We have of late been neglecting the arts, and that simply won’t do. By way of correction, here’s another chance to behold the feats of the Austrian choreographer and performance artist Ms Doris Uhlich, filmed earlier this year at Vienna’s Rabenhof Theatre. The video of Ms Uhlich’s performance – which, we’re assured, is a “vigorous and critical” work, a “bodily and textual discussion of flesh and opulence” - is presented below the fold. For reasons that may well become apparent.
Vivaldi was unavailable for comment.
Needless to say, Ms Uhlich is not without her admirers, with a more recent work, Tank, previewed all too briefly here, resulting in statements such as the following, by critic Anja K. Arend:
Which, it has to be said, seems both entirely predictable and awfully convenient.
And which brought to mind this:
From here.
Posted by: David | May 04, 2020 at 07:53
Although fire and the wheel are considered among mankind's greatest inventions, clothes must surely head the list.
Posted by: Killer Marmot | May 04, 2020 at 07:55
Needs more talc.
Posted by: sk60 | May 04, 2020 at 07:57
I feel so enlightened. And need a shower.
Posted by: Steve across the Pond | May 04, 2020 at 08:03
I should point out that Ms Uhlich exists on a higher plane of competence than Ms Schaefer, but it’s interesting how the same rules are understood, and how both ladies receive similar wordy indulgence from critics. Those higher beings who are steering us to the light.
Posted by: David | May 04, 2020 at 08:06
Needs more talc.
Needs more coat.
Posted by: David | May 04, 2020 at 08:07
Needs more talc.
For anyone curious, yes there is a definite difference between talcum powder and baby powder.
Talcum powder is very finely ground up talc,
Posted by: Hal | May 04, 2020 at 08:32
Posted by: Xas7wcrg9e | May 04, 2020 at 10:13
How does this not violate YouTube's Terms of Service?
Posted by: randian | May 04, 2020 at 10:27
I think Vivaldi's doing all the work there.
Posted by: Jacob | May 04, 2020 at 11:48
Why does it seem that so many artists are complete perverts?
Posted by: Angus | May 04, 2020 at 11:52
Apart from having 4 minutes 53 seconds of my life that I will never see again, was disappointed her act didn't end when she was crouched over that pile of talc, fart, and disappear in a white cloud.
More seriously, wasn't there some controversy about women using talcum powder long term as it can cause uterine problems?
Posted by: Penseivat | May 04, 2020 at 11:59
Why does it seem that so many artists are complete perverts?
I don’t know about perversity, beyond the general disregard for aesthetics, but there’s often a kind of unappealing neediness. And so, we get an abundance of chunky ladies trying to construe their chunkiness as both radical and fascinating. As if nudity, or indeed talcum powder, added something mysterious and profound. See, for instance, the second item here.
Posted by: David | May 04, 2020 at 12:06
Posted by: Xas7wcrg9e
File that under small blessings.
...wasn't there some controversy about women using talcum powder long term as it can cause uterine problems?
A suggested association with ovarian cancer and in post-menopausal women, uterine cancer. The difficulty is how, other than perhaps through talc on a surgical glove during some sort of open lower abdominal procedure, to explain the mechanism as insufflating ones nethers with talcum powder is not exactly what one would call common practice, and the stuff would have to get from the outside, through the vagina, cervix, uterus, and fallopian tubes to get to an ovary.
Posted by: Farnsworth M Muldoon | May 04, 2020 at 12:31
...it is to her credit that she gives no answers.
We are not talking about Nancy Pelosi, right?
Right?
Posted by: Adam | May 04, 2020 at 12:35
The "Smearing Stuff on Your Naked Body" genre really hasn't grown much since Karen Finley did her chocolate thing back in 1990, has it?
BTW, where's the audience? Half the fun is watching the desperate attempts by people to appear engaged by this kind of silliness.
Posted by: Burnsie | May 04, 2020 at 12:44
a “vigorous and critical” work, a “bodily and textual discussion of flesh and opulence”
The turn is as meaningless as the phrases turned to describe it.
See, for instance, the second item here.
Noooo! DO NOT SEE THE SECOND ITEM IN THAT LINK. It may take you a lifetime to unsee.
Posted by: MC | May 04, 2020 at 12:50
And, of course, our taxes pay for Doris Uhlich's shite:
https://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2011/07/meanwhile-in-the-arts.html?cid=6a00d83451675669e2014e8a097eef970d#comment-6a00d83451675669e2014e8a097eef970d
https://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2011/07/meanwhile-in-the-arts.html?cid=6a00d83451675669e20153901cee0e970b#comment-6a00d83451675669e20153901cee0e970b
Lord Vetinari had a point.
