Ai folks, Barack Hussein Obama (the Second) has now officially been
awarded that most shiny of Swedish medals, the Nobel Medallion.
Naturally, Metamoderne can not let that event go uncelebrated. After all,
hasn’t Barack Hussein already done SO MUCH for world peace ? Was he
not the swiftest in closing Guantanamo, opening negotiations with Iran,
and proposing a final settlement for the Palestinian quagmire ? Yes, folks,
much he has done so far and we certainly believe this prize is worth its
weight in unfulfilled promises. President Fuck all say you ? Now, now,
don’t be unfair. After all, hasn’t the man mesmerized all of us with his
dazzling rhetorical prowess ? Let us listen :





Yes, isn’t that quite something ? One acceptance speech that certainly did
go unnoticed, however, was at the core of Hussein’s campaign. Praise the
dark Lord, for the Half-Blood Prince is not the one you thought.







And so because he is one of us, we shall refrain from any expression of
bitterness [even though, when it comes to “extraordinary efforts to
strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”,
really, we think Catherine Tate was perhaps a superior contender…]







So off with that sulky face bitch, and let us rejoice instead at the thought
of how many Obamaniquahs are now going to grace the streets of Harlem,
tightly clad in their leopard unitard, nonchalantly nibbling away at their
fried poultry pieces.







Only one reservation though. We at Metamoderne believe strongly in world
peace but we also fear that Barack’s approach, with its overemphasis on
bipartisan consensus, may not be quite right. In fact, to put it in a
somehow less diplomatic fashion, and to address directly our presidential
awardee : ” Perhaps, yo ain’t black enough about it, Papi.”


May the final word rest with two Sistas who know how to take negotiations
to a happy conclusion.







PS : A special big up and much love to Thomas at GetConfused who
designed this beelog’s lay-out and helps us to keep it so prettylicious.
Thank you Tom Tom !

‘We started out, because we were so crazy in love, just wanting to eat each other up, to become each other and become one’.

Genesis Breyer P-Orridges Pandrogyne (Positive Androgyny) is a project that resists easy classification; part performance, part romance and part prophetic it defies even orthodox authorship by belonging fully to neither of its two participants: Genesis P Orridge & Lady Jaye Breyer. It is even arguable that, as it is the result of collaboration, the Pandrogyne invented itself. The project also sets itself apart from the obvious categorisation of transvestism, presenting itself as existential rather than sexual:

‘Its not about gender some feel like a man trapped in a womans body, others like a woman trapped in a mans body. The Pandrogyne says, I just feel trapped in a body.’

The ‘Body’ is here seen within the perspective of the reality given to man via genetic and societal programming: the cage. Whereas the mind with its infinite possibilities, but most importantly choice, is seen as the key. Abandonment of the ego is territory already visited by Genesis in the original creation of his alter ego, although the sacrifice of the name ‘Neil Andrew Megson’ was no doubt a comparatively easier choice than the surgeons knife.

Encompassed within the distinction from transvestism is the idea that they are different and separate beings meeting in the middle, rather people attempting to clone the image of the other. This can be illustrated by perhaps the most bizarre Valentines ever, on February 14th 2003 the romantic gift of his ‘n’ hers (hers ‘n’ hers/his ‘n’ his?) breast implants were exchanged between the couple: the symbol of the first plastic change.

The project has an infinite scope of idealism, provided by faith in scientific technology. This rests upon the grounds that, if man has learnt to modify the body via plastic surgery, it will eventually destroy it altogether. This futuristic projection for the Pandrogyne echoes back to ancient times and Socratic ideas on the relationship between body and soul:

‘What is purification but the release of the soul from the chains of the body.’

‘To the philosopher, the body is a disturbing element, hindering the soul from the acquisition of knowledge.’

