|
This script is for an 'artist presentation' that was performed first at the Srishti School of Art and Design, Bangalore in 2003.
It was repeated atleast twice, At No.1 Shanti Road, Bangalore for the launch of the Take on Art Magazine, and at The Guild in Mumbai during the Sidereal Residency.
Arrangement request:
Better without microphone.
If microphone then one at table and one on stand.
Table with swivel chair.
Computer at table.
Video projector and audio amp.
Media folder content:
Work.exe
Invisible K.Subb scene from Suicide Note
Use_me.exe
System_check.exe
Flight Rehersal
Lonesome scene from Suicide Note
Blank.txt document to be used as black board.
(Walk in with bag containing kitara and toy gun, and place it on the floor at center. A bunch of keys in left trouser pocket and plectrum in right trouser pocket.)
Good evening gentlemen.
(Open Media folder)
And ladies.
I would like to teach you all today a very important lesson that I learnt when I used to be about (hold out hand to indicate height of a 12 year old and reduce it to the height of an 8 year old)… that big.
But before I do that…,
(Go to table and start up Work.exe)
…Before I do that I must first admit that my childhood investigations into the mysteries of the world mostly led to… disasters, but sometime to great discoveries as well. The greatest of these discoveries was money.
(Take out key-bunch and begin tying it to shoe lace of right foot).
You see, I was investigating my mother's wardrobe and while pulling open one of the drawers I heard something in there go 'ching ching' (stamp right foot twice).
I dug through a pile of socks and scarves and so on and found a thick, heavy book with a hard, black cover on which was written in golden letters "I Ching". I picked the book up and shook it – I heard nothing.
Underneath the book was a red, satin pouch that had been fastened with a string. I took this pouch out, held it up in the air, and when I shook it, I heard it go "ching ching!" (Stamp right foot twice).
I undid the string and turned the pouch over and out fell a pile of coins.
(lift foot up as high as possible and bring it down slowly while jingling the keys).
a whole shower of 'chings'. It was money.
(Grin and look around for a while as though expecting applause. Then turn serious again).
Well, this was indeed a great discovery because there was so much that you could do with money. Especially when your knowledge about the various sources of pleasure is limited, when all you happen to do are things like ice-candy and fire-crackers to make you feel good, then a pile of coins that big –at least in those days- could take you a long, long way.
This 'ching ching' pouch that I found - ching ching (stamp right foot twice) pouch – was in fact a sort of a piggy-bank of my mum, as she used to say, "a secret hiding place/ to put away/ a few coins/ every once in a way/ for a rainy day/ that's bound to come". And sure enough (snap fingers) when the rainy day did come and the ching ching pouch grew thin, there would be no more ice candy, no fire crackers….
You had to make do with the empty hole...
(make a globular gesture with hands as though you meant 'empty whole')
...of your...
(take out plectrum from right pocket and look at it)
...your imagination...
(point at your head with the plectrum)
...to cook up something...
(take out Kitara from bag and tune it if required)
...that could make you...
...make you feel...
...feel good.
(Sing Rocking Horse:)
Mama's ching ching pouch is mute
Brother failed in school
Papa lost the seesaw game to jumping kangaroo
But I no let that let me down
I'm not bound to loose
For to ride like the wind on my rocking horse
Was what I born to do
Chorus:
So gidiyup! My rocking horse
Come take me to the moon
You can kick up clouds
While I pluck the stars
And fill my pockets full.
(Lead)
I start from scratch play fair and square
Start by shining shoes
And steer my way to number one
In the game of who is who
You'll see me shine on the cinema screen
I know I'll make it through
I'll fly like fish and swim like a dove
Take the breath out of you
(chorus)
For I long to
Hear the beats of the freedom drum roll
Drun dada dun dan dang
Hear the toll of the wisdom bell go
Tan tata tun tan tang
And the sound of love kingdom's horn blow
Pam para pum pam paaam
Para papapa papapa paaam!
(fix plectrum in kitara and place it on the table).
Actually I'm quite bored and confused and don't really know what I'm supposed to do with life. But one thing that I do know for sure is that I hate work.
(press 'stop work' button on computer and move cursor away from button).
I hate work and only want to play. Another thing that I always knew is that I wanted to be famous.
