From "Sven Sachsalber, Prankish Artist on the Verge of Fame, Dies at 33" (ArtNews). It doesn't say how the young man died.
I don't know what kind of person you are, but some of you may wonder if he died from one of his performances — we can see that he was "involved" in eating a poisonous mushroom — and others of you may muse that life itself is an art performance if you step back and look. I believe — please do not comment to confirm this belief (I don't want to know) — that most of you simply disrespect performance art and are tempted to comment that you see no great loss to the world in the death of Sachsalber.
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85 comments:
"BRUSH.......FIRE!!!!"
"It doesn't say how the young man died."
Kind of a huge omission don't you think?
He seemed like a bit of an OCD sort of guy...nothing wrong with that.
Harold Hill was a performance artist.
Died for his "art", by eating poisonous mushrooms.
I absolutely believe all art is performance and some of that is what we call "performance art" and some of that is pretty great.
But not this from Legal Eagles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRNZmdb8w9I
Sven Sachsalber is a great fucking name.
Jean de Loisy, the museum’s president at the time, spoke out in its defense, saying that the work spoke to the human desire to complete arduous quests.
Is this the current definition of art? Is this the new standard? That which shows the human desire to complete arduous quests? I should think getting through phone conversations with my sister is a new art form.
TML - The performance in Legal Eagles is what I always think of when I hear of performance art. I think it was the first time I had heard the term. I know Ann doesn't want us to blather about how we hate performance art, but I think the issue I have with it is that most performance art doesn't seem very impressive or thoughtful. I remember watching a documentary about an artist who was a sometimes performance artist where she talked about how early in her career she had a show where she would take a nap onstage as a performance art piece and how later in life she looked back and was like, "I've I hadn't been so young, stupid and high that wouldn't have seemed like such a good idea." She really trashed her idea and talked about how art needed to be more than just shocking people.
I think one major issue with performance art today is that you can only be avant garde so long before you just become garde.
"Jean de Loisy, the museum’s president at the time, spoke out in its defense, saying that the work spoke to the human desire to complete arduous quests."
Reading that sentence was agony. Put me in the Guggenheim.
Well here's something from life in Australia I'd like to see performed:
Cow 'rugby tackled by five men' after 24 hours on the run from a cattle ship - including a 5km swim and a 12km freedom dash on land
Two cows escaped while being loaded onto a ship in Perth on Sunday
The pair jumped off a ramp of a live export ship in Fremantle Harbour
They swam at least 5km back to shore before running through the city
People also saw them swimming at Bathers Beach and North Coogee
While one was captured soon after, the other made a dash for freedom
It was caught on Monday by rangers and wildlife officers in North Coogee.
Idea is to see if you can round the cows up more quickly than the original group.
But on the other hand, taking a 24 hour challenge to spend 24 hours in Walmart or any retail store - no.
But what about a 24 hour challenge to live the way a person in a nursing home under Covid rules has to live in winter?
I believe — please do not comment to confirm this belief (I don't want to know) — that most of you simply disrespect performance art and are tempted to comment that you see no great loss to the world in the death of Sachsalber.
Sounds like your inner Coastie coming out.
"I believe — please do not comment to confirm this belief (I don't want to know) — that most of you simply disrespect performance art"
You believe wrong. I don't disrespect something I know nothing about and that means nothing to me or anyone I know. I am entirely indifferent to performance art, though not to condescension of deplorables. I always dis disrespect.
We're told he deliberately ate poison and that he died young and you wonder if we're the sort of people who think there might be a connection? What sort of person wouldn't think there might be a connection?
You will be made to care.
That is one ambiguous sentence re the poison mushroom. Was the whole act the eating of the poisonous mushroom, or was it eat the mushroom, and then spend 24 hours, presumably in agony, in a room with a cow? That one is cracking me up, imagining the poor guy writhing around in pain while an oblivious bovine farts and chews and farts and chews.
Wow...it's like history being erased......
Unknown said...I think the issue I have with it is that most performance art doesn't seem very impressive or thoughtful.
I've known a few performance artists. Nightmare people who think they can do anything they want anywhere they want because their whole life is art. You never want a performance artist at your own performance/speech/presentation/etc. You can never be sure they won't ruin it because that's what their art demands.
What a peculiar line of thought from Althouse. I don’t have much respect for performance art, but that doesn’t tell you anything about what I think about his death. And neither of us knows how he died anyway.
