"The Weight of the World On My Shoulders" Milwaukee Performance Art Showcase 2010:

For Milwaukee's 2010 Performance Art Showcase, I developed a stamina driven performance piece that entailed me attempting to hold a television bearing the struggling image of my face, over my head for the 2 hour duration of the show. This piece was unlike any media/performance work I've done in the past, and looking back now, I can honestly say that I was quite relieved to have had a nurse on staff at the show. After the course of the event, I was sick as a dog, and the pain I had the remainder of the week, was a constant reminder of the creative "burden" that this piece is suggesting an artist must bear. 

I won't say much more than that, except to urge you to read the artists statement, and check out the short clip below. 

Enjoy!

          "THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD ON MY SHOULDERS,"

is, in many senses, a live depiction of failure. The performance attempts to emphasize the inevitable struggle involved with achievement, as opposed to the literal product, or outcome, that one might be struggling to achieve. To this extent, the performance questions the importance of the actual 'outcome' in an artists' practice, by publicly displaying my inability to physically 'succeed' in bearing the weight of the television. 

The fact that this impossible weight is bearing my struggling image as a focal point- alludes to the extent in which I pursue my career as an artist, and directly suggests that my own maniacally driven efforts, might very well be the cause of my failures, while still synchronously prevailing as the source of my accomplishments.  

By consciously plotting this certain failure, I am ironically framing my shortcomings as a final product. The resulting efforts aim to display a visceral sense of human frailty, and weakness- while at the same time- suggesting a certain extent of triumph, if only purely through my ambitious efforts to foil my own attempts at failure. 

In this sense, I am playing off of an ever-circling dichotomy suggesting that: to fail in achievement, is still, at the very least, to succeed in failing. 

If only they'd taught me that back in elementary school, I'd have been prepared for the world...

Long time friend, collaborator, and colleague Dylan Zalewski handles the camera, and keeps an eye on the general performance. Having majored in acting, he's in charge of making sure dip-shit artist folk like myself maintain my performance stamina. Thanks Buddy!

Everyone knows where I'd be without the lovely Miss Chastaine Tallon- rotting in a gutter somewhere! This performance was no different. Thanks a million Chass!

Chassy's grueling task was to mop the sweat from my face periodically, and then neatly hang them on the "Free Souvenir" wall. The theme of the show was "Souvenirs," and as you could probably guess, the act of offering them to the public for free- though theatrically appealing- did not seem to prompt much interest in getting the audience to actually take home some of my sweat as a memento of the performance. Oh well, more sweat rags for me. You'll be sorry you didn't take one when I'm auctioning them on e-bay for a thousand bucks a piece!!

MENTIONS FROM THE PRESS:

So although the show reviews were a bit fluffier than they were critical, the show, as well as my piece, at least garnered some attention from the media. The numerous mentions helped give the show exposure, and I was happy that the writers were apparently intrigued with the concept of my piece. As an eager emerging artist, I'll take what I can get! 

Third Coast Digest (preview):

The pieces in the showcase vary from light to weighty, from wordless to a scream, with lots of audience participation. Some pieces are twists on acts from traditional carnivals. Rather than a typical weightlifter, Joseph R. Reeves will be representing the struggle of his artistic endeavors by holding the massive weight of his ego as an artist above his head for two hours...

Third Coast Digest:

…John Loscuito and Pegi Christiansen are organizing their fifth such showcase. Among the many attractions is conceptual weightlifter Joseph R. Reeves. Reeves will hold the massive weight of his artistic ego over his head for two hours. He must be strong. Reeves’ act fits the five-tent, 15-booth carnival format of the showcase. Free-will donation at the door ($5 suggested, $3 for students)...

Shepherd Express:

John Schneider, an inspirational multi-disciplinary artist whom I was lucky enough to interview and meet during the "My Vote Performs" project wrote:

…I know only two of the artists. Theresa Columbus, the endearing former impresario of Milwaukee’s main performance art venue Darling Hall, returns from Baltimore to perform “The Artist Statement” about her struggle to compose one. Filmmaker Joe Reeves, his back to us as he faces a camera, will reveal “the massive weight of his ego” via his televised face as he supports the screen on his shoulder for two hours.

Third Coast Digest:

…Here’s one I can identify with: artist Joseph R. Reeves will hold his ego above his head for two hours, which is way longer than most of the artists I know can. Actually, the ones I know wear their egos on their sleeves, no offense intended….

"Waste Not Want Not" (mixed media/video)

As I look through my blog, I am realizing I need to be less wordy. I will do my best to bear my soul with you, while still being at least somewhat concise. Here goes...

In this repetitive, callus forming, performance-esque video piece, I took the simple line "Waste Not, Want Not," and I wrote each word, individually, taking up a whole sheet of paper per word. I naughtily went through quite a bit of paper in my repetitive action, in fact, I spent about twelve hours straight doing this, while also recording various shots for the video portion of the piece.

The video itself, wasn't as developed as some of my previous work, but I still wouldn't hesitate to share it with you, except... well... its a serious pain in my ass, that I am quite frankly, not up for. I'm a busy man.

I was still pretty pleased with the reactions I was getting from viewers. For some reason- probably how blatantly UN-marketable video art is- I decided to put a 50,000 dollar price tag on it, and even farther, a requirement that the buyer gives me a polaroid of them hugging me in front of the piece while smiling. The reactions to this were comical.

