Foam Ejaculate Sculpture

Transcript (Download)

Do you have anything to say about this phenomenon? What brings you to our planet? Do you enjoy our schools? What? Look at this guy.

It's Grah! Do you visit other planets often? No, they must have been.

Dylan! Man Ray! Now come on, don't tell me you never saw this.

Look, I got it! Look at the hell it is! We're coming back.

Yay! We needed that.

Oh, this is funny.

Just the grand school.

Just the grand school.

Wait, wait, wait.

What a beautiful picture.

Alright, thank you.

What channel is this? It's a grass channel.

We don't want to shoot this.

for drivers hundred miles away of the highway u.

WITHested That is a Detroit ger was the I'm getting really good color.

That's pretty easy.

Look at the little two on my grass here, baby.

There's one individual, a stand among them.

Keep the drug away! Oh, I don't have any.

I gotta think about this.

But, it's great.

It's a very nice feeling.

I didn't really feel self -conscious or anything.

I'm wearing a grass suit.

I feel a bit...

For me, to say that it's art is an excuse.

It's a comfortable excuse for me.

For me, it goes beyond art.

Because I'm trying to reach people out of the boundaries of art.

And get them a kind of message about the environment.

And about their bodies and the world and everything.

So, I don't think we need to put a stamp on it.

Whether it's sculpture or theater or whatever.

I don't think we need to put a stamp on it.

Because I'm trying to reach people out of the boundaries of art.

And about their bodies and the world and everything.

And about their bodies and the world and everything.

Because I'm trying to reach people out of the boundaries of art.

And about their bodies and the world and everything.

Because I'm trying to reach people out of the boundaries of art.

There's another person I would like to mention.

Who very quietly but very persistently and patiently over the years.

Gave the inspiration to this project.

Helped the promotion of it.

Helped with the press.

And helped with the public awareness of the project.

And that's Mrs.

Ava Pape from New York.

Distinguished art critic.

Ava was a lady who very early on talked with me about the idea of doing something in the way of a sculptural park.

And I do want to recognize her contribution.

Creative talent on this earth that I know of.

And my friend Michael Heiser.

Come up here Mike and give him your own style.

Good to have you.

Difficult for me to add much about the project in general.

Why so? Into the microphone.

That's been a very interesting job.

And interesting to me because it wasn't...

Turn the mic down.

The production of this work was never impeded by the fact that it was such a large project.

That had so many people and institutions, government, state agencies.

The person like myself.

Edmund Thornton.

A lot of people, a lot of directions.

Lots of different interests.

There's a reclamation project here primarily.

My work is an adjunct to the...

Obviously an adjunct to the original purpose which is to reconstitute this part of the world again.

And I think they were very successful in doing that.

And I've seen this property go from a poisoned surface to a place that now supports capable of doing it again better.

And we never will.

But anyway I'd like to thank everybody for giving me the opportunity to do this and work with them.

And the names, you know, it's hard to run through the list.

They're all special and they all performed and worked very, very hard.

The contractor, Strunk, Blonker.

Thanks very much Mike and Ed.

We'll hear now from...

Well now that's going to...

Maybe in an elevator? We'll have to see what the Department of Conservation does when they take this project over to see what they do.

What's the final bill on the project? A million...

Sue, what did we spend? A million dollars here? A million dollars.

I might add that that's no more than we would have spent without the sculptures.

Identifier

F.2005-08-0155

Date Of Production

circa 1970 – 1989

Abstract

Loosely assembled footage documents the following: A fountain in Federal Building Plaza shoots jet streams into the air; Performance artist Bill Harding aka Gene Pool marches through downtown Chicago to Grant Park while leading a parade of several dozen people who all sport grass suits designed and grown by Harding; A group gathers in a grassy valley, a recorded media event is staged, and aerial footage taken from a helicopter surveys the valley and a nearby waterway, likely the Illinois River.

Format

Super 8

Extent

200 feet

Color

Color

Sound

Mag Stripe

Reel/Tape Number

1/1

Has Been Digitized?

Yes

Language Of Materials

English

Element

Reversal Positives

Subject

Clothing and dress
Landmarks
Parades and processions
Performance art
Publicity

Preservation Sponsor

Related Collections

Subseries II: Footage

Related Places

North America ➜ United States ➜ Illinois ➜ Chicago ➜ Loop

Main Credits

Stamets, Bill (is filmmaker)

Participants And Performers

Harding, Bill (is participant)

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