Modern Art is Rubbish

Join us for Talk of Typewriter Races, Pigs in uniform, Machine heads and much more Dada Fun in this second part of our Dada journey!

Dada spread out to many countries from its roots in Zurich. German Dada was more about directly mocking and attacking the establishment such as politicians and the military.

Richard Huelsenbeck (the writer) and performer at the Cabaret Voltaire in January 1917, decided to return to Berlin Germany—

With other figures, he organised other shows with a bit of a cabaret  feel at various venues called “Club Dada” events

Dada events were rowdy affairs and frequent brawls were reported to have erupted

Performances

There were some pretty interesting performances

George Grosz (a brilliant painter) would occasionally perform little dances in between reciting poetry. He mockingly simulated urinating up a painting by Lovis Corrinth. Who actually was quite a revolutionary and interesting painter.

About 12 contestants were invited on stage. To begin the event Grosz fired a starting pistol. All the participants then read out their poems at the same time. Then at the end, he fired another gun and then he declared the contest was a draw. This perhaps suggested there can be no winners in a world where everyone was talking and nobody was listening.

In another performance, it was declared that “Beethoven, Bach are dead, but Music Marches on” The three women came on stage and each rested a canvas onto an easel which had one single note of music on it. This apparently caused a quite a stir with the audience. There were many fights at Dada events.

One very memorable performance Involved Richard Huelsenbeck and Raol Hausmann having a race with a typewriter and sewing machine One typed as fast as they could page after page and the other stitched non-stop onto a fabric of a funeral dress. Grosz the referee and master of ceremonies, declared the sewing machine the winner, in response Hausmann threw his typewriter on the floor.

Dadaist also produced artworks, In 1920 the first (and only International dada art fair was held)Nearly 200 works were on display including paintings unframed posters hung on crowded walls. There were also 3d works to most famously one was by

The artist John Heartfield and Rudolf Schlichter hung from the ceiling a dummy dressed in a German army uniform, it had a papier-mache pigs snout for a face. Wrapped around the work was a poster that read”I come from Heaven, from Heaven on high” which are the lyrics from a German Christmas Carol.  Below it hung a sign which read “In order to understand this work of art completely, one should drill daily for twelve hours with a heavily packed knapsack in full marching order in the Tempelhof Field [a military training ground].” The German authorities charged the artists with defaming of the German Army, however, they were subsequently acquitted.

This work was created by the artist Hannah  Hoch who was a pioneer in the art of photo-montage,  It uses images cut from newspapers and magazines stuck down and re-arranged to create an image which exposes the chaos of the politics of the day. The image manages to mix the surreal with humour and ridicule.

I think the use of the word Kitchen Knife is alluding to the traditional role of women in society, and how woman are treated within the art and Dada movement.

If you want to find out more you can hear it discussed in this video below

This work was Painted by Otto Dix  A painter famous for his scenes of German life in the early 20th century

It is an image of 4 crippled First World War German veterans, some are amputees one has had his jaw replaced with a crude metal prosthetic. They are painted almost like comic book caricatures

This painting attacks the military and the political establishment for what it has done to its youth. It is also attacking the public for its almost freak show like interest in these injured and disfigured veterans. And yet they still have this strange sense of national pride.

It was seized by the Nazis displayed in their degenerate art show. It was captioned, “Slander against the German Heroes of the World War.”

Also in the Degenerate Art Exhibition, Munich, 1937. The Nazi’s used a Dada slogan, “Take Dada seriously,” and put up on the wall to poke fun at it.

Born in Germany  June 22, 1875 – January 15, 1955

Johannes Baader was an architect specialising in funerary monuments, he was known for many headline grabbing Dada stunts

for example, in July 1918 Baader issued a proclamation demanding he be awarded all 5 Noble prizes.

Christ is sausage to you’, but meaning ‘you don’t give a damn about Christ!’. Was the name of a speech that he gave in a Berlin Cathedral, on November 1918, he was of course not invited to do this. It was just after the war had ended it was and was an attack on the congregation the church. About their failure to not live up to the gospel, and societies further failure to prevent war.

This resulted in him being arrested but he was quickly released after Police decided he was suffering from a mental health condition

After his release, he made a declaration that he was now the Oberdada, OOVA DADA the supreme Dada and king of the universe. “Superdada, President of the Earth and the Globe, Chairman of the Last Judgement, Real Secret Chairman of the Intertellurian Superdadaist League of Nations.” was his full title.

