Kristen Baumlier

Today I was able to stop by and see an our of the Ben Kinsley + Sarah Paul : Acting Out event at MOCA Cleveland, where Ben and Sarah were part of a dialogue about using people as material in art.

I was a few minutes late to the talk, and I missed an opening performance by Ben and Sarah – which from what I heard later, sounded like a live music experience. When I got there the audience was  being asked to give words for how the performance made them feel.  The words intimate, in love, vulnerable, and connected were given.  (This made me really wonder what I missed!)

The talk is part of a series of talks at MOCA Cleveland called “The Materialists” where artists reflect on process and medium, focusing on how artists dedicate their practices to a special material, process, or method.

Ben and Sarah both talked about using people as material. Sarah talked about how with her public Little Miss Cleveland piece, that she goes to the Indian baseball games as a self-crowned celebrity and interacts with people at the stadium.  These interactions blue art and life, since once the vendors at the stadium began to recognize her – the fans got interested and see her as a local celebrity.

Ben talked about the difference of being a director and an actor, and that he is really a participant in his pieces helping to make it happen.  His work is not about performing, but about setting up situations.  In his past work, Street with a View, which was captured and lives on in Google Map, he had the role of organizing the event, and the day of the event he was a modern day Paul Revere on a bike – going around alerting everyone that the Google car was coming.

Currently Ben is part of the 8501 to 11300 (On Moving) Show.  For his performance in the show, an actor performs at both MOCA’s current and future sites each Sunday for an hour with a sandwich board and a megaphone, with either the message The End is Nigh or A New Beginning is Imminent: on them.  One of the actors was at the talk, and he shared some lively stories about his experiences about interacting with the audience on the street, which varies from surprise, to a police officer telling him to leave, to cars honking at him, to a religious group giving him pamphlets.

The idea of mythology was discussed at the talk, and Sarah talked about how how myths are meant to explain mysterious things and how her work is a mysterious fragmented narrative that might live on as oral history, if people see her or interact with her as Little Miss Cleveland.  Ben similarly talked about the power of stories, and how with the challenge of documenting his work – it often lives on as stories that are passed on.

I had to leave after an hour of the talk – so I missed the end of the talk before the Q and A – but it was interesting dialogue about live performative art and the potential and challenges of working with others (or people) as material.

Image Source:

8501 to 11400 (On Moving) Show at MOCA Cleveland and Little Miss Cleveland Website

Links:

8501 to 11400 (On Moving) Show at MOCA Cleveland

Ben Kinsley’s website

Little Miss Cleveland Website