In
1997, Ottawa performance artist Rob
Thompson caged a man and a woman to protest the conditions of
commercially bred chickens.
Chicken
stand-ins Eric Wolf and Pam Meldrum |
Considering the
spate of controversy surrounding Rob Thompson's recent performance-art
in Ottawa, a naive observer could be forgiven the impression that
caging two people in for a week is somehow "strange" or
"peculiar. " Of
course, nothing could be further from the truth.
Despite those
critics who doubt the validity of Thompson's art, he is in fact
following a long tradition of avant-garde aesthetes, not the least
of whom was the late, great Rudolph
Schwarzkogler who amputated various portions of his body until
he ran out of material and died.
Leaving aside
philosophical concerns regarding performance-art — such as
whether it should be considered "late-modern" or "postmodern"
(particularly in view of Ihab
Hassan's carefully reasoned 1980 article, "The Question
of Postmodernism," in which he concludes that he really isn't
sure) — there is still the matter of its remarkable allure
and powerful effect.
Indeed, if Thompson's
recent piece is to be condemned for anything, it should be condemned,
not for being too radical, but for being too mainstream. Performance-art
has become such a common method of propagating an idea that, regardless
of its proper dialectic position within modernity, it should at
least lose its status as a "subordinate" or "alternative"
art form.
And Canada has
contributed more than its share of talent to the field.
The arts
lost a great team of performers when Lucian & Bouchard broke
up their act. |
Few would argue
that the most successful Canadian performance-artists in recent
years are Parizeau and Bouchard who combine the comedic talents
of Laurel and Hardy with the political sophistication of Abbot and
Costello. But many others, albeit less spectacularly, have displayed
their own form of artistic genius.
Consider, for
instance, the recent meditation on public vs. private housing. No
debate could have raised awareness in quite the same fashion as
Preston Manning's performance piece entitled "Stornoway."
And art critics will long remember Jean Cretien's innovative 1996
piece, "I Talk to the Homeless," which so poignantly highlighted
the distressing, and mostly ignored, tragedy of mental illness brought
on by serving too long in an elected office.
It is precisely
this ability to drive home important messages without benefit of
rational thought that makes performance-art so valuable. Rob Thompson
could hardly have chosen a more suitable method to highlight the
living conditions of commercially bred chickens than by paying two
people $2000 to sit in a cage for a week.
Having conceded
the validity of his project, however, we are not then compelled
to overlook its few, but glaring, weaknesses.
In the first
place, his indexical symbology would have been more accurate had
he placed two women in the cage rather than a man and a woman, since
hens, by and large, tend to be female. By mixing his gender-related
imagery, he not only compromises the overall integrity of his work,
but also destroys the otherwise natural connotations that could
have been developed vis a vis the broader canvas of women's
issues.
Nor should he
have allowed Eric Wolf and Pam Meldrum (the "chickens")
to speak. A more demanding artistic standard would have restricted
their articulation to clucks -- although an argument could have
been made for Eric Wolf, as the rooster, to occasionally crow.
Still, despite
these, and other lapses in the execution of his work, Thompson's
piece succeeded in its overall effect. Not only did it create a
visually disturbing image concerning the main issue of fowl-slavery,
but when we remember that over 80 people applied for the position
of "chicken" it also vividly carried a strong subtextual
message concerning the effects of mass unemployment.
Other good news
is that Thompson may have inspired an artistic response. According
to recent reports, an unidentified commercial chicken farmer living
in the Niagara Peninsula is thinking of producing his own performance
piece dramatizing the conditions of free-range chickens. In this
work, up to twenty people will spend their nights perched on wooden
rods. During the day, of course, they will strut around a dirt yard
eating food from the ground with their mouths.
Works like these
will assure Canada of its proper place in the artistic pecking order.
Reprinted
from What's On Queen, Dec. 1997
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