The Magician. Short video shot from stage left. Part 2. When the Body Speaks. Full. A Night of Performance Art by Xavier Lopez. Cast: Xavier Lopez, Grace Larenard, Basil Mayan, Girlgoth and Kaz. Supported by Artists Up - Grant Lab Award from Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, 4 Culture and Artist Trust. Music changed to adhere to copyright laws. Performance Art. InArtsNW. Seattle, WA. 2017. Filmed by Lily Munn.
After singing as Gus the Ghost and tearing about the sheet ghost as the Diabetic Luchador, I meet
Up to this age, up to this period in time--children's book, horror stories, cartoons etc. have long told the same tale--the Pinnocchio story of the artificial becoming real. Becoming "a real boy"-- has become a trope--a modern icon--according to Wikipedia, which also says that Pinocchio is one of the most adapted characters of all time.
But recently something has changed, I first noticed it and wrote about it in a presentation I did at a conference at UCDavis, a couple of years ago. Ours is the first generation in which Pinocchio has lost interest in being a real boy and instead has decided that rather than going back to being anything as silly as wood, or staying flesh, it is time to turn to plastic, foam and rubber instead. And I suggest that this is not mere musing, something is going on here and it may be zeitgeist--the flesh made plastic.
I would love to work on a performance with Joseph Beuys--of all the artists throughout history--his is the one that I seem to come back to the most--visually, we share some striking similarities--which is odd--because for both of us the performance work is extremely personal, autobiographical and anecdotal. I'm sure that Beuys himself would say it has something to do with a kind of post-Jungian--artistic collective mind--but all of that is just a little too new agey for me--though I love Beuys for being so out there and for being so willing to go out on a limb for what he believed--no matter what!
When the Body Speaks (Performance in three parts):
Scene microphone and stand on stage outcropping. Stage right Grace La Renard is standing dressed as a ghost. On a table, also stage right is a blue cloth and a top hat filled with a glowing light. Further back stage right is a male ghost. In the background stage right is an easel and white canvas and near that is a bucket filled with flour and a chair.
From off stage I walk on stage dressed as a ghost carrying a plastic pumpkin filled with flowers. After a beat I begin to sing the Depeche Mode song "When the Body Speaks." As the song ends, I take off the headphones and phone and place them in the bucket, toss some flowers at the audience and place the pumpkin bucket stage left so that Lily can retrieve it.
As the song ends the two other stage ghosts begin chanting "You're nothun' but a nothun'. You're nothun' but a nothun'."
As this happens I begin dancing the dance of lonely ghost--as the dance reaches its crescendo I take off the cloak and reveal the "Diabetic Luchador," Who begins to dance the dance of the Diabetic Luchador, while the two dancers continue to chant. During this dance, I am looking like I suffer from vertigo and high and low blood sugar.
At the end of it I grab the ghost sheet and begin to tear it apart. Then wrap it around my hands and barefoot legs. I move to the bucket and begin to put flower on my hands and draw a mushroom cloud on the ground before me. Taking my sweet time. At the end of this. I kneel down center stage. As soon as I kneel the Sorcerer's apprentice music should start.
The two ghosts begin to chant "Your blood will show you the way." and "Magic is in your blood."
At this point Lily comes from off stage and paints my face and blows glitter on me.
"The Dance of the Magician" Begins as the Sorcerer's apprentice plays. As I pull flowers then a rabbit out of a hat and then a ghost and then blood then paint a painting.
Stage goes black as I turn to the audience then say "When the Body Speaks--all else is hollow."
The Diabetic Luchador (Nothing but a Nothing.) Final Version. When the Body Speaks. Full. A Night of Performance Art by Xavier Lopez. Cast: Xavier Lopez, Grace Larenard, Basil Mayan, Girlgoth and Kaz. Supported by Artists Up - Grant Lab Award from Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, 4 Culture and Artist Trust. Music changed to adhere to copyright laws. Performance Art. InArtsNW. Seattle, WA. 2017. Filmed by Loren Herrera.
