Performance Art and "Jaladas"

"Jalada:" Spanish expression used commonly in Mexico to describe trivial, seemingly thoughtless or effortless "art." English translation might be: pulling-off shit and getting away with it.  

The main point I got from the reading was the concept of art becoming more engaging with the public. This is possible and almost inevitable in many forms of the newer media forms of art like the internet and other mediums that rely on a user interface.

Browsing the internet, I found Charles Broskoski, an internet artist who produces all sorts of interesting little websites who focus generally on a single, very straightforward concept.

The website that resonated the most with me is casually also a great example of interactivity and participation in the art work and process. Check it out!

In this website, the user is invited to draw anything on the screen canvas with a very simple drawing tool controlled with the mouse movement and clicks. There is no fancy filters, colors, etc. Its basically a black pen or pencil. The artwork can be cleared or saved. Once it is saved, it is displayed down below in the same website. You can see by now how interesting this can get. The website is a mirror of us as artists. All of us are artists working on this huge project which at the same time is medium and end.

Talking about performance art. Yes, it can be very participatory as we saw is Yoko Ono's piece where she invites the audience to cut her clothes. Yet it seems to me, performance art has a basic flaw. It is very prone to jaladas. Spontaneity, participation, abstraction, popularity, etc all are very problematic when drawing the line between art and not art. Let's take for a moment the case of YouTube. What makes all the amateur videos in YouTube not "gallery art?' Anybody can perform these days through this platform. It has its limitations for sure concerning nudity and similar stuff. But it is unquestionably filled with human performances, many of them thoughtful, others clear examples of jaladas.: Some of the "artists" aka users have artistic intentions and others just want to be famous or do something funny or appealing.  YouTube is a 21st century expression of popular art, as well as a commercial mess of jaladas.

I think that a compelling example that touches this point is performance artist/YouTube user, Hennessy Youngman. Henessy is in fact a persona invented by artist (that is, a person whose claim to art has been recognized to an extent) Jason Musson. His videos playing this character are "hilarious" and "enlightening." I agree with whoever wrote this piece and commented on his work.

In the video I post above, Youngman talks about "Relational Aesthethics." Assuming the position of an outsider of the art world, he discusses this kind of art and sharply, (sometimes brutally) brings forth hard facts about the nature of this expression of art. It is one of many great, funny, sharp videos which constantly expose the "true colors" of the art world: elitist, driven by commercial interests, segregationist, pointless, etc...

So here is a guy, who I'm not sure if he is a true artist or not in my opinion, but who is hilarious, honest, has a point, performs in YouTube AND galleries/venues, discussing art in a very compelling way and basically bringing forth the jaladas of other artists. Is his own show another jalada? I don't think so, actually. And I'm not sure why. To me he has blurred the line between YouTube funny shit and a somewhat true expression of art. Very ironic.

Lets watch his video on Performance art during class! Its funny, and very sharp. People will takes sides for sure!