Organ-machine Hybrids > – Pig Bladder-clouds in Reno, NV

Description

The Pig Bladder-clouds project was shown in Prospectives.09 -International Digital Arts Festival, hosted by Professor Joseph DeLappe at the University of Nevada Reno, November 12th 2009.

The flying bladders sculptures’ synchronous movements within natural air current looked like moving clouds and visually referenced Andy Warhol’s Silver Clouds [1966]. The three performers, wearing costumes as an inspector and two butchers, create a parade in downtown Reno, Nevada after the assembly and installation performances with the flying sculptures at the UNR campus.


Background

The project explored different harmonies between nature and man-made objects in which the natural air current controls the movement of the artificial hybrid. While Andy Warhol experimented in his Silver Clouds [1966], helium-filled silver pillows’ movements were created from many electronic fans. Pig Bladder-clouds’ movement by contrast, is subject to natural air currents, a characteristic that embodied the “lower” animals because they are at the mercy of their environments.

There were many paradoxes in the performance with Pig Bladder-clouds. Religious music by the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov played loudly throughout the assembly and installation performance. The Orthodox Church music represents and creates a sense of the “high class” and a place of dignity, absolutism, and traditional customs. On the contrary, the butcher costume and the tools in the context of the public-place represent “low-class”, silliness, killing and destroying. There was also irony here, because the H1N1 flu was a very hot issue when the piece was performed and this flu strain from pigs provided a scary, yet seemingly forgotten context for people to see and associate with the bladders of the work.

The strange juxtaposition of the parading butchers with flying animal organs in front of the public casino places raised many questions about interaction with viewers, the boundary between high-class art and popular culture, and the boundary between seriousness and fun in art.


Cast

Director:
Doo Sung Yoo

Performance:
Doo Sung Yoo
John Cairns
Nikki Davis

Still Camera:
Justin Luna

Production Manager:
Joseph DeLappe, Associate Professor
The Department of Art
University of Nevada, Reno
Chair, Festival Director for Prospectives09
November 12 — December 16, 2009

Editor:
Doo Sung Yoo

Set Design:
Jeffrey Erickson

Video Camera:
Audrey Love
Justin Luna

Sound Engineer:
Doo Sung Yoo

Lighting Technician:
Jeffrey Erickson
Doo Sung Yoo