(drag mouse around desktop).
I wanted everybody else to admire me and want to be just like me.
(press 'start work' button on computer)
So that's what I did.
(close 'work' window).
I went and became famous. This was all a long time ago - in fact, long before most of you were even born.
(Start playing Invisible K.Subb scene from Suicide Note).
And I make sure that nobody ever forgets me.
(Put away kitara in bag and untie keys from shoelace while invisible plays).
(When invisible has finished playing:)
So how did I become famous? Well, how did other people before me become famous? Other people worked hard. They did good things, virtuous things that were beneficial to society and mankind at large. The better the things they did, or the more beneficial these things were for the progress of human civilization, the more famous they became.
But me – I did no work, definitely nothing good or beneficial to society.
(Start Use_me.exe and play with it for some time.)
I only had this irresistible urge to do nasty things. Destructive things. So when people started calling what I made 'art', I just devised ways of making lots of bad so called art.
(Continue playing with use-me.exe until the screen is well messed up)
Like this.
Ya, I know it's terrible, but it gave me great pleasure doing it. It was not work at all. It was more like play – child's play.
(End Use_me.exe and start System_check.exe).
I derived a great sense of satisfaction, like as though I were the bad guy in the game
(wait to click 'OK' button and let it pop out).
I was the bad guy who always won, and other people who played me -
(click OK button again and look at the screen. Wait for cursor to freeze)
...always lost.
(Keep staring silently at the screen for a good number of seconds after 'sytem-check.exe' has quit. Then turn around and look at the audience for another few seconds. Then ask people:)
Hey, sorry. I just get carried away when I see my own so-called art…. What exactly is it that I'm supposed to be talking about?
(Wait for an answer. If audience is passive look questioningly at organizers and ask them). If they say 'your work' or 'your art' skip asking the following question. If they say anything else or nothing then ask the question).
Wasn't I supposed to be talking about my work or 'art'?
(Look around and nod.)
Somebody wanted me to say something about why I use so much technology in my work - to make art.
Well as I have explained, I don't really work or make 'art'; I just do bad things. There's no point in talking about how or why I use technology in my so-called art, it's better to talk about how I employ technology in real life. Not just how I employ existing technology to carry on with life, but what technology I invent in order to become famous and get done with real life. Right?
Leonardo da Vinci didn't really manage to become that famous. He may have made some great works of art – I don't have the authority to deny that - but he would have become really famous if he had succeeded in learning to fly. He may have come up with some concepts that vaguely suggested the possibility but it was some 4 centuries or so later when other people modified his contraptions quite significantly and stuck combustion engines in them that they actually managed to take off from the ground. But that was not really what da Vinci was after.
(Get off chair)
He did not really want to fly sitting in a machine, he meant to do it with his own, sheer, given human physical capabilities. The church did not really object to his experiments because they probably knew that he would never make it. But if he had succeeded in elevating himself off the ground and floated away into the great beyond to checkout on God, the angels and what ever else happened to exist up there in those times, you can imagine the consequences he would have to face when he came back down to earth again.
I knew nothing about Leonardo's failed inventions until after I had already invented my own unique method of taking flight.
(Show Flight Rehersal)
So after having done all the bad things that one could want to do, and after having become immensely famous for it, after being completely satisfied with life, in spite of all its boredom and not knowing what to do with it… after its all been done – then what should one do?
(Sit down on chair and lean back)
One could just sit back and relax, wait for time to pass until old age, illness or accident brings forth the inescapable bitter end. That's exactly what moderately famous people do, not the really famous ones. The really, really famous people
(open 'blank.txt' file and type out these names:)
Abie Hoffman, Lenny Bruce, KP Krishnakumar… well, you name them – for all these really famous people it was voluntary, self-inflicted death. So, I've been messing with my life to do the same in the nastiest way possible.
(Show Lonesome scene from Suicide Note )
(when video has finished playing pull out toy gun from bag, spin it around finger, cross arms to make revolver point up casually. DO NOT point it at the audience.)
Any Questions?
(Take a quick look around so as not to allow enough time for a question to be asked .)
No? Thank you all so much for letting me waste your time.
(END)
Video documentations of live presentations:
No.1 Shanti Road/ Take on Art
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
The Guild/ Sidereal
|
