I’d mentioned to Michael that their film also reminded me of this artist Raphael Montañez Ortiz. I saw his retrospective at the Whitney a long time ago. He destroys things. But that simplifies what he does of course. Here’s a better description from Benjamin Genocchio’s “To Be Is To Undo.” That title would be a good premise for a story.

“Mr. Ortiz’s signature works are his destruction art pieces, made in ritualistic public performance events (sometimes filmed or photographed) in which the artist acts like a shaman, singing, dancing
and, ax in hand, destroying things. Pianos have been a favorite target; he has staged more than 80 piano destruction events in museums and galleries around the world. Documentary images of some of these performances are showing here, along with the remains of a piano destruction performance recently completed especially for this exhibition.

Along with pianos, the artist has also destroyed a variety of domestic objects: sofas, armchairs and especially mattresses, the remains of which were purchased by collectors and eventually donated to major museums. On loan from the Museum of Modern Art in New York is ?Archeological Find No. 3? (1961), a torn-apart, cut-up, smashed, rolled-together and burnt mattress that looks like a big blob of gum. The artist considers these destructions a kind of psychic excavation; when the objects are taken apart, their true spirit is revealed.”

I remember seeing one of his destroyed pianos, and videos of him tearing things up. Powerful stuff!

I’d mentioned to Michael that their film also reminded me of this artist Raphael Montañez Ortiz. I saw his retrospective at the Whitney a long time ago. He destroys things. But that simplifies what he does of course. Here’s a better description from Benjamin Genocchio’s “To Be Is To Undo.” That title would be a good premise for a story.

“Mr. Ortiz’s signature works are his destruction art pieces, made in ritualistic public performance events (sometimes filmed or photographed) in which the artist acts like a shaman, singing, dancing
and, ax in hand, destroying things. Pianos have been a favorite target; he has staged more than 80 piano destruction events in museums and galleries around the world. Documentary images of some of these performances are showing here, along with the remains of a piano destruction performance recently completed especially for this exhibition.

Along with pianos, the artist has also destroyed a variety of domestic objects: sofas, armchairs and especially mattresses, the remains of which were purchased by collectors and eventually donated to major museums. On loan from the Museum of Modern Art in New York is ?Archeological Find No. 3? (1961), a torn-apart, cut-up, smashed, rolled-together and burnt mattress that looks like a big blob of gum. The artist considers these destructions a kind of psychic excavation; when the objects are taken apart, their true spirit is revealed.”

I remember seeing one of his destroyed pianos, and videos of him tearing things up. Powerful stuff!