I feel it was Taking the piss out of high ranking military figures and titled gentry

In 1919 on April fools day. He and Hausmann told the authorities in a suburb Berlin of a Dada invasion.  The community raised a 2000 strong defence force to protect itself,

He also disrupted a conference in Weimar where officials were debating the constitution for the new Weimar Republic. He handed out flyers. declaring himself as the highest authority ever created, nominated himself to be president of the new German Weimar Republic. Also, the flyers showed plans to build a one and a half kilometre high pyramid, for his followers to worship.

He also wrote his obituary and the next day announced his resurrection.

Cologne Dadaists held an early Spring exhibition in 1920.  It was held in a local bar

To access the show you had to walk through the toilet, only to be confronted by a woman performing obscene poetry.

An example of the work on show was a Fishtank, filled with red water, in it was a floating wig and a mannequin’s hand submerged.

It was reported that people were upset by what they saw and damaged works. The artist Max Ernst encouraged this by attaching an axe to one of his sculptures for viewers to use.

The local authorities shut down the exhibition, in response to complaints. The complaints were about pornographic content, but none could be found, the only offending item was an Albrecht  Durer picture of Adam and Eve. The exhibition was triumphantly re-opened the next day with the following poster, which read.

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Crazy, absurd, violent, mocking join us on a journey into DADAISM!

Dada is a crazy absurd violent mocking movement that is hard to pin down. Dada was anti-establishment and a direct response to a society gone mad in the grip of World War One.

It was a movement that was more focused on the concept behind the art rather than the aesthetic.,

It poked fun at Politicians and the establishment – Satirised the media – Mocked the established Culture. It was anti-society even anti itself, it’s proponents would regularly state Dada is anti-Dada.

Its influence is still being felt today…..

In Early February 1916, Hugo Ball poet and philosopher founded the Cabaret Voltaire in a Bar in Zurich. Switzerland was neutral during the war. It was a nightclub and arts society where artists could turn up and perform there work. It attracted artists writers, poets and musicians. Towards the end of February, it had become such a hive of artistic activity that it was turning into a movement. One that needed a name…. It was called Dada.

It is not certain how the name of Dada was chosen. It may have been that Hugo ball and a fellow performer Richard Huselbeck chose the word at random from a dictionary. In French Dada means Hobby Horse. It means yes yes in Romanian Dada and is baby talk for daddy.

The Romanian artist Marcel Janco made primitive-looking scary masks and costumes that were influenced by Romanian folk art. Ball described them as “The horror of our time, the paralysing background of events, is made visible,”. Artists like Sophie Tauber would wear these outfits and would feel transformed and performed crazy scary improvised dances.

Richard Huelsenbeck who would perform his pieces sometimes whilst aggressively banging a drum, brandishing a riding whip or cane, almost to drum literature into the ground. Once Marcel Janco Tristan Tzara joined him on stage. They performed a piece in German, French and English at the same time. This for me reflects the inability of the warring countries to communicate and understand each other…

Most famously Hugo ball read out a. His sound poems sounded like a made-up language. Whilst reciting this work he wore a costume made of cardboard that made him look like a cross between a priest and the tin man for wizard of Oz. His legs were in a cylinder of shiny blue cardboard up to his hips. Over his top, he wore a huge coat cut out of cardboard. On his head, he wore a high, blue-and-white-striped witch doctor’s hat. This nonsensical poem alluded to the European leaders’ failure to solve their problems through rational discussion. You can see the poem here

As well as performances Dada included art and sculpture.

One of the early Dada artists was Jean Arp. He was born in Strasbourg and was the son of a French mother and a German father

Arp created several so-called chance collages. Tearing up work in bits again not using scissors he surrendered a certain amount of control. He dropped them onto a large sheet of paper and just pasted them more or less where they fell. The dadaist were dubious about where had thought had led the world, so they turned chance instead.

You can see one of his works here Untitled (Collage with Squares Arranged according to the Laws of Chance) 1916 – 1917

Fake!

Dada even produced fake news for the media…

Tristan Tzara sent off a fake story to newspapers about a fake dual between him and Jean arp, who was injured during a duel. It was actually published by a newspaper.

Tristan Tzara also created another way to create work from the news. This was done by cutting up a newspaper article and re-arranging the words at random to make a new work. This Shows us that news is just a construction of words and not necessarily to be believed or respected.

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Slides and fairground rides, disorientating and psychedelic, are just one of the art experiences you can expect from Carsten Höller!

Carsten Höller was born in Brussels in 1961  to German parents and currently lives in Sweden. He has a degree in Agricultural Entomology and never studied art

Höller and the artist Maurizio Cattelan created two identical shows in to Paris galleries. Cattelan copied Höller’s exhibition, they showed identical works. This work referenced identity theft and proposed that both shows were equal in merit.

