Performance artist Angeliki Chiado Tsoli is, we’re told, “interested in… contributing her knowledge as an artistic and pedagogical tool.” Her work, we learn, “explores the political, poetic and displaced body through actions in the public space, photography, video, sound, installation and experimental writing.” Further exploration is done “through a visual and mental poetic space.” If the magnitude of her labours is somehow unclear, we’re also informed,
Angeliki aims to… challenge the existence of social, economic, cultural, and class-based inequalities.
Do bear these things in mind as you thrill to the video embedded below, in which Ms Tsoli unleashes a fearless, selfless and terribly radical “intervention” at a crossing on Michigan Avenue, Chicago. Said intervention, titled Attempting to Reach Equilibrium in Times of Dystopia, is of course crammed with aesthetic value. A particular highlight occurs around 2:30 when a passing police car stops, resulting in a need to explain that what is happening is actually art.
“Is she all right?”
Angeliki aims to… challenge the existence of social, economic, cultural, and class-based inequalities.
Natch.
Posted by: [+] | February 26, 2019 at 15:11
Natch.
Well, quite. Though how, of course, is conveniently unclear. Perhaps Ms Tsoli hopes to remake the world, and transform human nature, by mildly bemusing a handful of crossing users.
Posted by: David | February 26, 2019 at 15:16
I actually do see a lot of symbolism here! The large zero she's holding, and balancing on, represents among others the amount of talent she's got, and the amount she's contributing to society, among others.
It also - when in front of her stomach - symbolizes the empty wombs of the "childfree" and other "free spirits" who can't be tied down by such mundane things as family life, and of those who (like AOC) think that having children is a bad thing. It further also represents the strain of modern "progressives" who vote for unlimited abortion up to, and even beyond, birth.
Finally, it also is "tire"some to watch.
Posted by: Alex | February 26, 2019 at 15:16
At last, the path to socialism.
Posted by: David | February 26, 2019 at 15:28
At first I felt my artistic sensibilities being tread upon. Then I decided to just roll with it, though by the end it left me tired.
[ Reports for scolding. ]
Posted by: Steve E | February 26, 2019 at 15:48
I'll take "Epic Fail" for 600, Alex.
Angeliki aims to… challenge the existence of social, economic, cultural, and class-based inequalities.
What is "Moronically balancing on a tire on a downtown Chicago street for no discernible reason?"
Posted by: Boatswain's Mate | February 26, 2019 at 16:06
If she'd roll with the tire (sorry - "tyre") all the way across the intersection, I'd pay to watch...
Once...
Posted by: Y. Knott | February 26, 2019 at 16:14
At last, the path to socialism.
Symbolism!
Posted by: Alice | February 26, 2019 at 16:16
Now if the Beatles walked by I might be impressed.
Posted by: Steve E | February 26, 2019 at 16:24
...contributing her knowledge...
Yeah, I don't think that would even add up to the proverbial two cents worth.
If I was mad enough to visit Chicago without at least a supporting mechanized infantry company, that would not exactly be on my top 1000 list of things to do or see, sorry. I do rather like "academic training as a Curatorial Assistant", though who knew you needed training to be a gofer for a real curator (though I guess fetching coffee would be in line with her, ahem, artistic talent) ?
Posted by: Farnsworth M Muldoon | February 26, 2019 at 16:39
The woman has a spare tyre: she should have gone to a reputable slimming club. I'm sure Chicago has one.
Posted by: Watcher In The Dark | February 26, 2019 at 16:48
How very intersectional.
Posted by: Sam | February 26, 2019 at 16:53
I'll take a stab at a postmodern* interpretation:
Carrying a tire in a busy urban intersection while under-dressed for a Chicago winter represents the poor and marginalized trying - and failing - to understand the bourgeois world they've been thrust into. The downtrodden victims of American capitalism only grasp the technology whirring around them on the most superficial level, and so perform an imitation of an automobile after being dangerously - and purposely - misled about the function of a cross walk**. This hetero-patriarchal system seeks to dominate the very right to walk in a city, which is of course an outgrowth of the xenophobic anti-immigrant bigotry of American capitalism, and clearly advantages the white males walking past who created it and take it for granted given their privilege.
