The Yes Men

Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno make up the Yes Men a duo who exist somewhere between comedy, performance art and political/social commentary and participate in what they call actions. These actions are outrageous hoaxes that call attention to the absurdity of the behavior of corporations and governments. Their modus operandi is to find way to insert themselves into serious public rolls and then call attention to the issues that concern them.

The centerpiece of The Yes Men Save the World documentary is an action that they put in place to call attention to the behavior of Dow Chemical who in 1984 accidentally released a cloud of toxic gas in Bhopal, India which killed more than 20,000 people. As the twentieth anniversary of Bhopal tragedy approached the Yes Men launched a website, dowethics.com, which caught the attention of the BBC who contacted them, thinking they were representatives from Dow, and asked for a statement. What the BBC got was more than they could have hoped for, Andy posing as a Dow executive goes on television and promises more than 12 billion dollars in reparations. The story runs twice on BBC and garners international headlines before anyone realizes that Andy is not in fact an employee of Dow.

Not all of the Yes Men’s actions are as innately serious as their work on behalf of the people Bhopal. Much of the work they do is not just outrageous but costumed as well. In one instance they pose as representatives of Halliburton and present a conference with the Halliburton SurvivaBalls™ which you can see on their faux Halliburton website http://theyesmen.org/agribusiness/halliburton/index.html or http://www.survivaball.com/. And then there is the gold manager’s leisure suite with its giant TV topped phallus which was presented under a breakaway suit as Andy and Mike masqueraded as members of the WTO.

The documentaries that the Yes Men make are a circus of the absurd. Not only do they not get arrested but they are invited back places. People try and order SurvivaBalls and applaud the leisure suit. It’s a little terrifying.

Yes Men: Extra Credit (Phillip Nguyen)

The movie is about two men named Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno (the Yes Men) who posed as corporate executives from companies starting with Dow Chemical, to Exxon and Halliburton. The whole movie was a pretty funny documentary, with both guys sharing their methods of spreading awareness of corporate greed, and pointing out the problems those major corporations have caused that relate to climate change or global disasters. The movie started out with Andy and Mike's successful prank on Dow Chemical by posing as executives from the corporation on the BBC network, that eventually lead to Dow Chemical to lose over two-billion dollars in less than 23 minutes after the prank aired on TV. The prank related to the Dow's lack of responsibility to take care of the gas leak disaster in 1984 that lead to the deaths of thousands of people in Bhopal.

In their prank posing as representatives of Halliburton, the Yes Men introduced the 'Survivaball' a ball designed to "protect the corporate manager no matter what Mother Nature throws his or her way". The things that the Survivaball could protect one from are the results from climate change/global warming such as hurricanes, tornados, floods, etc. According to the features that were presented (and also on the Survivaball website), the Survivaball offers the person wearing it protection, nutrition, food, water, power, and more! The way it relates to the body is that it offers the body a shield to survive any natural catastrophe all in one big costume/body extension.

here are some screenshots i took from the movie off my computer:

Extra Credit (Monday Night Lecture)

Kristan Kennedy

- by Kayla NG

I attended on Kennedy's lecture at PSU last month but didn't have a chance to share on the blog, but now I post some of the lecture's information in order to give you guys a chance to experience Kristan Kennedy's presentation.

Kristan Kennedy is a graduate of the New York State College of Art and Design at Alfred University and is an exhibiting artist represented by the Elizabeth Leach Gallery in Portland, Oregon. Kennedy is the visual arts program director of the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA). She has been a fantastic supporter of the arts in Portland and was responsible for curating the Social Practice MFA group into the Time Based Arts Festival. Throughout Kennedy's life, she worked with with variety of artists, involving different people.

At first she show us a video of Frank Stella, 1972 - "This is the year I was born".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN_rRCfRdmQ&feature=player_embedded

Above is a video of Frank Stella that Kennedy showed us ... and this is his artwork

She had a pictorial energy and control, young ideas about art as well. Her first experience is that the artist doesn't make what they show.

