Bread and Puppet

Sept 18, 2009
Johnson, Vermont

Lily, Whitney, Jacqueline and I ventured into the NorthEast Kingdom today to pay homage and a visit to our magical darling Peter Schumann, a man who looks like he walked out of a fairytale. Peter Schumann is the founder and director of the Bread and Puppet Theater. The Bread and Puppet Theater is a politically radical puppet theater (with puppets made out of paper mache) active since the 1960's. Peter and a few troop members came to the Studio Center last week and graced us with a performance.

Ever since I first laid eyes on Peter Schumann at lunch last Saturday, I have been enamored and fascinated by him. During last Saturday's performance, Peter performed a "sermon" about the paper mache religion and I maybe heard 5 sentences out of the entire sermon. I could not take my eyes off of Peter, words lost meaning and only his presence mattered.

The Bread and Puppet Museum is a 3 story barn that houses all the paper mache puppets from shows that has been retired. What is inside the barn is INCREDIBLE! Peter came out and chatted with us for a little while and showed us the Paper Mache Theater with the Dirt Floor Cathedral. A barn that has been turned into a theater space with all the walls and ceiling covered in paper mache figures and drawings. Birds and chipmunks reside in the paper mache theater along with all the magic that Peter conjures.

The experience of this visit left all of us speechless. Please excuse the lack of grace this blog entry has as I have been struggling for hours trying to describe what we witnessed today in that 3 story barn. Words are insufficient, or maybe I simply lack the grace and skill to wrangle that magical magnificence we experience in that 2 hours into paragraphs that makes sense. What can be put into words is that there is a 3 story barn and it is filled with paper mache puppets. The puppets were used for political protest and performance and some of the puppets are 10 feet tall. What those sentences do not convey is the beauty and depth that has been expressed in these puppets, in the art that Peter and The Bread and Puppet Theater created.

Before we went out to the NorthEast Kingdom today, Whitney has asked me to justify why I am so fascinated and set on (even before I meet Peter) going to the Bread and Puppet theater. Whitney had though that the puppets were made of bread (which would have been awesome) and after discovering that the puppets are not made of bread, she demanded that I back up my interest. I am fascinated because I love puppetry. I am fascinate because paper mache is such a simple material, played with mostly by children, not "serious" art material used by "serious" artists. To have an entire museum filled with nothing but paper mache puppets, what is not interesting about that?

So much anguish and injustice are expressed in the puppets. So much beauty, longing and desire for equality and a better world is told through the puppets. The form so simple. The materials basic and cheap. Yet the artistry that the puppets are made with, the expression...In that barn, I was offered beauty that broke my heart. I am humbled. All of us were brought to our knees. All of this desire for something more, equality, justice, even perhaps revolution, in contrast with Peter. Oh, Peter, a man who is filled with joy and magic. He is beautiful. You look at him and you do not experience the anger and outrage he must feel towards US government, US foreign policy, or the injustice and inequality that he protests against in this world. All you feel is wonderment and magic. This contradiction, this beauty, this dedication to something that he profoundly believes in and has dedicated his life to ...

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This is the Bread and Puppet philosophy:

We give you a piece of bread with the puppet show because our bread and theater belong together. For a long time the theater arts have been separated from the stomach. Theater was entertainment. Entertainment was meant for the skin. Bread was meant for the stomach. The old rite of baking, eating and offering bread were forgotten. The bread decay and became mush. We would like you to take your shoes off when you come to our puppet show or we would like to bless you with the fiddle bow. The bread shall remind you of the sacrament of eating.

We want you to understand that theater is not yet an established form, not the place of commerce you think it is, where you pay to get something. Theater is different. It is more like bread, more like a necessity. Theater is a form of religion. It preaches sermons and builds a self-sufficient ritual. Puppet theater is the theater of all means. Puppet and masks should be played in the street. They are louder than the traffic. They don't teach problems, but they scream and dance and display life in its clearest terms. Puppet theater is of action rather than of dialogue. The action is reduced to the simplest dance like complicated body of many heads, hand, rods and fabric.

We have two types of puppet shows: good ones and bad ones, but all of them are for good and against evil.

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Peter is about to take leave of us so we may wonder through the museum at our leisure. He says good bye to Lily, Whitney and Jacqueline. I am on my knees rummaging through my backpack for another battery for my camera, I stuck my hand out to shake his, Peter take my hand and give me a kiss on the cheek. I am flattered. I was the only one he kissed. As I think back on that moment I realize it was out of a fairytale. I was on one knee, paying respect to a magical man, and this man with a magical tappy soul who I have been in love with since last week, graced me with a kiss and maybe (I hope) left me with bit of magic.

Obamaissance

By Mr. Brainwash

Jan 22, 2009
Los Angeles, CA

Finally, we have entered a new era...(phew...I was afraid that this day would never come. As I was watching the inauguration, I had the freighting thought of "what if this was inauguration for McCann / Palin instead? thank god its not!) Now with our new President comfortably seated in the White House, I started to think about the iconic image of Obama by Shepard Fairy that was an essential part of the campaign. I don't recall any other election where art, especially street art, was such an integral part to the mythology of the man. The art branded Obama's face into our minds, and made us believe that he is hope, and with that, there can be hope. I hope this will be a renaissance for art, culture, faith, responsibility and basic human decency. I don't ever want to hear another argument about how art is not essential, that is not as powerful as policy. Art helped changed the world. The proof is in the White House.