I agree with Tim maguire's comments. Are we both Althouse criminals now?
Too bad. Looks like he had some serious momentum going. I like his drawing better than the ski suits and performance.
Temujin said...
Jean de Loisy, the museum’s president at the time, spoke out in its defense, saying that the work spoke to the human desire to complete arduous quests.
Is this the current definition of art? Is this the new standard? That which shows the human desire to complete arduous quests? I should think getting through phone conversations with my sister is a new art form.
12/16/20, 9:14 AM
I don’t think that sentence is the de Loisy’s definition of art, but rather their opinion of what’s good about this work.
Clarence: "Strange, isn't if? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?"
It's a Wonderful Life.
The best performance artists I've ever seen were roughnecks tripping out on morning tour (pronounced "tower").
Wait, I thought the Althouse blog comments section) was the longest continuously running performance art piece, involving 1000s of actors all playing roles that would be not be believed as legit people on the street who talk to each other that way, day after day, month after month, but for the dogged determinism to stay in character.
The question is: who is the audience, and who is part of the show? I presume in the archives there are records of antagonists who first said something to each other more than ten years ago. And yet they continue to make comments to each other today.
That’s a longer relationship than some real life friendships. So it must be art.
The Wizard of Oz edited so the dialog is in convenient alphabetical order. Skip ahead to about 2:00 for it to get started, unfortunately with the word 'a' which is too short to hear well; don't quit until you get past 2:30+ 'aaa' with the witch.
Danno said...I believe — please do not comment to confirm this belief (I don't want to know) — that most of you simply disrespect performance art and are tempted to comment that you see no great loss to the world in the death of Sachsalber.
You remind me of my favorite part of Exit Through the Gift Shop. In interviews in the movie, Shepard Fairey and Banksy discuss the work of Mr. Brainwash. It's clear they don't like it, but they can't bring themselves to say it. There's a lot of uncomfortable pauses and "umms...". They have no problem calling him retarded, which they both do, but they can't bring themselves to say his art isn't very good.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. He wasn't on the verge of fame. Until your blog, I'd never heard of this stupid-game player.
"Remember, George. No man is a failure who has friends."
It's a Wonderful Life.
I'm sure the deceased had family and friends.
What sort of person wouldn't think there might be a connection?
Fashionably-postmodern-retired-law-professor intellectuals are making "art" really dangerous.
Wouldn’t ending your own life be the pinnacle of performance art?
Performance art worthy of the name (in no particular order):
Music
Plays
Operas
Movies
T.V. programs
Worthless performance art:
What ever Sven Sachsalber did.
Others of similar ilk.
Tim Maguire, I forgot to put quotes around the quotation from Ann's posting, which you appear to attribute to me. Sorry.
I believe — please do not comment to confirm this belief (I don't want to know) — that most of you simply disrespect performance art and are tempted to comment that you see no great loss to the world in the death of Sachsalber.
Makes it difficult to signal our lack of virtue.
"Dies at 33" is a typo.
It should read:
"Dies at 4'33."
Danno said...
Tim Maguire, I forgot to put quotes around the quotation from Ann's posting, which you appear to attribute to me. Sorry.
Sorry myself, I should have noticed I'd seen it somewhere before.
"Jean de Loisy, the museum’s president at the time, spoke out in its defense, saying that the work spoke to the human desire to complete arduous quests."
aka "To dream the impossible dream" from Man of La Mancha. But I bet he couldn't sing.
Ironically, this statement is virtue signaling to your tribe. It seemed quite easy for you. The opposite of difficult... unexpectedly.
Blogger Oso Negro said...(in response to the OP request)
Makes it difficult to signal our lack of virtue.
If performance art includes mimes and clowns, I stand firmly against performance art.
If it were excludes mines and clowns and includes singing, dancing, acting and so forth, then I fully support performance art.
If it includes doing things to attract attention to the so-called artist, then every three year old is avant-garde.
Definitions matter.
"It doesn't say how the young man died."
He died because you didn't wear a mask.
Definitions are illusions posing as reality. College football is a pretty popular performance art with you people. Yeah! We can all appreciate art, even if we don't admit it.
Other performances involved eating a poisonous mushroom and spending 24 hours in a room with a cow.
.
.
.
It doesn't say how the young man died.
