Great picture by Briget Anderson!!!
10/10/10
9/9/10
Checking back in... sort of :)
So I returned from Burning Man. I don't really feel like talking much about it, it was fantastic. In fact I can say without a doubt - and fully considering that I have had loads of amazing days, weeks, moments and experiences in my life - that at least 2 of those days in Black Rock City were the best in my life I had so far. It is staggering. Needless to say I need some time here with this, and this is not for talking or blogging. Be sure actions will follow.
I had planned to do some Bloody Hands action there, but it wasn't right, except for one situation... and that didn't turn out to be right either eventually.
Bloody Hands is social sculpture, and that social sculpture over there just didn't need any intervention of that kind. Why would I want to initiate transformation where it is beautiful as is? For the heck of it? No way.
Burning man is a wonderful social sculpture and fully developed. It also is an incredible gesamtkunstwerk regarding the wholistic aspect of it all and the arts, especially the djying - though it still is a fairly secluded society - and I am aiming for the whole world - this will have significant impact eventually, and my part is different from what I do with Bloody Hands.
I could try to find hairs in the soup, I guess, and damn right, I'm a big fan of always finding room for improvement, but even I can get to a point where I say "This is perfect". Good to know actually, I never said it referring to life on earth in such a broad sense, nor did I say it about my personal life. Great... big :).
The universe is perfect, always, but that doesn't mean I don't want to stop wars. A flower is perfect, but that doesn't mean I don't want to protect it or whatever I want to do with it. Over there I did not want to change a grain of dust, nor did I feel that heavy responsibility urgently having to do something against what is wrong. I was even happy about the 20% pareto optimized idiots who were mixed in the crowd.
I surely continuously prove to the world, that I'm never settling for less, and it makes me a nomad on all levels. I did however settle down completely for 2 or 3 days, how cool is that. Home :) But enough of that. I have impressions of what I need to do.
I surely could have used that phenomenal power of others there to feed the transformative force of Bloody Hands, but except for one person that would have been potentially exploitive.
Anyways, in the meanwhile Brad and Francis have sent me messages, that they have seen traces of Bloody Hands, asking, if I did that. One was in the subway, and one was near Montauk. Brad even sent a pic. It wasn't me :). I know of one artist friend, a burner by the way, who couldn't go, who said she was going to do street art. She neither wants to be named nor documented. It could have been her. I don't know. It doesn't matter though. It might have been a total stranger. I'm getting emails from total strangers who support. It might not even have a conscious connection at all.
Part of Bloody Hands is, that it seriously does not matter who does what. It's a group thing. And we're all connected anyways like islands under water. The individual however counts, with its utterly unique identity, and fingerprints nobody else in this world has. Maybe I should show the importance of diversity. And since it's already 6.30am, maybe I should go sleep now :)
I had planned to do some Bloody Hands action there, but it wasn't right, except for one situation... and that didn't turn out to be right either eventually.
Bloody Hands is social sculpture, and that social sculpture over there just didn't need any intervention of that kind. Why would I want to initiate transformation where it is beautiful as is? For the heck of it? No way.
Burning man is a wonderful social sculpture and fully developed. It also is an incredible gesamtkunstwerk regarding the wholistic aspect of it all and the arts, especially the djying - though it still is a fairly secluded society - and I am aiming for the whole world - this will have significant impact eventually, and my part is different from what I do with Bloody Hands.
I could try to find hairs in the soup, I guess, and damn right, I'm a big fan of always finding room for improvement, but even I can get to a point where I say "This is perfect". Good to know actually, I never said it referring to life on earth in such a broad sense, nor did I say it about my personal life. Great... big :).
The universe is perfect, always, but that doesn't mean I don't want to stop wars. A flower is perfect, but that doesn't mean I don't want to protect it or whatever I want to do with it. Over there I did not want to change a grain of dust, nor did I feel that heavy responsibility urgently having to do something against what is wrong. I was even happy about the 20% pareto optimized idiots who were mixed in the crowd.
I surely continuously prove to the world, that I'm never settling for less, and it makes me a nomad on all levels. I did however settle down completely for 2 or 3 days, how cool is that. Home :) But enough of that. I have impressions of what I need to do.
I surely could have used that phenomenal power of others there to feed the transformative force of Bloody Hands, but except for one person that would have been potentially exploitive.
Anyways, in the meanwhile Brad and Francis have sent me messages, that they have seen traces of Bloody Hands, asking, if I did that. One was in the subway, and one was near Montauk. Brad even sent a pic. It wasn't me :). I know of one artist friend, a burner by the way, who couldn't go, who said she was going to do street art. She neither wants to be named nor documented. It could have been her. I don't know. It doesn't matter though. It might have been a total stranger. I'm getting emails from total strangers who support. It might not even have a conscious connection at all.
