{"id":571,"date":"2008-10-08T18:36:20","date_gmt":"2008-10-09T01:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp\/2008\/10\/performance_art_for_the_palin\/"},"modified":"2008-10-08T18:36:20","modified_gmt":"2008-10-09T01:36:20","slug":"performance_art_for_the_palin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/2008\/10\/performance_art_for_the_palin.html","title":{"rendered":"Ann Liv Young: performance artist for the Palin moment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta name=\"ProgId\" content=\"Word.Document\"><meta name=\"Generator\" content=\"Microsoft Word 11\"><meta name=\"Originator\" content=\"Microsoft Word 11\"><link rel=\"File-List\" href=\"file:\/\/\/C:%5CUsers%5CUser%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml\"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>\n<w:WordDocument>\n<w:View>Normal<\/w:View>\n<w:Zoom>0<\/w:Zoom>\n<w:PunctuationKerning\/>\n<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas\/>\n<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false<\/w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>\n<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false<\/w:IgnoreMixedContent>\n<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false<\/w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>\n<w:Compatibility>\n<w:BreakWrappedTables\/>\n<w:SnapToGridInCell\/>\n<w:WrapTextWithPunct\/>\n<w:UseAsianBreakRules\/>\n<w:DontGrowAutofit\/>\n<\/w:Compatibility>\n<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4<\/w:BrowserLevel>\n<\/w:WordDocument>\n<\/xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>\n<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState=\"false\" LatentStyleCount=\"156\">\n<\/w:LatentStyles>\n<\/xml><![endif]--><\/p>\n<style>\n<!--\n\/* Font Definitions *\/\n@font-face\n{font-family:Georgia;\npanose-1:2 4 5 2 5 4 5 2 3 3;\nmso-font-charset:0;\nmso-generic-font-family:roman;\nmso-font-pitch:variable;\nmso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;}\n@font-face\n{font-family:Perpetua;\npanose-1:2 2 5 2 6 4 1 2 3 3;\nmso-font-charset:0;\nmso-generic-font-family:roman;\nmso-font-pitch:variable;\nmso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}\n\/* Style Definitions *\/\np.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal\n{mso-style-parent:\"\";\nmargin:0in;\nmargin-bottom:.0001pt;\nmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\nfont-size:12.0pt;\nfont-family:\"Times New Roman\";\nmso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";}\np.MsoHeader, li.MsoHeader, div.MsoHeader\n{margin:0in;\nmargin-bottom:.0001pt;\nmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\ntab-stops:center 3.0in right 6.0in;\nfont-size:12.0pt;\nfont-family:\"Times New Roman\";\nmso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";}\na:link, span.MsoHyperlink\n{color:blue;\ntext-decoration:underline;\ntext-underline:single;}\na:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed\n{color:purple;\ntext-decoration:underline;\ntext-underline:single;}\np\n{mso-margin-top-alt:auto;\nmargin-right:0in;\nmso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;\nmargin-left:0in;\nmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\nfont-size:12.0pt;\nfont-family:\"Times New Roman\";\nmso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";}\n@page Section1\n{size:8.5in 11.0in;\nmargin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;\nmso-header-margin:.5in;\nmso-footer-margin:.5in;\nmso-paper-source:0;}\ndiv.Section1\n{page:Section1;}\n-->\n<\/style>\n<p><!--[if gte mso 10]>\n\n\n<style>\n\/* Style Definitions *\/\ntable.MsoNormalTable\n{mso-style-name:\"Table Normal\";\nmso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;\nmso-tstyle-colband-size:0;\nmso-style-noshow:yes;\nmso-style-parent:\"\";\nmso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;\nmso-para-margin:0in;\nmso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;\nmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\nfont-size:10.0pt;\nfont-family:\"Times New Roman\";\nmso-ansi-language:#0400;\nmso-fareast-language:#0400;\nmso-bidi-language:#0400;}\n<\/style>\n\n\n<![endif]--><font style=\"font-size: 1em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">Recently at <a href=\"http:\/\/slate.com\/\">Slate<\/a>, it flashed on writer Meghan O&#8217;Rourke what &#8220;dark literary doppelganger&#8221; <\/span><\/font><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">Sarah Palin&#8211;&#8220;with her bright<br \/>\nsmile, her folksy-corporate style, and her Silly Puttied authenticity, which<br \/>\nmirrors back at the viewer whatever talking point she&#8217;s just absorbed&#8221;&#8211;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/blogs\/blogs\/xxfactor\/archive\/2008\/10\/03\/d-oh-that-s-who-sarah-palin-reminds-me-of.aspx\">reminded<br \/>\nher of<\/a>:<span style=\"\">&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font style=\"font-size: 1em;\"><br \/><\/font><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">a character in a&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/CivilWarLand-Bad-Decline-George-Saunders\/dp\/1573225797\/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1223012093&amp;sr=8-1\"><span style=\"color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;\">George<br \/>\nSaunders<\/span><\/a>&nbsp;story&#8230; trapped in the American Dream<sup>TM<\/sup>. [Saunders&#8217;]<br \/>\nworkers at theme parks or Hooters-style restaurants, mummified in<br \/>\ncorporate-sponsored &#8220;flair,&#8221; speak in her same style of substanceless<br \/>\nperk&#8211;the language of cute-can-do-ism that&#8217;s exploited by companies to lull<br \/>\nworkers into taking pleasure in how much of their time is given over to the<br \/>\nbusiness of being an employee. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">Palin speak, like the<br \/>\nsettings it&#8217;s lifted from, is pure loop-the-loop insularity, without origin or<br \/>\naim. Which means, paradoxically, that it&#8217;s always throwing us into a state of<br \/>\nd\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, not quite bringing to mind where we&#8217;ve seen this proud hoosier<br \/>\nknownothingness before, or the backbiting bitchery (was it only &#8220;Melrose Place&#8221;?),<br \/>\nor the singsong cadences (&#8220;Romper Room&#8221;?). When commentators get bent out of<br \/>\nshape over the governor&#8217;s unreliable syntax, I think they&#8217;re also picking up on the general<br \/>\ndrift of her&#8211;that she&#8217;s a senseless homogenization of a motley of attitudes that put a<br \/>\npremium on authenticity while being entirely manufactured (and for precise political purposes).<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">Palin&#8217;s aura of ersatz is part<br \/>\nof her sexiness&#8211;and if you don&#8217;t believe she&#8217;s got allure, you should have<br \/>\nseen the men&#8217;s dials at CNN during the V.P. debate every time the camera zoomed in on her. Her words are to her mind like big breasts are to a small body: they don&#8217;t seem to entirely belong to it. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">That&#8217;s also the voodoo magic that Ann Liv Young channels in &#8220;The Bagwell in Me,&#8221; in <\/span><\/font><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">which the love triangle usually associated with Thomas Jefferson is now superglued to our<br \/>\nfirst president, George Washington. <br \/><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><br \/><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">At <\/span><\/font><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/thekitchen.org\/\">The Kitchen<\/a> last week, Young played George as well as his wife, Martha; Isabel<br \/>\nLewis, in brownface, did honors as Oney, their slave; and Michael Guerrero, real-life fianc\u00e9<br \/>\nto Young, served as all-purpose handyman (shades of &#8220;The Blue Angel&#8221;). <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">The corporate spirit of<br \/>\nPalin&#8217;s winkiness doesn&#8217;t preside over &#8220;Bagwell&#8221;: the props and costumes are plasticky in a lumpen, not an institutional, way, and the patchwork of borrowings is aboveboard. The script, read<br \/>\nfrom papers sticky with fluids regularly spilled over the stage, is resolutely<br \/>\namateurish, slip-slopping from one style to another. The set is grotty. Most<br \/>\nof the tunes to which Young and Lewis bump and grind are borrowed from top-ten radio (when there<br \/>\nwas top-ten radio). The sex scenes involve common porno stunts. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><br \/><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">Where Young&#8217;s Teflon<br \/>\nslipperiness arises from <\/span><\/font><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">is <\/span><\/font><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">the story itself, which is also where the surprise<br \/>\nis: you realize you know this story&#8211;even in the ridiculous form she&#8217;s given it.<br \/>\nYou can&#8217;t say how you know it, and she never tells you, probably because she doesn&#8217;t know, either. It&#8217;s just in the air, like the flu. <br \/><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><br \/><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">But then, improbably, she drives this heavy cloud of racist-sexist fantasies to an absurd and logical end. She leaves nothing to the<br \/>\nimagination. She obliterates the imagination&#8211;and sanctimony with it. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">For example, the way Martha punishes<br \/>\nOney for having an affair&#8211;and baby&#8211;with George is to suck her twat while Oney, in skimpy thong, stands and delivers a rap tune. Martha sings the chorus<br \/>\nbetween gulps. <br \/><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><br \/><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">In case we were wondering if Young really is working down<br \/>\nthere, Guerrero trains a minuscule camera between Lewis&#8217;s legs, so the scene is<br \/>\npresented front as well as back and underneath&#8211;in the flesh as well as on live video. No more wondering. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">Young never steps out of her<br \/>\ndumb, beautiful, bossy, and utterly unself-conscious stage persona, and I<br \/>\nthink that&#8217;s part of why she infuriates as many people as she excites. People want<br \/>\na sign that she knows how annoyingly amateurish she is, how much her tap<br \/>\ndancing sucks, how her singing is only accidentally good and if she didn&#8217;t look so innocently<br \/>\npretty&#8211;which is an accident, too&#8211;none of this would work. Most of all, they<br \/>\nwant to be reassured that she&#8217;s not stumbling through a minefield of history<br \/>\nwithout at least recognizing that it&#8217;s a minefield. She offers no such<br \/>\nreassurance. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">She does the show as if a skinflint impresario had recruited her that afternoon and said, &#8220;Okay, babe, this is what you got to do: Go<br \/>\nout there and sing along to the song. Swing your tits around, and do the splits,<br \/>\nand wiggle your ass in a few middle-aged men&#8217;s faces. Then read this script.<br \/>\nWhen it says, MARTHA, put on the Marge Simpson wig. When you get to GEORGE, switch<br \/>\nto the Bozo the Clown wig.&#8221; <br \/><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><br \/><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">Her big, luscious, slovenly body sighs as she switches<br \/>\nfrom wig to wig, or changes costume, or tromps up the aisle to sink <\/span><\/font><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">sweatily toward some <\/span><\/font><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">mortified man&#8217;s lap. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">The empty authority of her<br \/>\nact distinguishes<br \/>\nher from an earlier generation of performance artists&#8211;specifically, Karen<br \/>\nFinley, whom critics have <a href=\"http:\/\/culturebot.org\/2008\/10\/04\/bill-t-jones-and-other-dance-y-discontents\/\">invoked to argue<\/a> that Young is nothing new. (If you<br \/>\nwant a comparison, I think the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ozubKHdprMI\">gross-out visual artist Paul McCarthy<\/a> is more<br \/>\napt. He also trains his eye on Americans&#8217; peculiarly erotic response to the<br \/>\nersatz and banal: how we make things fake and boring so we can feel safe getting<br \/>\noff on them.) As I understand it, and I haven&#8217;t seen a whole lot of her (no pun intended), Finley&#8217;s<br \/>\nclaim to transgressive fame was for going where no one dared go before. (First woman<br \/>\nto stick a yam up her ass!) Young is transgressive for being relentlessly<br \/>\nderivative. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">And that&#8217;s where the<br \/>\npathos creeps in. My metabolism slowed&#8211;my heart sunk&#8211;about 40 minutes into what<br \/>\namounted to a nearly two hour show when Young put a sheet over Lewis&#8217;s head and<br \/>\nnoosed it tight with a rope. I thought, <i>Oh, god, are we really going to wade<br \/>\nthrough the whole preprogrammed charade of horrors? <\/i><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">Yes, we are. The<br \/>\ndark slave choked, the dark slave getting her revenge, the cunt-sucking,<br \/>\nthe fucking via dildo&#8211;with breaks for slave and mistress to belt out karaoke<br \/>\ntunes (while tap-dancing and wielding rusty saws).<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">&#8220;The Bagwell in Me&#8221; says,<br \/>\n&#8220;You know the drill&#8221;&#8211;then takes us through it, bit by bloody bit. At first, the show&#8217;s audacity makes it hard not to laugh. But after a while, the uncanny accuracy of its seemingly slipshod aim&#8211;its hallucinogenic reproduction of every shade of bumbling bigotry&#8211;begins to hurt. <br \/><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><br \/><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">&#8220;It made me really sad,&#8221;<br \/>\nmy friend Clare said afterward, staring over my head at the wall. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia;\">Yeah, that the record has<br \/>\nbeen broken this long and we&#8217;re still playing it. We&#8217;d like to turn it off, but<br \/>\nwe can&#8217;t remember how to get off the couch. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font style=\"font-size: 1em;\"><\/p>\n<p><\/font><br \/>\n<font style=\"font-size: 1.25em;\"><br \/><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Recently at Slate, it flashed on writer Meghan O&#8217;Rourke what &#8220;dark literary doppelganger&#8221; Sarah Palin&#8211;&#8220;with her bright smile, her folksy-corporate style, and her Silly Puttied authenticity, which mirrors back at the viewer whatever talking point she&#8217;s just absorbed&#8221;&#8211;reminded her of:&nbsp;&nbsp; a character in a&nbsp;George Saunders&nbsp;story&#8230; trapped in the American DreamTM. [Saunders&#8217;] workers at theme [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}