As a bonus the police state feigns concern for the artist of clothing of color but goes on to contribute to the post-industrial heteronormative white supremacist patriarchal systems that rely on marginalized communities' inability to navigate the oppressive intersections built by slave labor and perpetuated by Trump.
*Not actually knowing what postmodern means, I'll just BS like my life depends on it
**I believe you islanders call them zehb-bra crossings
Posted by: Sam | February 26, 2019 at 16:54
How very intersectional.
Ba-dum tisshh.
[ Fetches bottle of hamster urine. ]
Posted by: David | February 26, 2019 at 16:58
In 2013, Tsoli graduated with distinction from the department of Fine and Applied Arts, Aristotle university of Thessaloniki.
So she's one of the best they churned out? Holy crap.
Posted by: Jacob | February 26, 2019 at 17:12
"This is your brain on drugs."
Posted by: bobby b | February 26, 2019 at 17:23
I hope I'm not being misogynistic but why do I always wish the lady artist was naked while profoundly declaring her art? At least then I would view objectively.
Posted by: jeff | February 26, 2019 at 17:30
And how, exactly, would she be able to explain that? Without lying that is.
Posted by: aelfheld | February 26, 2019 at 17:45
This actually looks like fun. Can anyone play?
Posted by: Orthodoc | February 26, 2019 at 17:52
Attempting to Reach Equilibrium in Times of Dystopia
In an actual dystopia will the art be even worse?
Posted by: Rafi | February 26, 2019 at 18:03
In an actual dystopia will the art be even worse?
Heh. It strikes me that the most dystopian thing visible in the video is Ms Tsoli’s conception of what constitutes art. The prevalence of such tat, in which aesthetics and accomplishment play no part, rather implies a cultural decline.
Posted by: David | February 26, 2019 at 18:22
...why do I always wish the lady artist was naked while profoundly declaring her art?
Be careful what you wish for, and that is mild compared to some of the other stuff David has found over the years.
Posted by: Farnsworth M Muldoon | February 26, 2019 at 18:28
“Is she all right?” ... at some point, performance art becomes indistinguishable from mental illness.
Posted by: Tim | February 26, 2019 at 18:38
Crossing Michigan at Monroe St, from across the street towards The Art Institute of Chicago, she was aiming her "art" at her peers at school there, no one else, on the way the Darwinian Speedbumpistan.
Posted by: Melinda | February 26, 2019 at 18:45
at some point, performance art becomes indistinguishable from mental illness
Bang Bang interviewed and shoots his '45
Posted by: Kevin | February 26, 2019 at 18:47
I hope I'm not being misogynistic but why do I always wish the lady artist was naked while profoundly declaring her art? At least then I would view objectively.
A brief exposure to the doings* of Ms. Rocio Bolíver might make you change your mind.
*Google for yourself. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Posted by: Lancastrian Oik | February 26, 2019 at 19:20
''... I always wish the lady artist was naked while profoundly declaring her art? ...''
Please L. Oik, these people are unsightly enough fully clothed. A live, naked specimen outside of a large vessel of formaldehyde would be a terrible sight to see with both intellectual and physical flab on view.
Jim
Posted by: NTSOG | February 26, 2019 at 19:42
Carrying a tire in a busy urban intersection...
Hey - it could be a mattress ...
Posted by: Lord of the Fleas | February 26, 2019 at 20:09
I once saw a mime break his ankle when he accidentally stepped backwards into a street gutter. Turns out mimes can cuss like drunken sailors. Best performance art I ever saw.
Posted by: Jeff Mauney | February 26, 2019 at 20:26
“Is she all right?”
I should think the answer is obvious.