He has created works similar in nature to Martin Creed

In his 1999 “Ball House” piece he filled a room with balls, in his work  “Frisbee House” he filled a room with Frisbees and the audience was  invited to play in the rooms.

House for Pigs and People 1997 was a work made in partnership with the artist Rosemarie Trockel.

For the work they constructed a purpose-built building with a garden and enclosure for pigs. Also there was a separate viewing area on a slope which had a two-way mirror at the end of it. The pigs in the pen on the other side would be confronted with just their reflections, the viewers on the slope would be able to see the pigs clearly.  This work makes people look at animals in a different way. It brings up questions such as what is the difference between us and animals?  How can we treat them in ways that we would not treat humans? What makes us so different?

For this piece, visitors are invited to float in a heated sensory flotation tank.

This work  is a full-size fairground carousel, covered in mirrored surfaces and lights. Each person sits on a small swing seat and slowly goes round. Users experience quite a dizzying ride, as the light is endlessly refracted in the mirrors. Also if you choose to just look at the piece, Höller considered that a legitimate way to engage with the work.
Höller feels when we go to the gallery we cannot separate the experience of the work from the people you encounter.

For this work visitors attached a vibrating device to their arm close their eyes and touch their nose. The brain is tricked into believing the nose is growing.

This was an installation of 3 giant enclosed metallic slide tunnels in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. The largest was 56 metres long and with a 27 metre drop. The artist feels there is a sense that we lose when we are children and the slides somehow re-connect us with this feeling..

In 2016 he attached one of his slides (with the help of Anish Kapoor) to the Arcelor Mittal Orbit, making it  Britain’s largest sculpture. The slide, is located at London’s Olympic Park and takes around 40 seconds to go down its 178m.

You can see a video about the Tate slide here….

As part of his exhibition Divided Divided, Höller installed a hotel room in a Museum/Art Gallery in Rotterdam. It was a 3-tonne rotating hotel room. Parts of the room slowly rotated on 4 discs, it took about an hour for the rotation to complete. Guests were also free to explore the other exhibits overnight whilst staying there, with only a personal butler to accompany them.

Here is an interview for the German DW TV about the piece…

Giant red rotating mushroom sculptures hang upside down from a ceiling of a gallery space.

Soma was a sacred ritual practiced in ancient times. It is thought that it involved the taking of a  psychedelic plant to achieve higher states.

This large installation piece, contained 2 groups of Reindeer, they were kept apart by a large fence running down the middle,  there were 6 on one side and 6 on the other.

As in a scientific test, one group of Reindeer were fed normal food and mushrooms, the other group were fed their normal feed with mushrooms of a psychedelic variety. The mushrooms used were  “fly agaric” they are the large red mushrooms with white dots on them, Reindeer actually eat these in the wild.

The reindeer’s urine was collected and stored. Guests were invited to stay overnight in a sleeping area on a raised platform. In one part of the exhibition, there were unlocked fridges that contained the urine and mushrooms. They were not labeled as to what might be hallucinogenic and what might not be.  Guests were free to drink the urine or eat the mushrooms. Though there was no instruction to do so.

There was no questionnaire for the visitor to fill in post-experience, as the work was about the personal experience of the participator in the Piece.

There is a video of the work here….

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In this episode, we talk about topics including Murder in Baths, Glass Baths and Baths of Offal!

Andy Warhol in 1967 made a film featuring “Tub Girls” featuring the former artist and model Viva. In this film, Viva is lying in various bathtubs with different people of both sexes. You can get more information and images from this article on the site Warholstars.

Jaques Louis David was a neoclassical history painter originally who painted dramatic scenes from ancient history and myth. Such as Death of Socrates.

The picture shows the revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat dead in the bath, killed by a rival revolutionary Charlotte Corday

A practitioner of contemporary dance,  Yann Marussich for this piece was buried in a bath of shattered glass. During the performance, he slowly emerged from the bath. You can see a video of the work below.

You can check out more about this interesting artist/performer on his website here

You Know It Makes Sense’ was a labour party slogan used in the election of the 18th of June 1970. Brisley was interested the language used by political parties, in the ways that cliche contains truth while inviting mockery.

Brisley lay for a period of two hours over a ten-day period in a bathtub of putrefied matter. 

You can read more about the piece and see images here 

As part of a show of pro-Trump art the right-wing agitator and troll Milo Yiannopoulos bathed in pig blood. On the walls were images of people killed by illegal aliens. You can get further information in the article about the piece. You can see an article on the whole show on the Gothamist website

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