A Generation of Thieves

Nov 14, 2008
Los Angeles, Ca

I had a discussion with a friend of mine via IM yesterday about Intellectual Property and its applicable laws protecting it. Then last night, as I was slugging my way through The New Yorker, I noted a book that is mentioned in the "Briefly Noted" section of the magazine.

The book is called "Remix" by Lawrence Lessig,
"As Lessig, a law professor at Stanford, sees it, if intellectual-property law is left as it is an entire generation will be criminalized. He argues that the ways in which young people break copyright laws help them to become the sort of people we want them to be—creative and collaborative. Kids today are simply not going to give up downloading music and using copyrighted material in YouTube videos: they belong to a culture for which “remix” is “the essential art.” Lessig’s proposals for revising copyright are compelling, because they rethink intellectual-property rights without abandoning them. He argues that hybrids that combine the “commercial and sharing” economies can create value for both sides (as Harry Potter fan sites and Lostpedia have done); indeed, one problem is media companies’ appropriating the work of fans without returning the favor. “When both benefit,” Lessig writes, “how do we say who is riding for free?”

I believe that as artists and creators we should be able to benefit from the "art" that which we create. After all, this choice of a life is a gamble, there is no guarantee that you will ever be successful, or even be able to pay your rent in the life time in which you spent creating the "art." But I think certain amount of content should be available for "free" for other users to amend, absorb and repatriate into something new, even if the new "art" is unlike the original at all. Which brings to mind the Creative Commons model and or how NIN offers tracks of their songs for download without charge online and you can remix and re post to be shared by other fans.

As I wonder about this model of "collective creating" and how I could incorporate it into my life as an artist - slightly difficult since my primary medium is rather "fixed" - I came up with an idea. What if a collaborative process was offered, I could either provide digital files of a selection of images, or actual prints, and a small group of artists (working in both photography and other mediums) utilized the "base" in which I have provided and do what they will to it. Then we will have collectively created something new.

But here is where the sticking point in Intellectual Property Law begins - who would own that piece of new art that is created? Or do all participating artists goes into this with the agreement that we are all owners of the new art?

Does the idea of "ownership" only truly matters when there is a perceived value for the "object"?

Art does have value. Radiohead proved that the fan will pay for the music by independently releasing their last album with the "pay what you will" system. NIN gave away its latest album for free online - Trent Reznor said "This one is on me!" I paid for the Radiohead album because I wanted to be heard that art has value. I happily accepted Trent's download and respected him all the more for acknowledging the fans who have supported him for nearly 20 years.

Is it the corporation in between who will rake in the largest profits from our angst and demented dreams that we have a problem with then?

I don't have the answers to any of these questions. But I am excited about the idea of "collectively creating," think I will buy Lessig's book and see his opinion on IP laws, and believe that the more we give the more we will be given in return.

Lights in the Sky

Sept 6, 2008
Los Angeles, CA

We saw NIN tonight perform at the Forum. I have been a long time Nails fan, as some would say, his angst is my angst...

Attending this show, my expectation was difficult. I really wanted to see them but the timing was inconvenient as I have friends in town tonight and we have the opening reception for my show tomorrow. There is a lot going on. But regardless, I made time and we went. I really had anticipated for this just to be another rock concert. Some light moving about ( I was trained as a lighting designer), some haze, some video projections, the band performs some new materials from the new albums, then we are done. What I was not ready for, was to be surprised! I was not ready for my passion to be fueled and desire to create change to be awakened.

Trent Reznor has integrated multi-media into his show so well, that it really has become a live art piece, much more than just a rock concert with some multi-media elements. For the first time in nearly 10 years, I looked at the lighting rig and all that was happening and wished that I had taken a part in the creation of this show. I am not doing justice in describing everything that went on here and if there is every a DVD of this tour, I highly recommand that you check it out.

NIN utilized the multi-media and lighting to challenge your sense of space and depth as well as to enhance the message they had in their music. They pull no punches (which I loved!). For "The Hand that Feeds" - there was an image of George W Bush in the background, about 2/3 way through the song, W morphed into an image of John McCaine. For those of you who are not familiar with the song and lyrics, here is part of the lyrics:

You're keeping in step
In the line
Got your chin held high and you feel just fine
Because you do
What you're told
But inside your heart it is black and it's hollow and it's cold

Just how deep do you believe?
Will you bite the hand that feeds?
Will you chew until it bleeds?
Can you get up off your knees?
Are you brave enough to see?
Do you want to change it?

What if this whole crusade's
A charade
And behind it all there's a price to be paid
For the blood
On which we dine
Justified in the name of the holy and the divine

Yes!!! Art should be used as weapons against the unreasonable, the unjust, the tyranny. It should always provoke and awaken and not be passive and pleasant.

Art is Resistance!