The Diabetic Luchador was a new character created with this "night of performance, part of the "Putoh" night's events.
In this part of the night's performances, the Diabetic Luchador tears apart the sheet ghost of the prior scene.
In 2017, I was awarded the "Artist-Up Grant," presented by three amazing arts organizations--4Culture, Artist Trust and The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture. I was asked to take my work to the next level. The plan, with guidance from Irene Gomez, was to be in a completely different place with my work afterward--little did I know just how much I would grow.
The first part was to put together my own art book--which was amazing. But it was the second project that made me truly nervous! I was to present a short "one-man performance" dealing with issues of "Latinoness," entitled "When The Body Speaks," it would be about Illness, specifically illnesses targeting Latinos and which run through my family tree, directly through my body and in my blood!
Ultimately, however, I would craft a longer, more complex event than initially planned, enlisting five other artists--a first for me! I did a forty-five minute performance and I was extremely nervous because of my ailments. Would the nerve-endings in my feet flare up? Would I suffer from vertigo? Before this, my longest performance was 25 minutes and I was much younger then. But over the year of practice I brought my weight down by twenty pounds and when I hit the stage I was certain I could do it.
The event, itself was part biography, part endurance and part conceptual art. I introduced Seattle to "Putoh" a mestizo hybrid of cultures and performance genres! On top of that, I did something I thought I never could have--I sang in front of a live audience! That night I grew as an artist, possibly even extended the definition of Latinx art today, but more importantly, I expressed the way that I see the world. I was overjoyed and proud of what I had accomplished!
In the background, two figures, one dressed as a blind ghost and the other dressed as a vampire bat chant, "You're Nothing but a Nothing, You're Nothing but a Nothing."
My work is always intensely personal and conceptual--it comes from me. I work with a variety of materials and in many methods. I tell stories and create new connections questioning the meanings of our most commonly held notions. My work is about associations and creating a discourse between myself and the viewer. I love these connections, they are my joy, they are the things I look for at all times and which permeate my work. It is my goal to completely change current discourse and deconstruct the way that we view art and race.
I am part of a new breed of Latinx artists for whom artmaking is autobiographical and personal, yet eschews the most obvious tropes of masculinity and race. As a Latino artist working much of his life with materials that have been pared down to their core elements, minimalized and purified, creating fiercely personal narratives, I have long been forced to deal with oversimplified views of color, masculinity and biography, but in a world and at a time, in which so many of these definitions are changing, my shift in point of view is fiercely important. I am intent on making my own way as an individual artist, speaking my own name and making art that comes from my experience of this world. I connect to a post-postmodern dialogue and speak to personal obsessions and desires that are not bogged down by obvious cultural history. This is a very important stance of liberation, which in and of itself is powerful and revolutionary. Now, having said this, mine is not a simplistic stance, nor is it a mere ignoring of reality--instead it is a journey, an intellectual investigation and as an artist, I am aware that we are not post-race and my work is not either.
This year's version is a wonderfully multicultural affair, in tune with a world that is getting smaller and more open-minded, even while the news tries to tell us the opposite. The first act sets the stage for the rest of the production as we are presented with a very Derridean frame within a frame, has a wonderful tree and a beautiful window--wherein we can see some of that Nutcracker magic. We get some really nice costumes, starting with Herr Drosselmeier's togs, which include an Olivian reference in his red-and-white-and-black cape--we also get lovely costumes for the various toys and all the celebrants--and that is just Act 1--the costumes in act 2 are even better!
Gus Was a singing Ghost. When the Body Speaks. Performance Art. InArtsNW. Seattle, WA. 2017. When the Body Speaks. A Night of Performance Art by Xavier Lopez. Cast: Xavier Lopez, Grace Larenard, Basil Mayan, Girlgoth and Kaz. Supported by Artists Up - Grant Lab Award from Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, 4 Culture and Artist Trust. Music changed to adhere to copyright laws. Performance Art. InArtsNW. Seattle, WA. 2017. Documented by Loren Herrera.