Her mother was the first person put pen on her hands, and she learned from her mom and was inspired by the paintings her mom made, for example, the seagulls.

Kennedy showed some old pictures from her childhood, as she described "Me on the rock, befriending the inanimate". In addition, she claimed that her dad had contribute to her artistic life, and that she learned to feel from her dad, either her sister and brothers are artists. Her dad made his first sculpture after going to DIA Beacon, declaring that he was a minimalist. Moreover, she mentioned about the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi vs. Jesus Christ. After that, she showed us her family's bookshelf, Future Shock, Radical Child Hearing, e.e cummings.

She was really excited when she saw a cement turtle in the park she passed by. [pic]

Kennedy was attracted and inspired by the Kimono and the Foot painting. Because of it, she made her paintings based on gesture from Japanese paintings.

She moved to Portland in 1995. She started at PICA as a volunteer and joined the Board of Trustees in 2002, before transitioning onto the staff in 2003. One of her exhibition was the US hotdog. Kennedy used to help running visual program, until 2005, she moved position and became Visual Art Program Director.

The turning point of her life was when she had cancer, everything had changed as well as her personal philosophy. After this incident, her painting was looked at as sadness and dark. However, after the operation, the space in her painting started to change.

P/S: Pictures above were taken by me from that lecture day, unfortunately that I just took a few, the rest of Kennedy's pictures were also very interesting.

'Shadow Near Shattuck': Documentation

I saw this site on my way outside of Shattuck after my Art History class, I thought it was a perfect place to do it with all the moss on the ground to help bring out the color of the black leaves.

The leaves were flattened so they would be easier to paint.

lots of painted twigs that I ended up not using.

Tree Face

studio assignment #5

typical scourge suspended in contrapposto with bilious luminescence flanking subsoil of the grave

i really should have photo documented the entire process. me hunched over in the grave gagging from the odor of the preserves would be something to see. all i have is the cramping recollection.

appendix to above post

Rainbow Spiderweb of Joy

My project ("the rainbow spiderweb of awesomeness (not intended to relate to gay rights (but not against it either)") was created with 9 different colors of thread, 5 tubes of Elmers super glue, and 10-12 hours of time.
Process:
For the smaller circular spider web I had to measure the trees "V" shape with thread at all of the points where the spider web would connect to the tree. With the measured thread I taped the pieces to my floor in the trapezoid in which they were intended, taped 14 pieces of thread in a rainbow, each laying across one another to form a * type figure, and started laying the swirl over the taped thread (at first super gluing then later knotting).

For the larger triangular spiderweb I taped 12 pieces of thread to the wall and spread them to the floor as far as they could reach one by one. Then started knotting the thread strand by strand to droop in the way I intended. (Here are two different views in light and in dark)

In order to tie the horizontal pieces onto the web as efficiently as possible I needed to get onto my roommates bed, climb onto the window sill, and hop to the floor in order to get under the web.






This is the final product, the chosen tree, and my friend Josh who I thanked a million times for helping me the morning of the critique for an hour in the freezing cold when he could have been sleeping.
Overall:
I really enjoyed making the webs as time consuming as it may have been, and although I had my usual little bits of criticism, overall I think the end product came out really well and now it resides on my window.

Pedestrian Web

Here are the photos I took of my project, 5min before class! I was originally going to wait until the critique to take my pictures, but I'm glad I didn't.
I'm probably repeating myself, but I wasn't mad that it was ripped down (I expected someone would sooner or later). I just didn't expect it to only last 15min.

It is interesting how worked up some people will get over something they don't understand, is different from the norm, or interferes with their routine. It's also disheartening that someone would cut it down and throw it away especially after noticing that some effort went into making it and hanging it up. Personally I wouldn't destroy someone else's work. Now if it had been there for hours or even days I could see tearing it down. The entire project was definitely a learning experience.

pine cone