Posted by: pst314 | May 04, 2020 at 12:56
Noooo! DO NOT SEE THE SECOND ITEM IN THAT LINK.
Hey, I’m just sharing the rich cultural nourishment of our artistic betters. With their tummy folds and boobs and their bum cheeks a-jiggle.
Posted by: David | May 04, 2020 at 13:05
bum cheeks a-jiggle
Band name.
Posted by: [+] | May 04, 2020 at 13:21
With their tummy folds and boobs and their bum cheeks a-jiggle.
It is not art unless there is cabbage involved. Maybe it was heads of lettuce, regardless, produce.
Posted by: Farnsworth M Muldoon | May 04, 2020 at 13:29
It is not art unless there is cabbage involved.
I thought it was plinths and cherubs.
Posted by: pst314 | May 04, 2020 at 13:41
@Burnsie
Social distancing.
Far, far, away.
Because they know what's good for them.
Posted by: Xas7wcrg9e | May 04, 2020 at 13:44
Band name.
And a pretty good pen name. For when I start writing those saucy pirate stories. Busty maidens and plundering, that kind of thing.
Posted by: David | May 04, 2020 at 13:59
I thought it was plinths and cherubs.
Only in dead white man capitalist art, which is reactionary, misogynist, and counterrevolutionary.
Posted by: Farnsworth M Muldoon | May 04, 2020 at 14:04
It’s a packed house!—If you count the cameraperson.
Posted by: Lady Cutekitten of Lolcat | May 04, 2020 at 14:12
The "performance" received exactly the amount of applause it deserved.
Posted by: Trevor | May 04, 2020 at 14:41
Stunning and brave.
She plays a mean left boob to say nothing of the vibrato she gets out of that belly fat.
Posted by: Steve E | May 04, 2020 at 15:27
The weird thing is I can almost comprehend this. I've known a couple of morbidly obese women and it's common practice to use talc in the, er, underfolds to prevent rashes and skin lesions. I can see how some slightly tubby performance artist might see this as a Gross Injustice that requires addressing in the form of lurid exhibitionism.
Posted by: Daniel Ream | May 04, 2020 at 15:29
I really cant decide if I should click on that or not.
The phrase "if you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you" keeps popping up in my consciousness whenever the mouse moves over the link.
Posted by: Eagle | May 04, 2020 at 15:42
I really can’t decide if I should click on that or not.
I get that a lot.
Posted by: David | May 04, 2020 at 15:46
I can see how some slightly tubby performance artist might see this as a Gross Injustice that requires addressing in the form of lurid exhibitionism.
Ah, but, you see, Ms Uhlich is “[Asking] herself and her audience how the body can become a trademark and what this means.” Obviously. Other deep questions are, we’re told, being posed - by throwing talc around - including, “Who is beautiful and who isn’t?” And, “What does the word ‘beautiful’ mean?” (At risk of being unkind, I’d suggest that beautiful is the difference between Ms Uhlich’s chosen music, created by someone else, and her own flummery.)
Posted by: David | May 04, 2020 at 16:02
BTW, where's the audience?
I'd say it was the appropriate number of tickets sold.
The "performance" received exactly the amount of applause it deserved.
Indeed.
I pity the person who has to clean up after this. I hope they have appropriate breathing apparatus to protect from all that dust.
Posted by: MikeM_inMD | May 04, 2020 at 16:06
As a thought-provoking exercise, a bodily, vigorous, and textual discussion, and an interrogation of our weltanschauung, I'd say it's running a distant second to the luminous reenactment of the Battle of Pearl Harbor by the Batley Townswomen's Guild.
The latter has a great deal of exercised proximity and distance at turns, existential neo-mummery, and playful representation of cultural violence, that I can tell you.
There's a great deal of ourselves in the muck, tweed, and handbag.
Posted by: Sporkatus | May 04, 2020 at 17:27
Setting the playback speed to 2x helps.
Posted by: aelfheld | May 04, 2020 at 17:28
There are women who blame talcum powder for their ovarian cancer & there are lawyers who've managed to convince a jury or two that was the case despite a lack of evidence.
Posted by: aelfheld | May 04, 2020 at 17:32
Setting the playback speed to 2x helps.
Heh. It does jolly things up a bit.
Posted by: David | May 04, 2020 at 18:26
It is not art unless there is cabbage involved.
I thought it was plinths and cherubs.
According to a community artistic expert, one has Grecian urns.
Posted by: Hal | May 04, 2020 at 19:14
It is not art unless there is cabbage involved.
The second paragraph here has some lettuce-related art.
Also, underpants.
Posted by: David | May 04, 2020 at 19:26
The trick to looking at our host's art collection is to click play and then immediately pause. Then run your mouse cursor along the time-line and you get little thumbnail images which take all of two seconds to view. I find that not wearing specs helps, thus preventing mental scarring and saving 4 minutes and 51 seconds.