The performance of myself dressed as a ghost and singing in front of a live audience, actually started as many of my performances do, by picking up the pieces of "discarded" performances--or more specifically, performances that I haven't gotten around to yet and which have morphed and mutated in the time since their first imagining.
In this case, Gus is a mixing of my continuing "Sheet Ghost" series of performances and a performance that I still intend to do some day, wherein I am dressed as the English band Depeche Mode's singer and Songwriter Martin L. Gore, standing outside Seattle's Pike's Public Market or some similar spot lipsynching to Depeche Mode songs for cash.
The Sculptural Installation, "A Recreation of My Teen-Age Bedroom," Showing how autobiography plays throughout my entire oeuvre of artworks.
"Day-Dream Believer," Installation. Seattle, Ethnic Heritage Art Gallery, an installation, which like the recreation of my bedroom is made up of personal, autobiographical artifacts.
In this performance, I sang in front a live audience for the very first time, a song entitled "When The Body Speaks," A Grabbing Hands Sonnet.
Gus the Ghost is a continuing character throughout my sculpture and performance art. When we were children we had three "ghost" imaginary friends.
I had been working with the ideas of ghosts ever since I was an undergraduate at the University of Nevada, Reno in 1990, where I did a performance titled: Poltergeist. This was part of a solo exhibition I did at the Faire Gallery Cafe. The piece included sound and a looping video that can be accessed here:
Soft Cyborg Video: Ghost Story
When the Body Speaks...All else is Hollow.
What is beneath the sheet?
In the end, after the song, I pulled off the sheet, thus beginning the second act.
Gus the singing Ghost. When the Body Speaks. Performance Art. InArtsNW. Seattle, WA. 2017. A Night of Performance Art by Xavier Lopez. Cast: Xavier Lopez, Grace Larenard, Basil Mayan, Girlgoth and Kaz. Supported by Artists Up - Grant Lab Award from Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, 4 Culture and Artist Trust. Music changed to adhere to copyright laws. Performance Art. InArtsNW. Seattle, WA. 2017. Filmed by Loren Herrera.
Xavier Lopez Performance: When the Body Speaks Act 2: Performed on November 9th, 2017. Supported by an Artists Up / Grant LAB Award from the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, 4Culture & Artist Trust. When the Body Speaks Act 2: Sheet Ghost/The Diabetic Luchador (Nothing but a Nothing) finds the Diabetic Luchador confronting the ghosts of his past. Starring: Xavier Lopez, Grace LaRenard, Basil Mahan and Lily C. Munn as "The Guardian Angel." Live Music Editing by Kaz. Directed by Loren Herrera, originally edited by Loren Herrera, project by Xavier Lopez, Filmed on location at INARTSNW, November 9th 2017.
I was to present a short "one-man performance" dealing with issues of "Latinoness," entitled "When The Body Speaks," it would be about Illness, specifically illnesses targeting Latinos and which run through my family tree, directly through my body and in my blood!
Ultimately, I would craft a longer, more complex event than initially planned, enlisting five other artists--a first for me! I did a forty-five minute performance and I was extremely nervous because of my ailments. Would the nerve-endings in my feet flare up? Would I suffer from vertigo? Before this, my longest performance was 25 minutes and I was much younger then. But over the year of practice I brought my weight down by twenty pounds and when I hit the stage I was certain I could do it.
The event, itself was part biography, part endurance and part conceptual art. I introduced Seattle to "Putoh" a mestizo hybrid of cultures and performance genres! On top of that, I did something I thought I never could have--I sang in front of a live audience! That night I grew as an artist, possibly even extended the definition of Latinx art today and expressed the way that I see the world. I was overjoyed, proud of what I had accomplished!
What exactly is Putoh?
