Hot Rod Biology

Hey Luke,

I also noticed that people were reluctant to stop and look. Although there are other possible reasons than that they're scared of advertising. + it would be very expensive advertising at a hundred odd dollars a day for the projector. - Unlike the giant black monster-man in the square that Adidas paid for. When i saw how cheaply it was made, that just gave it away as advertising, but at first I thought it was metal or something, and thought it was art. I felt when I stopped to look at Sam's work, people didn't stop because they were intimidated by me. Maybe I'm a monster, I don't know. I didn't realise Sam was meant to be a zombie, I just thought he was a guy. Like there is a whole history of performance art of artists walking into walls and stuff . . . And isn't art itself intimidating? The general public aren't too familiar with it, unlike advertising. You might see more people looking at a projected Add. There were always loads looking at the Black Man - he wasn't scarey to the tourists.

CU round,
AB.

Hey I don't get into town enough. What (and when) was this giant black adidas monster man?

Yeah you're quite right of course, art is intimidating! Were you at the Cortina gig last night? That was weird. The audience seemed kinda' uncomfortable I thought, but couldn't quite figure out why. The beer ran out pretty quick, that's probably got a lot to do with it.

I guess it's not that people are intimidated by advertising, just very wary (of being "sucked in"). I kinda like that idea though . . . advertising being intimidating ó how and why? I find those National billboards (the red and blue ones) that are up all over the place at the moment quite intimidating.

Since the first night of "Window Slap" I have noticed a larger range of behaviours in response to the work. It seems that whilst there is a large amount of ìnon observationî (where the passers by did not see or hear the work due to the quiet or empty parts of the video loop or they ignored it believing it to be some trite advertising gimmick or pretense that the loud crash was some urban sonic detritus) there is a large proportion of people who take fright if not offense to the work. There were a large amount of men (mainly young) and some young women who took exception to the challenge of the figure banging into the glass. The response of these individuals ranged from slapping the window back, to mimicking of the figures movements, to even taking a running leap from the other side of the road to charge the glass.

As far as being scared of advertising I think that you have misconstrued Lukeís comment about being weary of advertising as opposed to being scared of it as you suggest. As I have suggested in my writing about the work, habituation to shock in many forms of contemporary media has upped the anti in terms of what people consider affronting. In terms of the notion of the figure as a Zombie this is just one inference that the figure has. A zombie is the much like the ìSuitî trapped into a daily urban ritual of trudging to and from work (which I have had the torment of doing myself) not having the where with all to break from the cycle or even alleviating the boredom of a mundane suited existence with a drink or two on a Friday night.
You do look like a scary guy Art Basher. Maybe you are the monster. The fact that you felt intimidating to others when you were watching the work maybe due to the notion that people feel that they are intruding in some personal space or relationship that you have when viewing the work. Kind of like when people step in front of the work that you are looking at in a gallery and apologize (or side step the work that you are engaged with) for fear of disrupting your viewing. I suggest you try a more flamboyant outfit so as not to scare the children or the tourists in future when you view Art or advertising.

Sam

Sam - you're right, there is an important difference between being wary and being scared. I'd say people on average are wary of advertising but scared of art. I'm amazed at those responses you describe! were they drunk or what?

Luke - The Giant Black Man was a maybe 7 metre high dude looking very staunch with hands on hips, part of an Adidas advertising campaign for the Lions tour. I was sucked in by this campaign - at first there were these stickers everywhere, and i thought it was art, and then the man went up the day of the CoCA awards, i thought it might be an entry. But then someone who watches TV filled me in. Apparently there was also one mown into some farmer's field near the airport to be seen from the air! I wish I'd taken a fucking photo, i've just had what i think is a pretty decent search and i cant find any, i'll try asking the rugby store in the square, maybe they have one.

Cortina were weird, I felt very uncomfortable, in a bad way and i left early. In a bar you can kind of choose your level of involvement, but in a situation like that you are kind of trapped, and i didn't like it. Like the physics room video art screening - some of the work was clearly intended as instalation loops, but we had to suffer through like 9 minutes for some of them!
tata . . .