Socrates (tragically born before the Rhinoplasty)

The origination of the idea of Pandrogyny can be traced to Genesis’s self proclaimed artistic godfathers: William Burroughs and Brion Gysin - whose greatest collaboration was in the field of the cut-up technique. This method essentially broke down the linearity of words; creating new meaning by offering them to the chaos of random juxtaposition. However, it was looking at the process of their partnership, ‘the synthesisation of their personalities’, that gave birth to the idea of 1+1=3: the Third Mind.

The Pandrogyne, although undeniably taking the concept further, finds some precedent in the field of performance art: Marina Abramovic and Ulay. The collaboration between these two artists was likewise a romantic one - their epic journey on foot starting from each end the Great Wall of China to meet in the middle is reminiscent of the abstract meeting between the poles of self that is Genesis and Lady Jaye’s work (except for Marina and Ulay it was symbolic of the end not the beginning). However, the similarity is more specific than this; Abramovic and Ulay both recognised and investigated the creation through their partnership of another being formed through their work together, described by themselves as a ‘two headed body’ or ‘the other’. By dressing and acting like twins they blurred the distinction of their seperate entities. This relationship of co-dependence is explored in a performance in which they exchanged breaths between each other until all the oxygen was used up, replaced by carbon dioxide, causing them to fall to the floor unconscious.

‘The main problem in this relationship was what to do with the two artists egos. I had to find out how to put my ego down, as did he, to create something like a hermaphroditic state of being that we called the death self.

”We begin in a sort of synchronized similitude … and then we arrive at the level in which each of us functions alone. The two bodies doing the same, but within, there is a separation.’

 

The late Bettie Page, even though she may strike us now as a classic 50s Bombshell, must really be put back into the context of her heyday in order to see the originality of her outrageous sex-appeal. She was in fact a far cry for the blonde pin-up that dominated the then landscape of female icons.

 

 More Deeta Von Teese than May West, and definitely more Manson than Marilyn, Page, one of the earliest “Playmates of the Month” to be featured in Playboy, became a icon of fetish and kinky erotica through her modelling acts and movies, and due to her characteristic look - jet-black hair and red lipstick, which can be traced back as one of the major influences for the whole rockabilly scene.

 

 Here Page is seen in the cult “Second Initiation of the Sorority Girl”, directed by Irving law, one of America’s first fetish photographers.

 Bettie Page ? Queen of bondage.

 

A little riddle :
What is the common point between …

- 1970s psychological research on micro-facial interpretation ;
- C.I.A. video analysis techniques ;
- experiencing mass murder by proxy ;
- crossover photo-journalism ;
- PTA fear-mongering and media classic scapegoating discourses ;
- Star Wars ;
- and Kids on LSD but not really ?
Answer here :

here
and 
here


Expressionistic zombies of the words unite !

Collective concious cataclysm, mark the end

Burst light Hall of Mirrors, alignment 1999

Magnetic self-destruction, cyclic world age

Quantum contamination contribute descendants

Mutating resonance collapse, culmination global night

Breathing Universe, emit pulse prophecy

Time of No-Time; compare, illuminate, verge day 2012

Golden Age empirical plan, dream telepath science

Linear Time Elimination: creation reality

Dawning spirit technology - sync 13 heavens song.

The Mayan End Times Prophecy is not an apocalyptic vision of doom attached to a date picked from a hat. Its foundations are (reassuringly) in an astrological system more accurate than the Greogorian calendar that marks out time - notorious for its frequent need of correction. The prophecy has an affinity in aesthetic symbols of destruction, but a modern interpretation can disregard the mysticism of Kali and Xolotl,  instead focusing on the message and its relevance for Now. The similarities between Maya’s ancient-astro-future-projections and contemporary scientists and environmentalists calculated predictions are astonishing in the distance of 1000’s of years that stands between them.The years 1992-2012 that we are fast coming to the end of are momentously entitled the ‘Time of No Time’, the period of realisation at mankinds self destructive path. Cynicism can easily discount the prophecy’s astrological value, but its theoretical resonance is more concrete, as is its beauty. One aspect of Mayan Time is the belief that time is cyclical not linear, just as the Earth is round and not flat. The prophecy’s persuasion power on the rational mind arguably rests on the fact that it does not proclaim impending annihilation of mankind, the earth and the universe (etc.). That fate is possibility not certainty. The message is essentially the pre-empting of the idea that man as a species must either evolve, or face extinction. The success of which is outlined in abstract fuzz as the promise of mankinds entry into the Golden Age of light. The haze is explicable, the Mayans did not know the answer; they left only the question. Perhaps the solution lies in Genesis, we shall see next time.Note: read with selective vision to pierce hippy dust and seize radioactive nuggets. http://www.adishakti.org/mayan_end_times_prophecy_12-21-2012.htm

