Volume 1, Issue No. 2 - Revolt Magazine

G.A.A.G.’s ‘Bloodbath’ staged at MOMA Nov 18,
1969 was their most iconic work. The group tore
each other’s clothes and squirted tubes of concealed
fake blood as they deposited pamphlets calling for
the immediate resignation of the Rockefellers from
the MOMA board due to their corporate interest in
the mass manufacturing of weapons for Vietnam.
In a parodic statement about the elevation of
Dada into the museums, two members of G.A.A.G.
snuck chickens into the grand opening of the Dada
exhibition at Moma and made a quick exit after
the animals pooped in the center of the show.
Explains art historian Caroline Wallace, G.A.A.G.’s
work highlighted the museum as a classic form
of oppression; not an enlightening or educating
experience but merely a diversion from the realities
of war and social crisis. iv
In some instances G.A.A.G. and A.W.C. joined
forces, one instance being a memorial held in front
of Picasso’s Guernica at the Met satirizing museum
curator’s treatment of artists. Eventually, in the
wake of Bloodbath, a meeting was called between
the museum trustees, curators and various artists
of both groups. Recalls G.A.A.G.’s cofounder Jon
Hendricks, the meeting resulted in the Artists’ Poster
Committee action, a joint project of the Art Workers
Coalition and the Museum of Modern Art to create
awareness around the My Lei massacre in Vietnam.
The poster content was inspired by a television
interview in which Mike Wallace questions soldiers
that had taken part in the massacre. Hendricks
recalls the televised dialogue:
“And you killed men?”
“Yes.”
“And women?”
“And women.”
“And babies?”
“And babies.”
“And babies” in Times font with a massacre image
from Life Magazine was the resulting poster, which
subsequently caused the MOMA board to renege
on the deal altogether, refusing to let the MOMA
name be included on it. Because the committee
had already found means to print 50,000 copies
of the poster for free and no one was getting paid
anyway, the Artists’ Poster Committee went ahead
and produced the print sans Moma with a new
stamp giving the history of the museum’s broken
agreement. v
Over forty years later, big players like the Whitney
and MOMA are still getting punk’d, but to what
effect? Where’s the beef? What are we willing to do
as artists and how much are we willing to sacrifice to
get there? Or have we already sacrificed too much?
The New York art world is the kind of joint that will
turn your poop to ribbons.
Don’t be the butt of the rich man’s riddle. The Whitney
will always be part of the corporate underbelly to
which artists turn to both scorn and beg. In fact, the
bloated waistline of the commercial black market
is protruding far out into the urban frontier causing
Marina Abramovic sightings in Bushwick as of late.
Are you content to let the rain tidy her celebrity heel
dust because the street sweepers rarely make it out
this far? What’s my advice as someone that’s never
participated in a Biennial of any stripe? Ground
yourself in the earth and worship the sky. Forgive
yourself and everyone else. Push the libido up into
the heart. Work for the greater good. Start small so
you can go hard when it counts. Give more than you
think you have to give.
This article was originally published online on the
Native Shout Blog www.nativeshout.com/ March
2012
i. Kate Levant’s installation was built of scavenged
materials from a burned down inner city Detroit
home and Mike Kelley’s “Mobile Homestead” is a
replica of his childhood home located in the Detroit
suburb of Westland.
ii. Mike Kelley, Interview Magazine, Glenn O’Brien,
2009
iii. Lesley Thomas, Confessions of a Super Groupie:
An Interview with Leslie Thomas in Bomb the
Suburbs, William Upski Wimsatt, 1994
iv. Caroline Wallace “Happenings As Institutional
Strategy” in Happenings: Transnation,
Transdisciplinary, panel at the CAA Conference
2012, Los Angeles
v. Jon Hendricks interviewed by Christina Linden,
Curatorial Fellow at the Center for Curatorial Studies,
Bard College March 24, 2010