Posted by: Hopp Singg | February 26, 2019 at 20:55
And if she will promise to bring her art performance to my own little town, I will promise to bring my dog to participate.
I was kinda disappointed no one in the video could be bothered, actually. Philistines.
Posted by: Hopp Singg | February 26, 2019 at 20:58
So when I was a kid, if someone was being annoying we...including some adults, usually a coach...would say, "Why don't you go play in traffic?"
I never thought anyone would take such a suggestion seriously. Yet another thing I was wrong about.
Posted by: WTP | February 26, 2019 at 21:22
Is this what happens when they kick you out of Cirque du Soleil?
Posted by: I sneeze in threes | February 26, 2019 at 21:35
Mind you, balancing on a tire, though not as tricky as doing the same thing on an exercise ball, does her core credit. I imagine that this is one step on the way to a major pole-dancing exhibition, which we can all look forward to.
Sam: I'm really worried that you're coming up with these fluent and convincing post-modern interpretations. Is there something you're not telling us?
Posted by: Sue Sims | February 26, 2019 at 22:26
Expounding upon intersectionality at an intersection. How cool is that?
Posted by: Robert of Ottawa | February 26, 2019 at 22:39
Thomas Szasz is to blame for this unfortunate woman's anguish. His book The Myth of Mental Illness led directly to shuttering mental hospitals and turning out those incapable of self-care, self-insight, and improvement into the loving hands of "community based" mental health organizations. Today those who would have found shelter and meaning in the hospitals are the street people, the homeless, and performance artists.
Posted by: Adam | February 26, 2019 at 23:15
Is this what happens when they kick you out of Cirque du Soleil?
Heh.
Coming soon: Cirque du Pneu with the world's least talented performers.
Posted by: Burnsie | February 26, 2019 at 23:42
Is this what happens when they kick you out of Cirque du Soleil?
No, sacked by Bibendum, the Michelin Man for stealing his gig.
Posted by: Farnsworth M Muldoon | February 27, 2019 at 00:14
Hope she got a good grant. She's going to need something to live on.
Posted by: Ron | February 27, 2019 at 00:29
Artists and entertainers like to say their work is "transgressive" and "challenging", but what happens when someone challenges them?
Did anybody else make it past this:
Posted by: Ted S., Catskill Mtns., NY, USA | February 27, 2019 at 00:29
...I’m sick of being accused of hypersensitivity...
Then perhaps she should stop being so hypersensitive--a state she readily demonstrates in this article.
Posted by: Steve E | February 27, 2019 at 00:51
Passerby: 'is she alright?'
Camerawoman: (slightly irritated tone) 'Yes, she's fine.'
Passerby: 'Haha, ok thank you.' [LEAVES immediately]
Other passerby: (inadudible)
Camerawoman: (condescending tone): '...its a performance.'
Other passerby: (surprised) Oh! [LEAVES immediately]
SO, her art gives people the impression she is having some form of breakdown. When they are assured otherwise, people then LEAVE determining that the performance is NOTHING OF INTEREST.
No great artists are understood in their ortgeist.
Posted by: juliaeryn | February 27, 2019 at 02:00
Speaking as a person of colour in an irredeemably racist culture
Then leave. Why would you stick around where nothing will ever change by your OWN admission?
The latest government guidelines would now seem to confirm that this kind of Islamophobia dressed up as humour should be subject to investigation. It simply isn’t good enough for comedians to cry “free speech” after every hateful joke, as though the laws that govern the rest of us don’t apply to them.
Ah! IOW you feel entitled to have the government shut down every person who doesn't genuflect to your views.
The problem is never the problem ... it's about power.
Posted by: Darleen | February 27, 2019 at 04:51
"Not actually knowing what postmodern means, I'll just BS like my life depends on it"
No one knows what postmodern means, especially the postmodernists.
Posted by: gregale | February 27, 2019 at 05:02
at some point, performance art becomes indistinguishable from mental illness
At some point?
