Theater Around The Bay: Untitled For Your Protection

I only just met Phil Huang in April while facilitating a panel on “Offensive Theatre” for TBA. Phil is a trip- super smart, super concerned about the world, super unconcerned with your opinion of him- which is as refreshing as you’d expected it to be. He first published these thoughts on his particular brand of performance art back in January of 2011, but in that way that Facebook has of occasionally spitting up the bones of the past, it recently resurfaced and instigated some more interesting conversation on Facebook. I asked Phil if we could republish it here for our readers and he consented, despite being semi-retired and fairly certain he wouldn’t write this list as is today (note he did update it, however, to include a reference to me). Still, I think he raises some amazing points here. Let us know what you think!

Recently, a number of people have talked to me about the offensive nature of my work. What’s the point of shocking people? What good does it do? It’s just juvenile. It’s not art. Art is supposed to have substance. Art is supposed to heal and bring us together and stimulate thought. You’re no better than Rush Limbaugh. You’re just hurting people. If you’re not careful, you won’t have a career in the arts.

This got me thinking about my work specifically, queer art in general, and obscene/offensive art in total. Here are my thoughts:

* My queer ancestor, Leigh Bowery, said he only asks himself one question when he makes work: Where’s the poison?

* Queer artists are here to end the world as we know it. We’re here to be the monsters they say we are. And they should be scared.

* There’s a difference between offending people and hurting people. I’m out to shock and offend you, but I’m not out to hurt you. You have not been victimized by my work. You do not need to be protected from my work. As Keith Hennessy says, “Safe space…continues to frame us all as victims or potential victims in need of protection. And victims are always justified in excluding others, or Others. Safe space is the ideology that supports the prison industrial complex.”

* The bible is an object. Objects do not have fixed meanings. I am defiling what the bible means to me, not what it means to you.

* I don’t give a shit if I have a career in the arts. Bust my ass and play nice so I can beg for a $2,000 grant and do some shitty 3mo residency for $500? No thanks.

* I don’t need to be more sensitive or careful about what I do. Your feelings are your responsibility.

* Lydia Lunch said she used to scream obscenities at her audience until half of it left, separating those merely seeking entertainment from those who will fucking die without her work.

* If your only intent as an artist is to bring healing, your work probably sucks. Conversely, to paraphrase Stuart Bousel, if your only intent is to shock and offend, your work probably also sucks. But you’d be more fun to make out with.

* If you’re a curator, have faith in the intelligence of the audience. You don’t have to pre-chew their food for them.

* Offensive art starts conversations. The avoidance of offensive art does not. Once the worst thing has been said or depicted, the rest is easy.

* To paraphrase Kirk Read, the true evil in the world is fearful, well-meaning people.

* Art never needs to explain or defend itself. Art does not need a reason to exist. Art has no obligation to heal.

* I never said what I do is art.

Is what Phil does art? Find out more at http://hickeysushi.blogspot.com.

Working Title: Social Gravity

This week Will sets aside his regular juxtaposition of theatre and film to look at his invigorating experience at this years Theatre Bay Area Conference.

There is a key concept of Big Bang Cosmology that states that space is ever expanding and doing so at an accelerating rate. Its called the metric expansion of space. Think of it as the entire scale of the universe growing larger. Every space between the clumps of galaxies getting bigger. As space expands all the celestial gatherings who once were close to each other will grow further and further from one another given enough time. Picture our own Milky Way Galaxy and as the entirety of the space around us increases we drift and settle into compact isolation as the eons roll by. Sometimes I feel that growing further into adulthood has this effect.

It feels like a law of nature or a fact of life and therefore isn’t something that you can get overtly angry about. People grow up, leave home, leave school, leave jobs, start a new life, start a new relationship, start a new family, change communities, change paths, change all the time. Its hard to get mad at a clock for ticking. Yet, it is something that can induce pensive thoughts of times gone by. Or aspects of our lives that we have let drift. Two weeks ago I attended the annual Theatre Bay Area Conference and was struck with an overwhelming sense of how much I miss being more closely entwined with the theatre community in the Bay Area.

For almost a year now, I’ve held a job that regularly works it’s employees 55-70 hours a week. Additionally, only a day to day schedule is provided which all but dashes any kind of plan making. It’s hard to plan a sleeping schedule, let alone plan any theatre involvement. It wears on you. it grinds constantly. On the flip side of that coin, I experienced a rejuvenation by spending mere hours in the company of creative individuals who were passionate and excited about the state of Bay Area theatre today.

The first break out session I attended, Slapping the Monkey: Offensive Theatre, was uniformly funny, challenging, thought-provoking and at times borderline-offensive. The panel was damn fun! It was great to be back in a space where artists of varying kinds (street performers, puppeteers, writers, directors, company artistic directors) flooded the audience with their ideas of creative currency. These discussions filled the time with value. Their myriad opinions of what qualifies as offensive theatre ran the gamut. “Lazy Theatre is offensive” / “Audiences who put up with shitty, sub-standard theatre are offensive. Those audiences offend me as an artist!” / “Street performance by nature is offensive…that’s why I do it.” / “I’ve never been offended by something I thought was good.” This was the kind of discussion that makes you feel glad to be a part of something. Participants and audience members alike were active and engaged with ideas: boundaries of offense, how that relates to good theatre, what goes too far, how much does intent play into offensive, is an artist responsible for the audience reaction, tactics to keep audiences engaged, tactics to offend, the list went on. All in attendance took part in an active discussion of how these things impacted the living organism of Bay Area theatre and us as a community.

It’s was nice to be reminded that we are all working in this community along side each other and not drifting alone out there. I filled the rest of the day by performing a few readings in the playwright workshop, having lunch with a sizable group of enjoyable friends and seeing the closing ceremonies / Glickman Award presentation. To my astounding pleasure, I also stole 20 minutes to audition for a play being produced this fall. It has been an age since I took the time to audition. Going through the motions of adult living has at times made me feel akin to a narcoleptic zombie, half asleep and dead inside. And one day of TBA events served to remind how good it is to feel active and alive. Regardless of how natural it is to drift away from things into adulthood, the only thing that keeps things bound together and of importance to each other is diligence and constant joyous effort. Instead of forever drifting into isolation, I think it’s time to fight towards social gravity and a community that pulls creativity together.