He tried a second go at a poisonous mushroom? He tried spending 24 hours in a locked room with a hungry tiger and only made it to 24 minutes?
Blogger Levi Starks said...
Wouldn’t ending your own life be the pinnacle of performance art?
12/16/20, 9:54 AM
It's been done (and by a master of the art).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKpyrHiZgZA
OTOH, today is Ludwig van Beethoven's 250th birthday, and he's still going strong.
It's almost as if there's art, and then there's something else called performance art, which is special, as are all of its practitioners. At least until intelligence and talent become meaningful concepts if the art word again.
Narr
Would The Great Artiste Sachsalber give a shit about MY death?
@Birkel,
"If performance art includes mimes and clowns, I stand firmly against performance art."
Even this guy?
https://youtu.be/4-1raOEfP4o
In the art world, not if.
Narr
More covfefe
"Sven Sachsalber, a rising artist whose sly performances, paintings, and conceptual works garnered significant attention in Europe, has died at 33"
There's that word again!
I see one of the people interviewed for the article has mastered the art of saying absolutely nothing of consequence. The ending of the article: "Some people think it’s stupid, and some people think it’s really nice."
Andrew said...
@Birkel,
"If performance art includes mimes and clowns, I stand firmly against performance art."
Even this guy?
https://youtu.be/4-1raOEfP4o
Or these guys ?
Looking at the picture of him with the haystack, he didn't have the flamboyant appearance I would expect from a performance artist.
If what the young man "created" was art, it is of a piece with the ugly "architecture" that is foisted upon the populace by "creative" architects, the dissonant and irritating "modern" classical music that is forced upon symphony audiences (in the middle of the concert, so you can't come late or leave early), the pointless and depressing movies that are released by the hundreds every year, and numerous other examples in literature and philosophy.
They all stem from a moral vacuum at the center of the "creators'" existence.
They have literally lost, or more accurately, had educated out of them, the ability to tell right from wrong or good from evil.
OTOH, today is Ludwig van Beethoven's 250th birthday, and he's still going strong.
He never got his picture on bubble gum cards, did he?
"[Beethoven] never got his picture on bubble gum cards, did he?"
Whaaa?
Narr
I paid good money for those cards in Vienna!
"It doesn't say how the young man died"
It might be interesting to know, but if he, in the past, was willing to eat a poisonous mushroom, it's probably safe to assume he died from some self-initiated stupid thing.
"I believe — please do not comment to confirm this belief (I don't want to know) — that most of you simply disrespect performance art and are tempted to comment that you see no great loss to the world in the death of Sachsalber."
I suppose this means that comments tending to dispel this belief would be welcome. Sorry, can't help.
One man's performance art is another man's Darwin Award.
Does it occur to you that maybe the artist’s death at age 33 is a bit of performance art itself and a hoax? Just wondering.
Churchy LaFemme: said...
OTOH, today is Ludwig van Beethoven's 250th birthday, and he's still going strong.
He never got his picture on bubble gum cards, did he?
+1
All clowns.
All mimes.
I will never change my mind.
Mythbusters Adam & Jaimie performed the needle in a haystack search using different, competing techniques. Magnets worked best for steel needles. Was it art, or science? It was a TV show.
They also blow stuff up. A lot. Which is also fun TV to watch.
Was this artist fun to watch, or not?
Blogger Oso Negro said...(in response to the OP request)
Makes it difficult to signal our lack of virtue.
Blogger Howard said...
Ironically, this statement is virtue signaling to your tribe. It seemed quite easy for you. The opposite of difficult... unexpectedly.
It's a dominant wise-ass gene, Howard. Makes me fun at parties but difficult to live with. I'm not the only one in this commentariat. Can you imagine living with, say, Laslo??
As far as I'm concerned there has been no good performance art since Buddhist monk Quảng Đức in June 1963. Up your game, performance artists!
"Dominant wise-ass gene." I like it! It's genre too.
The Prof's blog is completely 'Libertarian' in the sense that comments in virtuality can not be sanctioned by anything but other comments. No rewards and no punishments except whatever intellectual, psychological, or spiritual frisson gets one off.
In my early days here I was accused of being a narcissist. So what? This ain't Prof. Althouse's refuge for the humble and self-effacing, is it?
Narr
You'll never take me alive, coppers!
I respect performance art so much — and this particular performance artist above all other artists because I know there’s nothing more profound than literally dying for your art.