Anyone who could make good performance art, is pretty much fully employed doing something lucrative. They'd be making movies, or have a living as a comic etc. Anyone who is so witless that "performance art" is what they produce isn't going to be able to make anything of worth.
I've seen any number of such pieces -- some in famous European galleries, so presumably the best. Not one of them has made me think anything other than "this is shit".
Posted by: Chester Draws | February 27, 2019 at 05:03
Passerby: ‘is she alright?’
Camerawoman: (slightly irritated tone) ‘Yes, she’s fine.’
Passerby: ‘Haha, ok thank you.’ [LEAVES immediately]
Other passerby: (inaudible)
Camerawoman: (condescending tone): ‘...it’s a performance.’
Other passerby: (surprised) ‘Oh!’ [LEAVES immediately]
Heh. As so often with these things, I’m not sure that the participants are aware of what it is their videos communicate.
Posted by: David | February 27, 2019 at 06:46
One more time:
Seemed apposite somehow.
Posted by: David | February 27, 2019 at 06:52
"... I’m sick of being accused of hypersensitivity by straight white men ..."
I'm not a man. You're a hysterical little bitch.
There. That better?
Posted by: JuliaM | February 27, 2019 at 07:05
For fairly obvious reasons. Although it was only recently I learnt that pelican crossings drive their name from abbreviating pedestrian light controlled crossing. Not was I aware that the sort where the light controlling the pedestrian is on the same side as the user is technically a puffin crossing, for pedestrian user friendly intelligent crossing (the intelligent coming from the fact that they are fitted with sensors to ensure people are out of the carriageway before turning the traffic lights green) or that the variant that specifically caters for cyclists as well as pedestrians is a toucan crossing, because two can pass. I was aware that the signals controlling horse riders crossing roads is a pegasus crossing, but not that the prototype for all of these light controls was for some reason known as the panda crossing.
Posted by: TomJ | February 27, 2019 at 09:10
pelican crossings drive their name from abbreviating pedestrian light controlled crossing.
I’ve always said this place was a nourishing educational resource. I should get a grant. And a statue.
Posted by: David | February 27, 2019 at 09:51
"... I’m sick of being accused of hypersensitivity by straight white men ..."
She does sound like a fun date.
Posted by: Burnsie | February 27, 2019 at 11:11
Where are all the bird puns? I'd have thought more would be on a lark with this opportunity.
Posted by: PiperPaul | February 27, 2019 at 11:11
pelican crossing...puffin...pegasus...panda
Dodo crossing: for performance "artists" and other mental defectives.
Posted by: pst314 | February 27, 2019 at 12:26
Is it fair to say that a person working at a lathe making left-handed widgets is performance art?
Maybe yes, maybe no, but at least there is something useful from their labours if nothing else.
Posted by: Watcher In The Dark | February 27, 2019 at 13:34
The cop's carelessness exiting and entering traffic is what bothered me the most. In my city his lights would have been on in an instant and would have stayed on until he was safely in traffic.
Posted by: SumDumGuy | February 27, 2019 at 13:37
The cop’s carelessness exiting and entering traffic is what bothered me the most.
Here I am, bringing you the finest in cutting-edge culture, the dizzying apex of human achievement, and all you can think about are traffic regulations.
Posted by: David | February 27, 2019 at 15:11
Traffic regulations are the anchor upon which modern civilization is hanged... hung... on the sheetrock of white supremacy. Of course we care about them!
Posted by: Squires | February 27, 2019 at 15:53
...bringing you the finest in cutting-edge culture...
Nonsense, Miss Tsoli is purely derivative of the great transgender Russian performance artist, Sergei Balzflov whose piece was much more kinetic, but was itself derivative of the early Michelin ads.
Posted by: Farnsworth M Muldoon | February 27, 2019 at 16:20
And just think. Her “experimental writing” could be even better.
Posted by: David | February 27, 2019 at 16:30
Accusations of being a "prude" or a "killjoy" are tactics designed to silence warriors like Liam. Setting armed agents of Her Majesty's Government upon any comedian who would criticize or mock members of protected classes is just good manners.