The Situationnists in their time came up with the concept of “pyscho-geography” which Guy Debord defined as a mapping of the psyche via the effects of the environment, especially the urban environment, on human affects - in Debord’s own words, “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals.” But what would be at the end of the line if we were to reverse this hypothesis, i.e. start from the psyche and correlated individual behaviours to chart the maps that define a geography of affects ? While the initial Situationnists’ idea was best suited to a relatively small environment, reverse psycho-geography probably works best when applied to a whole nation and country.Targeting one of the largest and probably most neurotic countries in the world, Metamoderne has cobbled together 10 entries towards a remapping of American psychosis, an exercise which takes the form of our very own address to the new President-elect ; an exercise which also finds a special resonance with Baudrillard’s introductory fable of the map and the territory, at the beginning of Simulacra and Simulations :

“If we were able to take as the finest allegory of simulation the Borges tale where the cartographers of the Empire draw up a map so detailed that it ends up exactly covering the territory (…) this fable would then have come full circle for us (…). Abstraction today is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal. The territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the territory - precession of simulacra - it is the map that engenders the territory and if we were to revive the fable today, it would be the territory whose shreds are slowly rotting across the map.“  

California Island :Centuries before the San Andreas Fault was even discovered, California was thought by early cartographers to be a separate entity from the rest of the US mainland. An enduring European misconception dating from the 15th century, this myth was associated with the idea that California was in fact the Garden of Eden, or perhaps an early outpost of the Black Women Liberation’s Front.”Know, that on the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by black women, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of Amazons. ” (Las Sergas de Esplandian by Garcia Rodriguez de Montalvo, 1510)

Miss Teen South Carolina :

From Mythical California to Modern-day South Carolina, it seems cartography hasn’t grown necessarily sharper. Hear Miss Teen S.C. rise up against the lack of education and … maps in the US. “For our children.”

US World studies, Jules de Balincourt :

As indicated by Miss Teen South Carolina, American conceptions of the outside world can be fuzzy at times. American artist Jules de Balincourt, in his “US World Studies”, has illustrated a non-sensical reshuffle of inner state geography mixed with the image of a continent cut out from the obscure forces of an alien and no less non-sensical outside world.

The world according to America :

Beyond the mainland lies … the rest. Here are two famous maps in which “U.S.” sounds like “Us” in the “Us and them” formula.

Wasteland America :

On a slightly more practical note, this lego map offers a playful panorama of disseminated nuclear waste across the country. What was that Obama quote again ?

“You can put lipstick on a nuclear waste barrel…” 

 

Kashistan :

“One Nation under God, indivisible…” ? A summary of the socio-economic, religious and political divides that structure the American complexity has been laid out in this funny rendition of a nation where the states of Kashistan seem to share little in common (outside of Ka$h, that is)

 

Single America :

Liberal vs Conservative isn’t the only fault line which plays on American psychoses in Red and Blue colours. Note how, in this 2007 map (from the National Geographic), the repartition of single men and women reveals a surprising divide between the West and the Eastern parts of the country. YMCA Frisco Bay vs Sex in the Apple City ? What if that actually was true ?

Ice cream America :

A similar divide actually pops up in the repartition of obesity rates among states. It seems macrobiotics has definitely got a stronger grip oven California than Mississipi then. 

