Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Mr. Smucks, of Nasti Bank Savings and Loan, gives a Rousing Speech (PART 2)

In 1991 I created a performance and extended monologue called Big Chairs, at Minor Injury, a gallery in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, as part of the Shredded Money Show. For it I built, with the help of friends, a big paper mache/cardboard bank with board of trustees thrown in. The main protagonist (yours truly) as PR Guy and creative director for the Nasti Bank, attempts to get the Bohemian set to part with their dollars to help shore up his beleaguered bank, an institution that has fallen victim to the Savings and Loan Crisis.

This is the second part of an hour long performance. Here Mr. Smucks gives a passionate speech extolling the virtues of his grievously misunderstood bank. 

Mr. Smucks, of Nasti Bank Savings and Loan, introduces The Board to some inovative thinking (Part 1)

In 1991 I created a performance and extended monologue called Big Chairs, at Minor Injury, a gallery in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, as part of the Shredded Money Show. For it I built, with the help of friends, a big paper mache/cardboard bank with board of trustees thrown in. The main protagonist (yours truly) as PR Guy and creative director for the Nasti Bank, attempts to get the Bohemian set to part with their dollars to help shore up their beleaguered bank, an institution that has fallen victim to the Savings and Loan Crisis. This is the first part of an hour long performance. Mr. Smucks arrives disheveled and out of sorts, having been attacked by an angry customer. He pulls himself together and proposes some ideas to the trustees as to how they might improve their image.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Mr. Smucks, of Nasti Bank Savings and Loan, makes a last ditch effort to persuade the artists to go make money instead (PART5)

In 1991 I created a performance and extended monologue called Big Chairs, at Minor Injury, a gallery in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, as part of the Shredded Money Show. For it I built, with the help of friends, a big paper mache/cardboard bank with board of trustees thrown in. The main protagonist (yours truly) as PR Guy for the Nasti Bank, attempts to get the Bohemian set to part with their dollars to help shore up his beleaguered bank, an institution that has fallen victim to the Savings and Loan Crisis. This is the last part of an hour long performance.

In this section Mr. Smucks shows how dangerous art can be and his deep aversion to its excesses. In desperation he puts his all into persuading artists to give up their futile ways and go concentrate on making money.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Mr. Smucks, of Nasti Bank Savings and Loan, shares his love of the arts, and the pain of such attachments (PART4)



In 1991 I created a performance and extended monologue called Big Chairs, at Minor Injury, a gallery in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, as part of the Shredded Money Show. For it I built, with the help of friends, a big paper mache/cardboard bank with board of trustees thrown in. The main protagonist (yours truly) as PR Guy for the Nasti Bank, attempts to get the Bohemian set to part with their dollars to help shore up his beleaguered bank, an institution that has fallen victim to the Savings and Loan Crisis. This is PART 4 of an hour long performance.

In this section Mr. Smucks shows how much the bank loves art and expresses how how appalled he is at the subsequent behavior of the artists whom he, deep down, blames for everything. They go and shake that great ladder that the likes of Michael Milken and other heros (the other guy with the beard—Ivan Boesky) of finance have climbed...and revel in their downfall! Shocked and dismayed he looks askance at his audience wondering how they could condone such cruel treatment of such amazing creators of such fabulous wealth?

Saturday, October 1, 2011

In a terrible storm the team clings desperately to the crumbling facade of an abandoned home

Monday, September 19, 2011

Great Article at Web Urbanist on Cardboard Sculptors

Ann Weber
Junior Fritz Jacquet

What is Art? Who is Art?


Student of The Arts
The Question: What is Art? Can—with sleight of hand become: Who is Art? Thus:
Response: Art is Elusive. He (Arthur)/She (Artemis) was last seen slipping out of a drugstore on Main, in Wichita, Kansas (in steam). Why steam? Because I love the words: Wichita, Kansas, in steam, put together. Art might just have well have been in a movie house in Karachi, or in downtown Bayreuth, or Plonksville, or Dinkly, in the Silly Isles. It doesn’t matter. The point is Art was spotted, briefly, but then Art managed to slip away into the darkness of the night, into the cold waters beneath the Verrazano Bridge, down a wooded slope not far from Orleans, not far from that splendid little gem of a museum that has a huge collection of that somewhat neglected artist, Gaudier Brzeska, who died way to young, thanks to the First World War, which only makes you wonder at the love, the joys, the magic, the wonders, the heart, the vision, the images and things that might have been had it not been for the many wars and famines since.

So who is Art and why won’t he or she stay? What are they afraid of? Do they run from the abuse and neglect, derision, indifference of a callous world bent on its own destruction? We need Art now more than ever to settle disputes, and bang sense into the heads of the politicians, the financiers, the bankers and diplomats, lobbyists and pharmaceutical salesmen, the doctors who reap the speaker’s fees, the realtors who forget who they are supposed to be working for. Oh the list is endless. Art must show some backbone and dig in and stare out the sullen aspect of this traumatized planet. Art must take a knife and cut out the poison. Art needs courage now. Art needs your help.

We know this much: Art is elusive, and possibly lost. Only with your help can Art’s role be written.

Answer this:

What is Art?
Who is Art?
Where is Art?
When is Art?
Is Art substantial? Can Art be bought? Was Art ever essential? Did Art change you? Are you mad at Art? Do you have a bone to pick with Art? Is Art the paper he is sketched on? Is Art the dress she wears? Does Art play sports? Does Art cook? Is Art purely subjective? Or is Art flesh and bone?



Henri Gaudier Brzeska

An Associate of the U.R.G. Appears Before A Senate Subcommittee


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Doing Lines

Asemic writing