Little wonder their arguments make no sense. The cognitive dissonance must be absolutely crippling.
Posted by: Governor Squid | February 27, 2019 at 16:36
Instalanche!
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/322954/
Posted by: John D | February 27, 2019 at 17:56
Instalanche!
We need fresh towels, stat.
As we have company, I’ll dig out some earlier art coverage.
This item here, for instance.
And this one too.
I’m nothing if not generous.
Posted by: David | February 27, 2019 at 18:06
It only works if you imagine she's doing it ironically.
Posted by: dicentra | February 27, 2019 at 18:09
I'm going on 68, don't know how many minutes I got left. Do know I just wasted 5.39 of them for no good reason.
Posted by: Dwyprov | February 27, 2019 at 18:51
Do know I just wasted 5.39 of them for no good reason.
You don’t feel ennobled by the high art on offer?
Posted by: David | February 27, 2019 at 19:11
https://abc7ny.com/society/veteran-asks-for-100-cards-for-100th-birthday-gets-thousands/5159672/
Mission accomplished!
Posted by: Joe Cuba | February 27, 2019 at 19:39
And I'm not joking. This is real insanity. The real world and its harsh punishments should you step too much out of line would keep you operating and sane in the real world. But since punishment (not to mention starvation) has been eliminated in the western world, our people are decaying into the adult children most millennials and leftists are today.
http://captaincapitalism.blogspot.com/2019/02/laziness-leads-to-craziness.html
Posted by: DeepThought | February 27, 2019 at 22:54
Hey, do they still have that English festival-I forget the town—where people chase a big wheel of cheese down a steep hill till they catch it or break both ankles, whichever comes first? This would seem a fertile field for performance art.
Posted by: Pogonip | February 27, 2019 at 22:55
P.S. I am not now nor have I ever been Joe Cuba.
My dad, also a WW II veteran, was Mr. Cuba’s birthday twin.
Posted by: Pogonip | February 28, 2019 at 00:00
Hey, do they still have that English festival . . . .
Complete with it's own website, this year occurring on May 27 . . .
Posted by: Hal | February 28, 2019 at 01:56
Laziness Leads to Craziness
Idle hands are the Devil's workshop.
Posted by: Darleen | February 28, 2019 at 04:35
Attempting to Reach Equilibrium in Times of Dystopia
In an actual dystopia will the art be even worse?
Heh. It strikes me that the most dystopian thing visible in the video is Ms Tsoli’s conception of what constitutes art. The prevalence of such tat, in which aesthetics and accomplishment play no part, rather implies a cultural decline.
That.
Posted by: [+] | February 28, 2019 at 07:02
That.
What’s notable is that such flummery isn’t just random incompetence. It’s quite uniform – eerily so - and is actively encouraged by our supposed betters, such that we, the lowly taxpayer, are expected to pay for it. Apparently, we should be thankful.
I think that’s what gives it an air of degeneracy.
Posted by: David | February 28, 2019 at 07:46
Modern Greek art:
Ancient Greek art:
I'm torn as to which is better.
Posted by: Jonathan | February 28, 2019 at 10:50
Ancient Greek art:
Accidental Greek art, blamed on the Gauls---Not the French, the Gauls.
Posted by: Hal | February 28, 2019 at 19:03
Traffic regulations are the anchor upon which modern civilization is hanged... hung... on the sheetrock of white supremacy.
Plastic Hollow Wall Anchor (band name)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qngi_jSaXlI
...an old favorite
Posted by: Baceseras | March 01, 2019 at 20:10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qngi_jSaXlI
...an old favorite
It really draws you in. Amusing at first, and surprisingly soothing, so I stuck around for a little while even after I got the point. I got all the way to 2:57 before I went mad. I'm rather impressed with myself. Of course since now that I'm rather insane, my sense of self satisfaction should be considered problematic.
Posted by: WTP | March 01, 2019 at 21:24