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| Photo sent in by Brad Chanin taken in NY subway |
8/30/10
To MAMA
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| N. York, MAMA (for Bloody Hands), 2010 |
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| Mikey, the first man with Bloody Hands |
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| Cowboy as open container @ Tompkins open air show |
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| H.J. Mess, mama, 2010 (for "Wall for peace", Istanbul Art Fair 2010) www.messart.de |
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| G. Naschberger and N.York, Mary with monkey, 2005 |
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| N.York, Daily news (Mother Mary like some people more), 1991 |
He didn't intentionally color his hands red, which makes it a bit of a cheat, but when I said "Hey, you have bloody hands." He immediately joined in and said: "Oh yeah, that's right, that's your art. Oh well, before I came to see the show, I was performing surgery on babies for a couple of hours. That's why the blood is also green."
People sometimes talk strange, but I have to say, I very much like it. He might have said something about aliens as well, but I forgot.
I asked him, if I could take pictures. I also took pictures of Cowboy, who he had spray painted together with. Another man with bloody hands. Cool.
On a side note: I really liked Cowboys and Mikeys expressive performance project. Cowboy was dancing around at Tompkins Square Park - it was a great open air punk rock concert - costumed as an "open container". It was a fun protest against that law.
For all Non-Americans, the open container law means, that you can't carry around an open bottle of alcohol with you, because that would indicate that you are drinking in public - even if you don't. And drinking in public is not allowed in the U.S., very strictly enforced. That's the law.
It's a bit annoying, that one isn't allowed to have a beer during an open air show, but the law doesn't have that much effect really. People drink beer out of coffee cups and vodka out of Sprite bottles - criminally united. The police is patrolling around and they also send in undercover cops, but the information about who is an undercover, spreads faster than the cop can walk.
I believe the police knows, they aren't stupid, but as long as nothing is happening it's all good and there is no stress. They would only check your cup or bottle, if they don't like you or if they want to catch you for some other thing - it's kind of smart in a very American way. A two sided sword.
I love Americans so much for their "don't ask, don't tell" policies. I wish more nations would understand it instead of calling it bigot. It provides a lot, lot of freedom for those who are different.
I'm at the same time in contact with an artist friend from Cologne, Heinz-Joseph Mess, whose recent work I believe to be really good. He is currently working on an invitation to an exhibition he has coming up titled "mama". Looking at the photo of Mikey, it was striking that he has the word "MAMA" tattooed on his hand, so I sent Hajo the pic. He decided, that it was perfect for the invite. Nice!
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| If you happen to be in Leipzig, check it out! |
This is to you, MAMA! And though I don't have real children, I'm a mother too :).
8/27/10
Little update
"Bloody Hands" is running well, but there is nothing spectacular to report right now. I'm preparing things :) - and it falls into the category "Don't talk about unlaid eggs".
I'm running around a lot, organizing a lot of stuff, meeting new people, catching up with people I already know, and on the side I'm getting ready to go to Burning Man.
Times seem to be tough right now. There are many friends in rather serious need in my life. Not that I can do much, but at least I can care.
8/16/10
This is real art, my beloved sceptics!
I hear the voices of my fellow artists. Gerhard Naschberger (formerly "Junge Wilde" (Young Wilds) and "Muehlheimer Freiheit" member, also formerly one of my private teachers, since I never went to art academy... gotta make it happen somehow, right?) told me 2 days ago, that Bloody Hands is a great idea and can be really good, but I also have to do art. Haha.
He is scared, that Bloody Hands becomes a joke thing like mustaches on subway advertising, though it could be a nice vehicle to gain popularity. I hear you, Gerhard, but.
In Germany, there was this dude, called the Bananasprayer, who gained popularity in the 80s spraying bananas on galleries and art places as sign for quality. I told the guy in the face, that he is a joke, that his stuff is not art, and that I don't like him. He is running around in yellow suits these days... and he pretty much is making a joke out of conceptual art, the fool.
MomaSF just sent me a direct message, wanting to know my favorite artist. I named Nikki York, Warhol, Jenny Holzer and Duchamp. Jenny Holzer is not making jokes and she is not a fool. One could say, "but she is just spraying words (truisms) on walls". Obviously this does not capture what she really does.
Popularity is not why I am doing this. It does make sense to become popular, because I started conceptual art in 1991, and there are so many concepts and actual performances and experiments etc. that I already did, mostly by myself. They aren't bad, but concept isn't new. This is past and also my past.