 

Only one thing is sure though, the rule of ice cream is established firmly throughout the land.

 

“One Scoop to rule them all,

One Scoop to find them, 

One Scoop to bring them all

and in creaminess bind them.”

Amen.

(For our children)

So you thought Marxism was a thing of the past ?

Then ask the real George Lucas (George LucaCs, that is)

” The essence of commodity-structure has often been pointed out. Its basis is that a relation between people takes on the character of a thing and thus acquires a phantom objectivity, an autonomy that seems so strictly rational and all-embracing as to conceal every trace of its fundamental nature: the relation between people. “ 

Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat, 1923 

 

(http://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/history/hcc05.htm ) 

When it doesn’t try to rebrand capitalism under the false equation transparency = honnesty (from Swatch to Jean Nouvel), contemporary design sometimes shows us its true colours and the fetishization of the female body has long been one of its favourite vectors.

Yes, under the consumerist Sun, we are all objects, and some of the following folks could hardly put it any clearer…. 

Pharrell Williams, Perspective Chair (on show at Gallerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris) 

—

 

(Heather and Ellie)

— 

(David LaChapelle) 

—

OK Fuck Marxism : donchu just wanna run and book a table at Japanese restaurant Nyomataimori ?

DIE ART DIE

‘He had too much control over my life.’ 

I Shot Andy Asshol.The ‘Destruction of Art’ in itself, is a sublime contradiction. Art’s nature as a process of creation means that ‘Art’ ironically sanctions its own murder, because although its literal destruction may appear to be sacrilege, the concept that lies behind the destruction of art is unavoidably symptomatic of growth. If a function of Art is human provocation, for art to provoke its own destruction by simply ‘being’, for it to be powerful enough to incite a move beyond the velvet rope that divides the viewed and the viewer, proves its own worth.

‘You’re worshipping the wrong God’s!’Silenus Anonymous AssailantVyner Street E3, within the cultivated decay of the fronts of factories and warehouses is a colony of East London’s fashionable gallery scene. Into this space of white neutrality entered an anonymous person carrying a crowbar. The work this unknown proceeded to attack was ‘Silenus’, an obese, freestanding, phallus clutching Stallion Faun. Whether this desecration was premeditated as art-statement (conceivably even by its own sculptor), or a Hackney resident embittered about the invasion of twats in his local, or as the evidence of their war cry points: someone for whom Silenus had become symbolic of the worship of false idols reflects the endless possibilities of interpretations of destructive acts.Definition Complexities, on a basic level the destruction of artwork is vandalism, even if its destructor confusingly dedicates the action to art itself. Both the planting of a peachy kiss on an expensive Cy Twombly and the pissing in the Duchamp urinal are hilariously naughty whilst being symbolic of the dialogue between artist and viewer as both Pinoncelli (mistaken euro nation) and Rindy (hot lips pretentious bitch) describe their actions as. These acts are the logical progression of contemporary art’s self-analytical obsession, the question of ‘where will it end?’. A question that has been answered beautifully by conceptual art: implosion. Prepare for Breakdown. Art must become art once it is defined as such, whether it is defined by the creator or spectator: shooting a Rembrandt in the face with a sawn-off shotgun is beautiful expression regardless of what intentions the marksman had for the interpretation of their action.The establishment of progress is reliant on venturing further into extremity; each successive person engaged in invisible competition. Breakdown, a statement not the work of a pussy, is symptomatic of this osmosis. In the piece Michael Landy assembled each of his 7227 worldly possessions and systematically annihilated them over a period of two weeks “ leaving him naked but for a pair of overalls borrowed from his girlfriend (who was disappointingly spared inclusion) ” sans credit card, sans passport, sans everything. Amongst his possessions were his own and other friends artworks including of course Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, implicit within this aspect is betrayal encompassing the loss of relationships into the breakdown. Landy had a sense of humour about the extroverted elements of the destruction, when asked in an interview ”What is your favourite smell?” he replied ”Burning gloss paint from Gary Hume’s £25,000 painting. A comment that had the effect of loosing a Turner Prize nomination for ”vandalism” and ”going too far” ; the winning of such a prize however would have made his gesture: renouncement of all: redundant. The Turner panel’s judgment shortsightedly ignored the possibility of a fire in Charles Saatchi’s storage warehouse. Breakdown is ultimate in nature and whether intended or not destroyed him, ”I didn’t want to make any work, I didn’t want to do anything. I didn’t feel the need to”. Following Breakdown Landy turned his attention to etching urban weeds, pursuit which resulted in lasting eye damage. Fuck.Inverting this dedication towards self-destruction results in martyrdom. The romantic possibilities inherent within Art and Destruction come from sacrifice. Bas Jan Ader’s (FAILED) solo voyage across the Atlantic Ocean transcends the materialist concern of Landy’s work into the metaphysical - differentiating itself as spirit quest from anti-capitalist experiment. ‘In Search of the Miraculous’ - a grandiloquent title carried in 12ft of fibreglass minimalism. The realm that ‘In Search’ inhibits in retrospect is distant from the physical, it is the concept & not the sparse photographic evidence immortalised, this distance is the reason why the destructive element to the piece is eclipsed by the creative.”…The question is not yet settled whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence - whether all that is profound - does not spring from disease of thought, from moods of mind exalted at the expenses of the general intellect.”(Edgar Allen Poe)