But I’m also honest enough to admit I’m secretly relieved there’s one less performance artist I feel compelled to follow.
The show must not go on...
I didn't know cows could swim. Thanks, wildswan for that story. Kind of amazing that a cow would have such a strong instinct to be free and jump into the ocean and immediately know how to swim. I just find it interesting that some animals have that Instinct to be free while others want to go along with the group.
In other art news, the artist Hunter Biden will be having his first solo show in NYC. Another performance of it's not what you know, it's who you know.
RIP Sachsalber. He seems to have had a lovely and enjoyable life, his death was quick and unexpected. A quick trip on earth. Makes me wonder if he always had a premonition (subconscious) he wouldn't live long and was focused on the transitory nature of life. Yet his performances were arduous and time consuming.
I honor higher the Russian performance artiste who nailed his scrotum to the sidewalk, yes, that took some balls.
We are all performance artists now.
Narr
So make your fifteen minutes of fame count!
"There's that word again!"
Ha ha. Yeah, I'd noticed but couldn't use that in the post.
"I believe — please do not comment to confirm this belief (I don't want to know) — that most of you simply disrespect performance art and are tempted to comment that you see no great loss to the world in the death of Sachsalber."
Wow! That's a harsh belief. Since you don't want to know, I won't comment that indeed Sachsalber's death would be a minor event in the cosmos. But it's disheartening that you are so cynical that you already knew that about me.
Any 33 yr old's death is a great loss to the world. There's a lot of life and potential left. We're an irascible bunch, but we're not completely heartless.
And I like puzzles. I think I recently ordered one through your amazon portal.
It appears this young man saw things that most people don't see and then made art of that vision in a way that impressed folks who enjoy the art world. I don't know if the art was good or not, but we have lost whatever he would have been as an artist over the next 50 years or so, and this is something to be mourned.
There is always the possibility of beauty in the future of any artist, just as in the present or the past. Death puts an end to that possibility.
I think this sort of conceptual art, and especially his conception of this sort of conceptual art, makes a mockery of menial and manual labor and the people who do it. Spending time with a cow, sorting through hay, doing repetitive and mind-numbing tasks -- this is what billions of manual laborers do day in and day out, not to the cheers of art curators but literally to eke out subsistence livings and avoid starvation and death.
So, he's a fatuous, elite, dim, contemptuous, talentless asshole, as is everyone dim enough to elevate his thoughtless "oeuvre."
"Jean de Loisy, the museum’s president at the time, spoke out in its defense, saying that the work spoke to the human desire to complete arduous quests."
Isn't that why we have the Guinness Book? I guess there's a fine line between art and what's "unusual".
It's all performance art. Some are more exuberant than others. Children playing on a playground.
>"I believe — please do not comment to confirm this belief (I don't want to know) — that most of you simply disrespect performance art and are tempted to comment that you see no great loss to the world in the death of Sachsalber."
What, are we deplorables?
Georgia had a vote as performance art.
@Birkel,
Then you'll need one of these:
https://images.app.goo.gl/qP3iqEQcFP8UPUQ68
"Prankish," eh?
I thought it said Frankish.
Narr
Thems my people
Sven Sachsalber is a great fucking name.
I thought it might be one of those wonderful English-German translation delights.
Kind of like Krugman at the NYT.
You know, Krugman = My head is an empty cup.
"and others of you may muse that life itself is an art performance if you step back and look."
This reminded me of an experiment an apple store did, over a decade ago?, with their showroom computers. Unbeknownst to the product prospective buyers apple computer cameras filmed them while they browse.
I can't find the post.
The gate is narrow, and few go in that way. Broad is the path to destruction. God, forgive me, but your gate is too narrow for me. I just can't do it. I can't make it. I don't want to come back and do it again. To come back and start again would be Hell. And yet, it's another chance. 7 times 70. When I come back, will You let me hear the music that I couldn't hear this time?
If someone you didn't even know existed dies, how can it be considered a great loss?
Sounds like Fred Armison's character in "Waiting for the Artist" (IFC's Documentary Now!)
I think this sort of conceptual art, and especially his conception of this sort of conceptual art, makes a mockery of menial and manual labor and the people who do it.
This guy did a few trivial, very uninteresting things but managed to get his name in the paper...somehow. The "somehow" is the only interesting part, the psychology of people who thought, or pretended to think, that his activities were worthy of attention.
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