Social sculpture to the extend that I am doing it and developing it further is new. It also hasn't worked very often in the past. How many people know Marcel Duchamp? He is a marker in art history same as VanGogh or Picasso. The later changed the whole world. Duchamp did not, he only changed the furniture in the ivory towers.
Another, wanting to stay anonymous artist, told me yesterday, that I am not taking my art seriously enough, the heaviness of the subject would be treated too lightly. This is absolutely intended, because otherwise the heaviness of the subject does not get treated at all. "Go watch TV, kids, there's a man dying in our front yard." I'm not a politician or a detective facing murder.
Both said: You cannot sell "Bloody Hands" (Go paint, kiddo).
This isn't about money either. I'm happily surviving, if people want to give me money, sure.
I do however listen to my teachers, and they are right and helpful in many ways. Today is sketching day. I will produce sketches of how I envision the social sculpture Bloody Hands. And action! :)
He is scared, that Bloody Hands becomes a joke thing like mustaches on subway advertising, though it could be a nice vehicle to gain popularity. I hear you, Gerhard, but.
In Germany, there was this dude, called the Bananasprayer, who gained popularity in the 80s spraying bananas on galleries and art places as sign for quality. I told the guy in the face, that he is a joke, that his stuff is not art, and that I don't like him. He is running around in yellow suits these days... and he pretty much is making a joke out of conceptual art, the fool.
MomaSF just sent me a direct message, wanting to know my favorite artist. I named Nikki York, Warhol, Jenny Holzer and Duchamp. Jenny Holzer is not making jokes and she is not a fool. One could say, "but she is just spraying words (truisms) on walls". Obviously this does not capture what she really does.
Popularity is not why I am doing this. It does make sense to become popular, because I started conceptual art in 1991, and there are so many concepts and actual performances and experiments etc. that I already did, mostly by myself. They aren't bad, but concept isn't new. This is past and also my past.
Social sculpture to the extend that I am doing it and developing it further is new. It also hasn't worked very often in the past. How many people know Marcel Duchamp? He is a marker in art history same as VanGogh or Picasso. The later changed the whole world. Duchamp did not, he only changed the furniture in the ivory towers.
Another, wanting to stay anonymous artist, told me yesterday, that I am not taking my art seriously enough, the heaviness of the subject would be treated too lightly. This is absolutely intended, because otherwise the heaviness of the subject does not get treated at all. "Go watch TV, kids, there's a man dying in our front yard." I'm not a politician or a detective facing murder.
Both said: You cannot sell "Bloody Hands" (Go paint, kiddo).
This isn't about money either. I'm happily surviving, if people want to give me money, sure.
I do however listen to my teachers, and they are right and helpful in many ways. Today is sketching day. I will produce sketches of how I envision the social sculpture Bloody Hands. And action! :)
8/15/10
Planning the third launch: Take me to your leader!
More and more people are following the development of Bloody Hands. And you can be sure, I'm sacrifying my life to this to the minimum/maximum. I only sleep hourly, eat whenever I don't forget, putting myself on a structured plan, because otherwise I do forget... shelter not a problem, catch some sunlight... oh well, not today, haha, all energy goes into this.
So, here is the plan: The next launch is called "Take me to your leader". I have no specific date for it yet. I'm talking and talking and working and working, and the majority of people are amused, entertained... or they don't get it. The minority, and I love you guys so much, resonates. We speak the same language.
I can only talk to people, who are speaking the same language like me (it doesn't need to be English, haha, I call it the language of the heart, and yes, I am lovy-dovy by nature :), but I certainly am no softy... I'm working on being more soft, haha).
I am reaching out right about now, mainly within the underworld, the sub-culture. On all levels though. I am talking to a philosophy professor as well for example and his philosophy surely isn't underground, but since none of you probably ever read a book of his, this is underworld as well. I am also in convos with spiritual, economical, political, and so on, and so on "leaders" as far as my network goes.
The Bloody Hands go in two directions from now on: vertical and horizontal.
Vertical as in spreading and making aware in quantity, addressing masses. We are the people, we have the power! *raises her hands laughing*
Horizontal as in narrowing the energy to focus in a qualitative direction, addressing special people, who are having effectively more power than others. They are the people, they have the power! *lowers her hands, sad about not knowing who to talk to.*
Who are our leaders, smaller and bigger? My next step is to find out. I want everybody's opinion please. I want names please :), real people's names.