 

Tyger! Tyger! burning brightIn the forests of the night,What immortal hand or eyeCould frame thy fearful symmetry?In what distant deeps or skiesBurnt the fire of thine eyes?On what wings dare he aspire?What the hand dare seize the fire?And what shoulder, & what art.Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

Oh the shopping trolleys and dark alleys.Our very first monthly whoroscope,is a tribute to the Disco of Tescoand the Dorian Gray sexiness of Video Art.Videoclip for the song “Hands around my throat” by Death in Vegas,taken from the album Scorpio Rising.Directed by the Fearless Richard himself,starring the uber French actress Emmanuelle Seigner.The clip was banned from major music video channels as it shows the belle Emmanuelle caressing her intimate parts before she sets out to strangle herself. Enjoy…Accompanying text : extract of “The Tyger”, a poem by William Blake.

LIKE THE CHANCE ENCOUNTER
OF
THE SEWING MACHINE
AND
JODIE HARSH
ON
AN OPERATING TABLE
,
METAMODERNE
LAUNCHES
INTO
INTERACTIVE S&M POETRY
.
A PIECE
BY
THIS HOUSE OF COMA
SHORTLISTED
BY
THE WELLCOME TRUST.
///
(FLASH DESIGN
BY GetCONFUSED)
///
PRESS ”AUTO PLAY”
AT THE BOTTOM RIGHT HAND CORNER
TO RUN THE PIECE
IN NORMAL SEQUENTIAL ORDER.
OR PRESS ”I WANT TO PLAY”
AND
MASH UP THAT DAMN KEYBOARD
FOR INSTANT GRATIFICATION.
///
E.E.N.N.J.J.O.O.Y.Y
///
click here to watch interactive piece
(
: : :
” ” ”
Invisible inspiration,
vitamin plague,
wonder no more,
like an ancient animal,
the maps of prayer and sleep.
For Nature is thy nurse
and fever your masterpiece.

Molecular mutations of paper people ;
shrunken silver skeletons,
the smoke of a million bottles
tatooed with all things about the art of war,
all pregnant with
the radical serenpidity of sex.

Well the preservation of roses
is well worth a conceptual ceremony.
History of an experiment.
Walking the pain
of your placebo helix,
in a steroid studio,
a nude Apocalypse,
I shall nurture the Unicorn
with some emblematic dreams
of artificial beauty.

Blind, curious and free,
Bullet Woman
& the Knock-out Child
hold their head
and tie their tongue
to the memory
of a revolutionary illness.”
” ” ”
: : :
)