Posted by: nbc | May 04, 2020 at 19:27
Behold the brave revolutionary warrior!
Also, I'll just leave this here: #BelieveAllBidens
After all if it works for Michelle Obama on a piece of cardboard it must work anywhere on the internet right?
Posted by: Karl | May 04, 2020 at 19:50
That's how my hair looks too right now.
Her head hair, lest anyone think be confused.
Posted by: Sam | May 04, 2020 at 20:10
That’s how my hair looks too right now.
One more time.
Posted by: David | May 04, 2020 at 20:21
Terry did it better
https://youtu.be/0hwpDnA0_V8
Posted by: Frank Black | May 04, 2020 at 20:27
Setting the playback speed to 2x helps.
Wow, at 2x speed the "reveal" is awesome. That's one dramatic strip down!
Posted by: Burnsie | May 04, 2020 at 20:36
"It does jolly things up a bit."
You mean you watched it again?!
Posted by: PiperPaul | May 04, 2020 at 20:53
The phrase "if you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you" keeps popping up in my consciousness...
Honestly, I feel that way about nearly all the materials our esteemed host chooses to share with us. How he manages to keep his sanity (or to project the image of such to us here) shall forever be a mystery.
Posted by: Governor Squid | May 04, 2020 at 21:12
How he manages to keep his sanity (or to project the image of such to us here) shall forever be a mystery.
[ Eye-twitching intensifies. ]
Posted by: David | May 04, 2020 at 21:19
[ Eye-twitching intensifies. ]
Posted by: Hal | May 04, 2020 at 21:37
The pretence of intellectual heft...
Well she is physically hefty, but I fail to see any great 'intelligence' in her display. She does need to lose some flab, but, then again, there may some women's rugby team needing assistance in scrums.
Posted by: NTSOG | May 04, 2020 at 21:50
where's the audience? The first performance was critiqued and discussed in all the best places. This was the (highly anticipated) second performance.
The 2x speed was great. What is on her head?
Posted by: Richard | May 04, 2020 at 22:15
Do you suppose the performance artist was aware that her hair is a parody of the Bride of Frankenstein? Consciously making those kinds of allusions is usually the artist's job.
This stuff wasn't even transgressive back in the '80s, when I was in school. All of this is so dull, so non-creative, so out early without the layers and layers of meaning that the art-crit people want to pretend are there.
And how could this idiot have not used Beethoven's Emperor Concerto? it's a much better and clearer choice for musical accompaniment for this kind of miscreant behavior.
https://youtu.be/hDXWK3W477w
Posted by: Smallish Bees | May 04, 2020 at 22:34
I can’t help but suspect that the weighty/well past their prime females in these alleged “arts” are manifestations of the same spectrum that also gives us the grossest of dudes who flock to gay “pride” and nudist events, and that they are all exhibiting a sort of inversion of aggressive mimicry behavior, in the same way that it is theorized that codependency is but a form of inverted narcissism.
Posted by: Squires | May 04, 2020 at 22:35
I'd hate to be sitting front row center at the 3:15 mark.
What type of bush was she hiding behind?
Posted by: FlynPigRanch | May 05, 2020 at 00:04
How he manages to keep his sanity (or to project the image of such to us here) shall forever be a mystery.
Cthulhu just called. He says you're freaking him out.
Posted by: Atempdog | May 05, 2020 at 00:25
In the immortal words of teh intarwebz: “Not my proudest fap.”
Posted by: BlogDog | May 05, 2020 at 06:01
Details.
Posted by: Hal | May 05, 2020 at 15:27
A Bold Use Of Talc
Something else somewhere else---but being artistic---reminded me to go looking for A Bold Use Of Det.
I was reminded of and trying to find the artist(s) who would take a flat steel plate and sculpt with det cord, but I did find someone working with walls . . .
Posted by: Hal | May 05, 2020 at 16:14
I remember the Bride of Frankenstein as being somewhat slimmer.
Posted by: FlynPigRanch | May 05, 2020 at 17:13
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Posted by: David | May 05, 2020 at 17:18
I suppose requesting that she clean up after herself would constitute emotional labor?
Posted by: SumDumGuy | May 06, 2020 at 15:17
My mother came into the room as I was watching that, and now I have some awkward questions to answer. Also, thanks for ruining Vivaldi for me.
Posted by: Captain Nemo | May 07, 2020 at 16:40
My mother came into the room as I was watching that, and now I have some awkward questions to answer.
I’ll write you a note.
Posted by: David | May 07, 2020 at 17:33
I’ll write you a note.
Heh. Credit note only, presumably.
Posted by: Captain Nemo | May 07, 2020 at 21:14