Web Hype
IT DID SMASH ME
I went to the New York screening of Michael Kimball and Luca Dipierro‘s film I WILL SMASH YOU (caps are obligatory) and I can now confidently say that you will want to see it also.
The premise is this: Michael sent out a call last year for people who wanted to smash something that carried a meaning or burden they wanted to rid themselves of. The people came to Michael’s house in Baltimore where he had a smorgasbord of smashing implements laid out on a table in his backyard. Michael interviewed them a little about why they were destroying what they were destroying and then they dismantled the object using an ax, sledgehammer, crowbar, chunk of concrete, etc.
By now I think everyone has seen the trailer featuring our man, Adam Robinson, in which he metaphysically destroys the hymn, It Is Well With My Soul. (If you haven’t, please, for the love of no God, click here.) This was one of my favorite parts of the movie because there are a number of Hymns I would like to destroy also, but I was also surprised and delighted by how much of an impact that the other performances and stories had. Michael and Luca did a phenomenal job in selecting the right quotes and facial expressions and gestures to reveal something really intimate about each person.
Not one but two computer monitors are savagely axed; a teenager mutilates a blood-filled pinata of her teacher’s head; a be-scarfed man destroys ‘procrastination‘; and a woman in high heels and a velvet dress destroys a car she believes is cursed, axing every window and even ripping out the steering wheel.
I hear that Ken Baumann is putting together a screening in LA, and the good folks of Detroit and Toronto will also soon get a chance to see it. Contact Michael or Luca to arrange a screening in your town. You need to be smashed.
Tags: i will smash you, little burn
there’s gotta be a screening in bmore, right? right? i have to check this out. great post, catherine, and that adam r thing is truly a classic.
there’s gotta be a screening in bmore, right? right? i have to check this out. great post, catherine, and that adam r thing is truly a classic.
i am currently also working on atlanta, excited.
i am currently also working on atlanta, excited.
Dude now I have that stupid hymn stuck in my head. Thanks.
Dude now I have that stupid hymn stuck in my head. Thanks.
This was good times and made me want to break things even more than usual
This was good times and made me want to break things even more than usual
Adam’s segment was also my favorite bit. His valiant attempt to destroy an earworm reminded me of that Bester story The Demolished Man. Kimball’s destruction of the “office environment” was a close second though. The procrastinator was also funny. But perhaps the most memorable moments were the awkward bursts of laughter that came from a guy in the front of the room. I wondered what he would destroy given the chance.
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!
Adam’s segment was also my favorite bit. His valiant attempt to destroy an earworm reminded me of that Bester story The Demolished Man. Kimball’s destruction of the “office environment” was a close second though. The procrastinator was also funny. But perhaps the most memorable moments were the awkward bursts of laughter that came from a guy in the front of the room. I wondered what he would destroy given the chance.
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!