Putoh is a hybrid in every sense of the word. Putoh celebrates individuality and intersectionality. Invented in the year 2000 at the university of California Davis, it is a portmanteau of ideas, vision and philosophies. Linguistically, the term "Putoh" is a fusion of two languages and two words. Of course there is the Japanese Butoh, meaning, literally Dance But also the Spanish-in this case-Mexican, gutter word Putoh. Which has many meanings, but which has a very similar etymological history to the word "Punk" and it is in that spirit that the two words were married.
The performance form itself was created by a Chicano, pre-Latino, pre-Latinx, a Mexican American, one Jewish and one post catholic, two feminists, two performance artists, two university students, a painter, two sculptors and a science fiction fan. Katherine Adamenko and Xavier Lopez came from very different backgrounds Xavier, a California Mexican American complete with a Valley girl brogue and Katherine Adamenko New York City Jewish and Cuban/Spanish ("on my dad’s side") feminist performance artist with a huge personality were destined to create something that the world was not prepared for--something that refuses to be categorized, meshes forms and cultures. So sit back, relax and enjoy the "Return of the Putoh" and enter the Post-postmodern a world of intersectionality at every turn.
I put together a night of Performance Art, presented by the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, 4 Culture and ArtistTrust at the recently reconsecrated INARTS NW building--a place that is housing some of the most avant garde performance in the city.
In this performance, I returned to an artform that I created alongside the wonderfully Feminist performance artist and Butoh artist Katharine Adamenko, when we were both taking graduate courses at UC Davis. Entitled "Putoh,"
I'll say more about it in a bit, but November 9th's performance reminded me of a series of performances that we did together in the late, late nineties. It was the birth of the Soft Cyborg and of "Putoh" and it was a heady time that stands in direct contrast to today wherein we felt as though we could accomplish everything--where we didn't feel as though the world was on the brink and it is in that that spirit that I present you with the description that I wrote about one particular performance that I put on as part of a series of salons put together by my very dear friend Katharine Adamenko, what follows is the paper--the last paper I wrote for the last class I took at UC Davis, before embarking on a five year trip to Europe--modified only enough to keep it from sounding too strange.
When the Body Speaks. (Augmented Mix.) Performance Art. InArtsNW.
"A Falling Piece." Final Version. Artist Up: Grant LAB Shout Out at Oxbow. Original performance on 5/10/17. Photography: Bruce Clayton Tom.
Influenced by the "Happenings" of Alan Kaprow and especially the "Dangerous" performances of Dick Higgens, when I was invited to Artist Up: Grant Lab Shout Out I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to do a performance "on the fly" as they call it and do a falling piece.
The performance itself was extremely simple. When I was called to give my presentation, I stumbled several times on my way to the top of the stairs where I was to speak about my artistic ouevre and to describe my plans for what I would be doing with the grant later in the year.
I energized the space and like Dick Higgins was dedicated to go all in with the performance.
Stumbling...
and dragging myself up the stairs...
...
...and falling back down several times...
...refusing help...
Until I made it to the top.
Where I gave my presentation.
In order a photodocumentation of the event, photographed by Bruce Clayton Tom. 2017.
After On the Edge: Latinx Performance Art Festival, I became part of (the wonderful and personal high-point) the John Cage celebration that was put together to celebrate the work of John Cage.
In 2016, I was asked to take part in the John Cage Musicircus, a mixed-media performance festival held at Seattle's prestigious Town Hall. What follows is a mixed-media performance piece that I created for the event, perhaps one of strangest pieces I have created so far. Broken up into two pieces, this is the abstracted ghost piece.
"Seance (Performance.) The John Cage Musicircus. Seattle, WA. 2016. Originally Titled "I Always Cry at the Oscars. David Bowie (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016.)" Became the ghost piece ("Seance.") presented at John Cage Musiccircus. Later called, just "Cancer." All sounds created by Xavier Lopez and the environment within the Town Hall John Cage Musiccircus Event. Many thanks to the folks who put on the event, especially Melanie Voytovich. Performed November 19th, 2016.
