for the show? oh, that was about the dangers of patriarchy and the power of the feminine, oh, no sorry I didn't quite get that)
Old joke we used to tell, before playing:
"We've suffered for our art. Now it's your turn!"
Well, at least he had the rudimentary intelligence to take OFF the concrete pants BEFORE getting in the water.
Ah, for da dayz wen dey used ta use dis concrete stuff ta help weasels get ta sleep wit da fishes! Vito Genovese must be spinning in his grave to read about this guy.
Lately, my hometown of Buffalo has drawn national attention only when it has:
1) gotten more than 10 inches of snow in a day
2) Charmin donated 10,000 rolls of toilet paper because the county government could no longer afford to provide it for its workers
3) Rick James' funeral
4) this crazy conceptual artist.
What do I have to go back to?????
"What Not To Wear" -- concrete pants
So what's the difference between "concept art" and Jackass? Besides the audience size, I mean.
Regarding Jackass, when the movie came out I saw it with a conceptual artist friend and many of the film goers were also art-school types.
The consensus seemed to be that the Jackass crew could be considered one of the most successful and influential group of conceptual artists to have worked in the last few years.
(is he joking? is this for real?)
(enjoy the ambiguity)
I think it was obvious he was acting out classic Mafia hit techniques.
Terrence said...
"Lately, my hometown of Buffalo has drawn national attention only when it has:
1) gotten more than 10 inches of snow in a day
2) Charmin donated 10,000 rolls of toilet paper because the county government could no longer afford to provide it for its workers
3) Rick James' funeral
4) this crazy conceptual artist.
What do I have to go back to?????"
Well, I'm here for starters. And there's the amusement of Erie County government "discovering" that they had a $108 million deficit for this year alone. Our government is a great motivator - if ever you feel down or depressed one look at the legislature and you instantly feel much better about yourself.
And there's....uh...I'll get it...chicken wings.
Yeah that'll bring the tourists in. Chicken and snow. It's gold Jerry! Gold!
6:41 AM, October 25, 2005
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