Little Necks
Performed at the Artist Run Art Fair, Baltimore, MD
‘Little Necks’ is a series of five, 5 min mini documentaries, performed consecutively for 3 hours. Each mini-doc is accompanied by observations of the critical functions of unusual specimen.
All text culled, cut up and collaged back together from David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities series.
Images by Ada Pinkston
“The production of velvet will be interrupted, and the flesh underneath is exposed, but not for long. A slimy excretion lavishly poured forth from the enumerable pores of the skin, rendering it so slippery that the animal was impossible to hold. So when they tried to grab it a strange thing happened, the blood red sweat was seen again. The mysterious slime was a specialized secretion. They wondered if the red secretion played a role in protecting its pale skin, as we’ve known for some time that this is a moisturizer.
Why then, do they also anoint themselves with other smells?”
Performed as part of Labbodies' Performance Art Pay Per View Version 1.0 (PAPPV1) at the Artist Run Art Fair, Artscape 2018. An investigation of the commodification of performance art and performers in the art world and beyond.
The exchange of capital for entertainment is a common practice in our daily relationship to performance works. From theater to music, to strip clubs, dollars are exchanged for bodies to entertain an audience. PAPPV1 is a direct way to challenge this notion while supporting performance artists. This booth is an obfuscation of the commercial value of both performance and art. Because now, the audience is forced to confront the fact that the body is a commodity in the context of performance.
PAPPVI is a space for performance artists to be empowered in the exchange of capital and a space for a temporary form of agency and autonomy in a society that generally does not support challenging work.
- Dr. A. Pinkstone