So the man stripped naked and shaved his whole body, introduces the penis into the hot bread Wearing it with duct tape, stuffing yourself with mustazza, and drinking ketchup with a mouthful of frankfurters, is that enough to induce vomiting?
If this description has made you nauseous, let’s get down the road. This was the intention of Paul McCarthy (Salt Lake City, 1945) when he performed his famous performance Hot dog in 1974. Yes, art is something more beautiful and proportionate: it grotesque and abject are aesthetic categories necessary to respond to the loyalty that also forms part of this world.
The action McCarthy took in an attempt to intimidate his superior was aggressive, sexual, absurd and repulsive. Pushing the norms of art and social protocol to the limit, he challenged pop culture and the sugary capitalism of pie Americanism. But Why does ritual lack humility and the art of perfection? Why McCarthy occupies a privileged and respected place in the performance history of the 20th century. century?
Paul McCarthy: ‘A&E, CAT PUSS, Santa Anita session’, 2020 © Paul McCarthy Courtesy Houser & Wirth
His desperation and his cynicism immediately attracted the attention of the specialized media. Fascinating and disgusting McCarthy criticizes mass culture through abyección and the theatricality of power. Your performances are not the result of an immediate impulse: you consciously prepare distinct elements that come into play in your actions.
Use grotesque, eschatological and obscene as legitimate languages talk about patriarchy, family, fascism, media spectacle or capitalism. Ah, his insistent use of the Walt Disney characters he’s obsessed with.
En esta ocasión podemos ver su trabajo en una de las galerías comerciales en el espacio de la Fundación SOLO en Madrid (impulsada por David Cantolla, creador del personaje Pocoyó), en la Cuesta de San Vicente, 3, llamada Bowman Hal.
Se presentan dibujos de gran formato realizados durante unas performances grabadas a su vez en vídeo, de modo que las piezas se componen en realidad de tres partes: acción, registro audiovisual y dibujo. En las performances le acompaña Lilith Stangenberg, actriz alemana de cine y teatro, conocida por asumir papeles física y psicológicamente extremos.
Paul MCarthy: ‘A&E, Eva Eats Adolf Adolf Eats Eva, Polka Polka Father Son Mother Daughter, Adolf’, 2020Foto: ©PaulMcCarthy_CourtesyHouser&Wirth
Entre los dos recrean un delirio que declina a personajes como Hitler y Eva Braun (de ahí A&E: Adolf y Eva, Adán y Eva, pero también Arts & Entertainment), que no aparecen como figuras históricas ni como alegorías morales estables, sino como imágenes saturadas, grotescas, intercambiables, que se contradicen a sí mismas.
McCarthy ha descrito el proceso como un estado de concentración o trance, un espacio alternativo en el que acción y dibujo se confunden. Adolf/Adam surge como un bufón borracho, juguetón, capaz de tornarse cruel; Eva/Eve como una figura inestable que atraviesa roles familiares, sexuales y simbólicos. Como pareja, su relación se nos muestra inquietante, desasosegante.
Su influencia en los artistas posteriores es decisiva. No entenderíamos el trabajo de los Hermanos Chapman, Matthew Barney o Cindy Sherman sin el suyo: artistas del exceso, del cuerpo degradado y del barroquismo visual. La obra de McCarthy responde a la categoría de “lo abyecto” que definió Julia Kristeva en Poderes de la perversión como aquello que “perturba una identidad, un sistema, un orden. […] Lo que they don’t respect boundaries or regulations and transcends clear classifications of culture’.
Our pieces can be placed precisely on this border, where the body and symbols of power – the Führer, middle class white family, amusement park– if it originates from the grotesque papilla.
Paul McCarthy: ‘A&E, EEVAA, Santa Anita session’, 2022. Photo: © Paul McCarthy. Courtesy of Houser & Wirth
Expressive large-format drawings that can be viewed SOLO, presented in collaboration with Hauser & Wirth, are e.g. dozens of performative violence what happened and the viewer needs to mentally adjust. We see a caricature of Hitler along with organic scraps, deformed Mickey Mouses, colored wax scraps and various objects.
in them Nazi iconography mingles with domestic remnantschildren’s graphics and characters from popular culture, as the story is now captured in the same basic cube as fast food packaging.
This removal is the key to understanding it inconvenient power supply de McCarthy. It’s not just about “provoking” the viewer to the point of showing how political violence is, The patriarch or spectacle is inscribed in seemingly trivial and everyday gestures. Being at a private foundation with strong ties to the entertainment industry adds a more ironic touch to the mix.
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