Post-Post-Apocalypse: Ruins Photo Recap

Last Thursday’s Ruins performance was awesome. A ton of people came by, and folks were beyond supportive, getting all involved, wearing Edith’s gorilla suits, engaging with the work, the whole shebang.  My evening was made by the appearance of one of San Pedro’s most active lunatics, an apocalyptically-minded conspiracy theorist who goes to public meetings and says all kinds of awesomely incoherent things.  More on him and his “literature” in a later post…

The best part of doing this kind of work is the interaction between the guests (secondary participants) and the artists (primary participants).  This kind of action seems to level the playing field and create a sphere for mutli-polar dialogue.  There are moments where the roles seem to shift and reverse and as an artist, you suddenly feel like you’re the supporting character and the guest is taking the lead, and it’s great – you get more than you give, and the unexpected produces moments you could never either imagine or realize on your own.

Let’s let the pictures tell the story. If you’d rather skip right to the photos, Post-Post-Apocalypse has a Flickr set where all photos shall be forever kept. Most of the performance photos below were taken by either Staci Gabrielli or Nicholas Klemek who were kind enough to manhandle my camera for the ever important documentation.

Above – The Ruins.  That stack of lit lumber is our ruin, a pile of source material and opportunity for the project.  That’s a mattress at the top.  Edith made the arrangement – I thought it looked like a funeral pyre, a lot of the viewers said it made them think of The Princess and the Pea.

Above – Edith also has been making flasks from slip casts of stones.

Above – Edith’s gorilla suits.  The gorilla image comes from dunnage bags that Edith has been pulling out of the trash at The Loft.  The Loft shares part of its building with a ship chandler, who breaks down freight.  Dunnage bags are giant inflatable pillows used to cushion freight in containers and box trucks.  The Gorilla Bag in is made by Centerload.

Above – My Mayan Calendar Riff painting.  I really, really like this one.  There are at least two different versions of this calendar that I want to do future paintings based on.  I’d also like to do a version that captures the intensity of detail in the original, as this one is broken down to appear more logo-like. Big thanks to Michele Hubacek and Nicholas Klemek for helping me knock out this painting.

Above – You’re lucky we gave you anything.  Apparently visitors don’t like to chow down on canned food from the 99 Cent Store.  We will see how picky you are when the bombs start falling.  No one even went for the delicious tangerine.  I thought maybe someone would have hit up the mixed fruit, or at least taken the Gravy Train home to their dog.  People did eat some of the candy, though.

Above – On to the performance/action. That’s Richard Hall in the Gorilla suit. He was the first gorilla of the evening, and he was the best. No one can top Richard when it comes to gorilla-ing it up. He belongs in the zoo.

Above – Betsy Lohrer-Hall was a dancing Gorilla.

Above – I started cycling while Edith was finishing getting ready. Once I was in the saddle, there was no leaving.

Above – Edith, in her white gorilla suit, arrives via freight elevator. Until this moment I hadn’t seen her costume in its entirety, and it was simultaneously hilarious and awesome. It’s hard for her to see, so she has her gorilla head up.

Above – 6PM, at the beginning of the performance. I bicycled in place and Edith walked around in her white gorilla costume until 9 PM, marking our symbolic exodus from civilization and “the world”, following some nameless, fictional apocalyptic event. The projection behind us is something I cooked up on the computer, originally a 5 minute film of clouds rapidly moving across a full moon, that after some effects were added, became a bad 1970′s sci-fi sky. A lot of people thought that it looked like a comet moving, which is great – comet impact is the most mysterious and possibly romantic of all apocalypses.

Above – Edith walking around. Everybody kept circling her to try and read the text on her skirt. I’ll have to get the full text of the quote to put up here.

Above – Pretty far into the performance, in my burnt shirt. I threw one of my shirts on the BBQ for a bit to ruin it. I thought it went to far, that it was too reduced, but I think it ultimately worked. You can see the colour difference where my whole shirt is soaked with sweat.  I’m probably very tired here. Even though I was working really hard and sweating, I did not envy Edith in her gorilla suit – that thing looked like a sweatbox.

Above – More gorillas. That’s Danial Nord and Michael Davis in gorilla suits. Michael is wearing his hat. Jan Govearts and Sam Arno, Loft artists, are looking on at right.

Above – Face paint and greasy hair. Yeah, I like Bladerunner too, I know, I know. My hair is greased with bacon grease and ashes.

Above – Edith gives a ta da! at the end of the performance.

Above – I do a Hulkamaina-style shirt rip at the end. I didn’t know what else to do. I’m probably going to repair the shirt and keep using it during the project.  Oh, and marvel at my awesome gut in my Mossy Oak pattern, Under Armour compression shirt.  I bought that a while ago, in a moment of “Amazon gift certificate, hillbilly must have”, but hadn’t found the opportunty to wear it yet.

Thanks again to everyone who came, and to everyone who has assisted in making this project possible so far. Structural lumber for Survival, the house-building phase of the project, arrives later this week, more to come.

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