In an ideal world, Bloody Hands will be beautifully balanced out vertically and horizontally as social sculpture. Meaning that the energy, contribution, creativity, etc. from the masses - and fine, fine, there is a lot - equals the energy of the special people, so the sculpture grows in both directions equally for proper statics and a beautiful aesthetic.
They would feed off of each other, without exploiting each other, the two dimensions. Right now, I am feeling an overweight of the vertical axis (which is not sufficiently to the benefit of the people supporting this), that is why I am working on the horizontal. Our third axis, that makes the sculpture 3d is time. I 'am evaluating, that the time dimension is cool for now, pretty chill. This is a young initiative.
That's the status :)!
So, here is the plan: The next launch is called "Take me to your leader". I have no specific date for it yet. I'm talking and talking and working and working, and the majority of people are amused, entertained... or they don't get it. The minority, and I love you guys so much, resonates. We speak the same language.
I can only talk to people, who are speaking the same language like me (it doesn't need to be English, haha, I call it the language of the heart, and yes, I am lovy-dovy by nature :), but I certainly am no softy... I'm working on being more soft, haha).
I am reaching out right about now, mainly within the underworld, the sub-culture. On all levels though. I am talking to a philosophy professor as well for example and his philosophy surely isn't underground, but since none of you probably ever read a book of his, this is underworld as well. I am also in convos with spiritual, economical, political, and so on, and so on "leaders" as far as my network goes.
The Bloody Hands go in two directions from now on: vertical and horizontal.
Vertical as in spreading and making aware in quantity, addressing masses. We are the people, we have the power! *raises her hands laughing*
Horizontal as in narrowing the energy to focus in a qualitative direction, addressing special people, who are having effectively more power than others. They are the people, they have the power! *lowers her hands, sad about not knowing who to talk to.*
Who are our leaders, smaller and bigger? My next step is to find out. I want everybody's opinion please. I want names please :), real people's names.
In an ideal world, Bloody Hands will be beautifully balanced out vertically and horizontally as social sculpture. Meaning that the energy, contribution, creativity, etc. from the masses - and fine, fine, there is a lot - equals the energy of the special people, so the sculpture grows in both directions equally for proper statics and a beautiful aesthetic.
They would feed off of each other, without exploiting each other, the two dimensions. Right now, I am feeling an overweight of the vertical axis (which is not sufficiently to the benefit of the people supporting this), that is why I am working on the horizontal. Our third axis, that makes the sculpture 3d is time. I 'am evaluating, that the time dimension is cool for now, pretty chill. This is a young initiative.
That's the status :)!
8/11/10
2nd launch diaries. Day two. Blood is sisterhood.
(in the photos by appearance: the mars mannequin, Alex, Lily, Mikey, c-squat)Yay, so then the second day of the launch came, Sunday, the mars bar event.
I wasn't expecting anything, packed my paint and went. It was a Paola shift. Nothing against Paola, she's very nice, but her shifts tend to be empty, which I actually very much liked.
I need to grow into my own project, so for now it's good, if there isn't too much hype about "Bloody Hands" It will come :).
Brian was there, the older guy with the glasses who is always there. And two girls, args, yesterday I still remembered their names, Dom and ?, and Paola. So I did my hands, and then Brian had the idea, to leave traces at mars, on the mannequin we decided. It became a group thing. The group decided to put bloody hand print traces on the girls boobs, ass and pussy. Very female.
The greatest thing was, that my two best girlfriends, Alex and Lily showed up, and they wanted bloody hands. Lily said "the convenant again". We had many very fruitful convenant situations together. Three women. The Whore, the Virgin and the Warrior. The 3 witches, a trinity, you know, that power dynamic. It's been really cool. So here we go again: The first 3 people with officially and witnessed Bloody Hands as a group, 3 women. Alex's in form of stigmata, which was the way she wanted it. I can see why, she's Jesus :).
Jean-Paul, as a man, and my first partner in this project has not had bloody hands yet. It makes a lot of sense to me.
The Baroness is writing me about it regularly though. Her first hands were red of her hair dye, the second were red of beets that she was cutting for cooking. Also very female. Oh well, if there is one female female in New York, let it be the Baroness! She is amazing and so is her doing.
This morning I received pictures from my third best girlfriend - I have 3 - Soma from LA. Yay to women, yay to sisterhood. Nika and Flouer are writing me as well, my sister is, my Mom is - active feedback is coming from women not so close to me, who get involved without that I am motivating them to (thanks for saving me energy :)). It is very apparent that up to this point women are the ones taking action, the ones reflecting actively.