My favorite thing to do at gallery shows, is to conspicuously hang out near viewers, acting like I am just another gallery-goer, and listen to what they say about my work. After a moment or so, I usually shake my head in disgust, and tell them, "It's ridiculous what passes for art now a'days..." and wait for their response.

The professors in my head were all criticizing me, saying that making that move with the price, would certainly be compromising aspects of my own artwork, but, for some reason, I was compelled to do it anyway.

Ok, I'm done.

SENIOR THESIS EXHIBITION

This was the piece that I did for MIAD's Senior Exhibition '09. It was a huge success for me personally, and I was fortunate enough to have been given "Best of Show," for the Integrated Studio Arts major- a personal goal that I had in my mind since my freshman year at MIAD.
The piece developed into a merge of video, sculpture, and performance; and was based largely on concepts of personal reflection, intensity of process, and perceptual relativity. For the final few weeks leading up to the senior show, I spent most hours day and night, drawing circles in phonebooks. I would start with a rather large circle, and I would continue drawing that circle with a pen, until eventually I would draw through the entire phone book. I did this with nearly 20 phonebooks, and after the second or third phone book, I even had a developed understanding of how to control the aesthetic outcome of each phonebook i.e. swithching pen types, colors, or the angle of my hand. The result was that the books themselves b
egan to have a beautiful layering of pristine colors, almost like what a jaw-breaker looks like if cut in half.
In the space that I was given, I projected a video of me that was split screen. half of the video displayed an emphasis of my facial expressions while drawing these repetitive circles, and the other half was a close up of the phonebook being drawn through. Along with the screen, was the embellished acoustical presence of the circles being drawn over and over again- a strangely dominant factor in the hypnotic tone of the space.
In the very center of the space, was a large wooden circle that I attained as a result of drawing a circle all the way through the wall using MANY MANY pens! Using the circle as a platform, I arranged the meticulously collected circles from the center of each phonebook on top of the wall circle, and placed them in front of the projection of myself and the phonebooks.
Finally, I placed 6 unmarked pedestals throughout the exhibition, and I displayed the actual phonebooks themselves, in small groups on these 6 pedestals. The intent of this placement, was to draw attention to the strange un-named phonebooks as objects, and to allow viewers to question not only WHY they were oddly placed throughout the exhibition, or WHAT the significance of this was- but also HOW had these strange objects been constructed.
By seperating the unexplained physical objects from my actual space in the exhibition, people were led through a series of questions that they would not normally be forced to consider. By seeing the recurring object a few times on their way to the 4th floor gallery, they had the object in the back of their head- THEN, upon seeing my space, and finding the video installation as well as the presentation of the phonebook centers- viewers were prompted to put together the puzzle, and were lead to discover the answer of HOW exactly the pieces were constructed. This helped to emphasize the great deal of meticulousness that pertained to the construction of the pieces, and added to an even greater appreciation of these objects on the way back out of the gallery when viewers would again come across the object with a newly found sense of appreciation.

Pissing Video Installation

Of course, give me a projector and a camera to play around with, and you know I'll find a way to get into trouble somehow. In this simple "one liner" type video installation, I recorded myself appearing to urinate on a door- nothing conceptually challenging, but definitely appealing to my sense of transgression as well as the recurring subject of deviancy and youth that can be found in much of my pieces. In the original installation of this piece, I projected the video to actually match up with the door seen in the video- which is in a functioning hallway of the school. The other aspect of this piece was that in its originally intended context, I had poured water all over the hallways, so before seeing the deviant character- you would wonder why you were stepping through puddles. It was a fun piece for me to create, and I will be the first to argue anyone who says that good art cannot be humorous.

"Indexical Relationship"

This was an earlier video installation/process study, where I sculpted my hand from observation within the span of an hour in clay, and taped the entire process. The video was than displayed as a backdrop to the actual sculpture, allowing the viewer to silmutaneously view the final product, as well as the initial process.

Spatial Boundaries

This is an ongoing piece that explores some of my literal fascination with boundaries in particular, but also space, and interaction. What is especially fascinating, is that I used this strangely delicate lace/plaster boundary in the context of an art school, a place where people are expected to interact with pieces of art. When confronted this aggressively, without time to think or react- most people immediately look for someone around them to confirm that either they can move it, or that they should go under it. So far reactions have been nearly 70/30 with 30 % of the people actually getting down on their knees and crawling under the surreal hurdle! at least its good to know that so many people respect art, right? Wait- is that what this is? Nevermind...What is really amazing about this piece is the video footage of the actual reactions taking place- I will post some of the footage as I compile more and more, and in different locations with different context. (I just need to learn how to post video footage, thats all)

"The Healthcare Show"

This previous gallery night, I was privelaged enough to be a part of "The Healthcare Show," curated by Zoe Darling and Melissa Wagner, both professors at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. "The Healthcare Show," was comprised as a small grouping of exhibiting artists, and a "Zine" of compiled writings on the subject of Healthcare. I was lucky enough to have contributed a lengthy poem to the "Zine," as well as a video installation based off of the poem.
The televisions are both me performing the reading of the poem, but between both televisions. The televisions almost act as seperate beings, by completing each others sentences, and responding to points of tension- yet they are putting together a unified poetry piece, while confronting viewers with the presentation of an unsettleingly personal writing piece.
The show is going on at the River Level of MIAD, just outside of the Layton gallery until January 1. The Poem from the "Healthcare Show Zine," can be read by clicking the following link. Enjoy!

http://warriorpoetwriting.blogspot.com/