Laurie Anderson, "O Superman"

Video of a 1981 performance by experimental sound artist Laurie Anderson. It's not exactly "not safe for work," but your co-workers will think you are a freak if they walk in on you watching this. It's difficult to describe this video; Laurie Anderson is a young-ish thin white woman with her short hair spiked out, wearing a man's suit and standing on a darkened stage behind a synth keyboard. A small spotlight shines on a screen behind her making a shadow of her arm, which she holds out. She speaks through a device that makes her voice sound like a chorus of robots and plays a simple background on the keyboard. She delivers what is part spoken word and part song while doing a shadow puppet show.

"O superman, O Judge, O Mom and Dad! O Superman, O Judge, O Mom and Dad! Hi! I'm not home right now. But if you want to leave a message, just start talking at the sound of the tone. Hello? This is your mother. Are you there? Are you coming home? Hello? Is anybody home? Well, you don't know me. But I know you. And I've got a message to give to you: Here come the planes, so you'd better get ready, ready to go. You can come as you are, pay as you go, pay as you go. [break in speaking, a flute-ish sound plays] And I said ok, who is this really? And the voice said, "This is the hand, the hand that takes. This is the hand, the hand that takes. This is the hand, the hand that takes. Here come the planes. They're American planes, made in America. Smoking or non-smoking? And the voice said, "Neither snow nor wind nor blue light shall stay these couriers from swift completion, from their appointed rounds. Cause when love is gone, there's always Justice. And when Justice is gone, there's always Force. And when Force is gone, there's always Mom, hi Mom! [break in speaking] So hold me Mom, in your long arms. So hold me Mom, in your long arms, in your automatic arms, your electronic arms, in your arms. So hold me, Mom, in your long arms, your petrochemical arms, your military arms [birds chirp] in your electronic arms. [synth and sax buildup]"

Alternately the spotlight becomes an animated circle and rotating planet Earth. Anderson also appears in the corner doing what could be sign language and also appears to do hand signals for an airport runway. There are several close-ups of her face, which she holds perfectly still and mechanically. She speaks the words very slowly.

B-Out

 "If one more person tries to talk to me about Bravo’s new reality show Gallery Girls I’m going to punch them straight in the face,"

writes Howard Hurst at Hyperallergic. You can tell he is off to a good, though tangential, start as he discusses a group show of over 100 artists working outside "the norm" called B-Out, curated by artist Scott Hug at Andrew Edlin Gallery.

"The great strength of this exhibition is its aggressive inclusiveness and refusal to categorize. The most poignant conclusions are those that the curator seems unwilling to make directly. By including multiple generations of artists, across aesthetic and theoretical boundaries, Hug constructs a loose history of misbehavior that includes a number of strategies and opportunities."

"Crystal," an installation by Maya Hayuk. Image from Andrew Edlin Gallery site. [Image: a narrow high-ceilinged room with a wood floor and an open doorway on the far side of the room. Photo taken from the short side opposite the door looking down the long space. The walls are painted with diagonal, brightly colored dripping stripes that leave no white showing and intersect to create a sort of psychedelic childish plaid. The room is lit by track light on the ceiling, creating a womb-like effect. Two smallish long horizontal light-boxes or TV screens face each other at eye level with blue images on them. Another image, framed in white and not on a screen, hangs higher but it's impossible to make out from the photo. Overall the installation feels surprising, playful and visually appealing if overwhelming.]

I'm surprised that in 2012, when virtually everything has a well-defined niche, at least online, with strict sub-categorizations and fractious followings, that there is still a humongous undefined box marked 'Other' when it comes to The Art World. Aren't we supposed to be the avant garde? But that sort of exclusion has a rich history and is still all too real, so it makes sense to have a show exploring just that phenomenon. And Hurst ads a layer of cultural relevance when he calls it a "mash-up." Looks interesting.

ETA: Hey, while you're over at Hyperallergic, check this out: Allison Meier's writeup of the creepy and complex sound installation by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller called "Murder of Crows." And in case you thing the title is a bit melodramatic, that is actually the proper name for a group of crows, like "flock" or "pride."