Oh there are men, sure thing, first of all Jean-Paul, but also many others. Many men call me and want to meet me to talk about it, say they don't understand it and would like to know more. Many discussions have already taken place, while men are more absorbing so far. It is very interesting, and I see this as a good solid base building for a great social sculpture.
The only man who wanted to have red hands so far was Markko and he is gay, so there is some ton of female energy there. Bloody Hands has a great amount of active female energy in it and of sisterhood. Ha, that's about time, in my opinion the world lacks sisterhood, not brotherhood. Men know, how to work and live together... oh well, except for the war bullshit.
I am a woman, I transform myself, sisterhood with other women carried this into the world on the second launch. Oh no, no exclusion of men. Some good social sculpture transformation needs all types of energy. This is building.
At mars I saw a sign put up of somebody who had lost a bag. I felt like helping to find it, so I called for more information. Turns out it was a guy's bag named Enoch from c-squat. Small world - and it had his basis for his existence in the bag, expensive shears for cutting hair. Somebody stole it. The underground world is a very tough environment and it is surely very hard to try to climb up to the surface - all subcultures know that. After drinking with the girls I decided to stop by at c-squat, it was about 10 and I was tipsy.
On my way through Thompkins I took the second row. For those who don't know Thompkins Square Park, now it's really pretty, it used to be the junkie park though in Alphabet City. There are still lots of bums, punks, homeless and second row is the row where the younger generation of scum hangs out.
So there they were, the homeless, drug addicts, the waste of society in human form. They were sitting like excited in front of the TV, because there was a fight building up. Yeah, something is happening in their small little world. How much difference is there though to us all watching war on TV? They just don't have a TV. One guy was hitting another with a crutch.
In my Bloody Hands mojo, I walked straight towards the guy with the crutch - a muscular, rather good looking, young man - and said: "Stop it now". I walked right into him, put my hand on his chest and said: "Put the crutch down, you are smarter than this, it's not worth it." The guy did immediately. What a surprise. I didn't not stop walking, leaving the scenario behind. He said: "Let me walk with you", and I said sure. We talked and walked over to c-squat and I told him he had to leave now. He didn't want to, he wanted to kiss me, but he understood and did. I forgot his name (note to self: write down names).
So, it works. People understand. There is reason, even in very broken people and a will to stop fighting - and start kissing, haha. Violence is just a frenzy, one can get stuck in.
It is dangerous to stop a fight at night in a dingy place. But what was my risk? Worst case I'd be in hospital. The risk wasn't even that high, because a couple of the viewers probably knew me. That crazy chick that hangs out, yeah right, the bums think I'm crazy. Not so very different from what everybody else thinks, maybe I can change this.
Anyway, they would have stepped in, if I would have gotten beat up. Very unlikely somebody would have pulled a knife. Was I courageous? No, I was simply not afraid, it didn't take me anything. Are they going to fight again? Sure. I am only one person, and I changed only one situation by being a hot, fearless female. It was enough to get the guy out of his frenzy. Many people can change many situations. Be hot and fearless! :)
Was it silly? Yeah, a bit. It's good to be a bit silly, not over the top silly. Was it heroic? Small scale. Everybody should be more of a hero. Because what is happening with the few real heroes there are? They get killed, that's the current destiny of a hero. Under such circumstances I don't want to be a hero, but I can surely act more heroic. The mass, the majority, needs to take that destiny away from single people, who put themselves out there for the sake of humanity and risk their lives. Humanity doesn't need those old-school heroes. Humanity needs humanity. Solid.
It was a cool night at c-squat, we played guitar, good old guitar circle style, Mikey sang Emo songs. We threw all our money together for food, good food, yay, and beer. Good chats, good sisterhood :). We were in Shane's room, without Shane, with Enoch, Ariel and whoever stopped by. I did my bloody hands, they all liked it a lot. They said, I should always wear them.
On a side note, I loved it: That guy joined our sit in, whose name I'm leaving out for privacy. He is known to beat up people weaker than him and act like a violent asshole, which recently lead to getting his girlfriend into hospital, so she moved out and broke up with him. She is quite the strong person, I know her a bit. I never talked to him though, so I asked him to tell me his story, the story of the bad guy, and he said: "I have a problem and I am in therapy for this now - the real deal. I am doing something." Thanks to c-squat for not giving up on the dude and throwing him out, and thanks for changing my mind, because I was wrong, when my opinion was, to kick him on the street. I'll listen more to you, c-squat. And all my best wishes to you, brother.
All right, this turned out to be quite the cheesy post about peace, love and happiness. I'll become more radical with this for your entertainment, I promise. Rock on, sisters!
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