Hollywood has come to regard the likes of LaBeouf as disposable freelancers: cheap relative to more established stars, there to fill space between the explosions the summer audience really wants to see. In December, LaBeouf used work, without giving credit, by the illustrator Daniel Clowes in his short film, "HowardCantour.com." LaBeouf is currently sitting in a Los Angeles art gallery wearing a paper bag over his head that says “I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE,” and while you could quibble with that statement based on all the press he’s been getting, there's one sense in which it's true: LaBeouf has now become infamous.
Titled #IAMSORRY, the installation features the actor sitting alone in a room with a bag over his head, while audience participants pass through one by one to witness LaBeouf's contrition. Many are saying that this is another example of LaBeouf’s plagiarism, citing a piece by Marina Abramovic where she sat silently while audience members were welcome to do whatever they want with a group of objects, including knives and a loaded gun. When asked her personal opinion of the piece, Abramovic said that the actor was being "manipulative."
Upon entering the exhibit people are told to choose an object from a selection that includes a whip, Transformers toys, Hershey's Kisses, a pair of pliers and a bowl of notes containing Twitter comments about LaBeouf. There are things like a "Transformers" toy, a whip (he starred in 2008's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"), Hershey's kisses, a bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey, a bottle of cologne, pliers, a ukelele and a copy of Daniel Clowes' book, "The Death-Ray." There was no photography allowed, but the implements include a leather whip, a pair of pliers, a vase of daisies, an Optimus Prime Transformer toy, a bowl of Hershey’s kisses, a bowl of folded slips of paper containing tweets about LaBeouf, a large bottle of Jack Daniels, a small bottle of Brut cologne, a pink ukulele, and the graphic novel The Death-Ray by Daniel Clowes.
Once an item is selected attendees are ushered into a second room, in which LaBeouf sits, silently, at a table, with a paper bag on his head. I sat down. I brought in a stem of daisies and laid it on the table. I ask him if I can take a picture. No response. Right before I got up to leave, I pulled one of the mean tweets out of the bowl and read it aloud to him.
As I stand in the alley afterwards, I pull out an audio recorder and mumble some notes, and I'm sort of surprised to find my voice so tremulous. The whole thing may be deeply ingenuine, but it was genuinely disturbing: sitting across from LaBeouf, whose head-bag is ragged and tear-stained, I found it impossible not to have empathy, to feel ashamed of myself for participating in a public emotional flogging (nevermind that it was orchestrated by the punished, nevermind that it may be even less sincere than Dumb Starbucks). I’ll be honest: in the moment after I took that picture, I actually felt something real. But was he sorry, or was I?
Kenneth Goldsmith is a writer and curator based in New York and an artist and writer based in Los Angeles.
VERY CLEVER
Dear Kenneth,
Your report gives few details about this performance so I had to resort to USA Today:
The exhibit is a collaborative project between LaBeouf, Finnish performance artist Nastja Säde Rönkkö and British artist Luke Turner, according to a press release sent to Time.
It took place at The Cohen Gallery, which USA informs us is "is across the street from BuzzFeed's L.A. offices," adding parenthetically, "Probably just a coincidence, right?"
Like you, the Daily Beast's Andrew Romano was oddly moved by the whole spectacle. "I actually felt something real. Something strange and complex. Something like sympathy. …"
This is probably more of a USA Today-type story, and USA Today-type performance art, but it's always interesting to see what you're interested in.
Personally I'd like more sociology on how porous the gallery world and the film biz are in LA. I got messages yesterday that Parker Ito had sold a painting at auction for $93,000 USD, which is pretty good for a n00b, and one of the reasons for the high price tag is that film director Harmony Korine is a collector of his art. Maybe as a cross-NY-LA correspondent and assiduous documenter of the avant garde through ubuweb, WFMU, etc, you can help us understand the interrelationship of art and pure promo hype in the tinseltown art scene.
Best, Tom
Ha ha, this will teach me not to skim and troll (or at least, mouse-over).
http://www.tommoody.us/archives/2014/02/25/real-reply-to-a-fake-critic/
Hi Tom, it seems we erred too far on the side of subtlety with this one, sorry about that :P
Coincidentally, I'm going to be in LA this week for a show I curated at a commercial gallery, and we do also have some research ongoing that might open up this discussion in a more interesting way for you.
Pure promo hype just makes everyone feel bad in the end…But, I like a lot of Harmony Korine's work, and I'm glad to hear he's collecting art.
Thanks as always for your thoughtful comments.
It's too late to lobby you about that LA show but here's what I wrote in 2003 comparing Jeremy Blake to a then-lesser-known artist named Cory Arcangel: http://www.digitalmediatree.com/tommoody/?21430
I see your LA show is centered on an earlier Blake work, Liquid Villa, which was more intriguing than the "abstract grid" phase I was referring to (or any of Blake's later work), but the Occam's Razor issues about Blake's computer art – what's the simplest, most un-aestheticized expression a computer is capable of producing? – was never vetted, because the Mr. Market had already decided Blake was important.
Uggh – typo – Mr. Market does not need a definite article.
Semi-correction: I was confusing Liquid Villa with an even earlier Blake work, Bungalow 8. The latter work packed a wallop during its run at Feigen Contemporary, Liquid Villa was basically a repeat performance and not as good (but still, maybe, better than those grid pieces that came later).
Hi Tom - w/r/t your question about LA collectors, this is worth a look:
http://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/stefan_simchowitz_interview
But did he ever star in "Afghanistan The Movie"?
http://slanderous.org/default_a.htm. It was predicted years ago by Joe Edit.
Michael, thanks for the link to the Simchowitz interview. He is quite the self-regarding loudmouth, or "amplification nodule," to use his term. Interesting that he gives no credit to Rhizome or the pre-Facebook blogosphere for first introducing his stable of "Post-Internet" superstars – it's as if they had no careers or critical recognition before he started pushing them. His presence on the scene should make Rhizome uneasy about continuing to carry critical water for the brand (it certainly does me). Perhaps enough has been done for that particular group of artists – they have him now.