performance/video diptych, 2012
left side 7 min 11 sec, set on indefinite loop
right side 3 min 36 sec, set on indefinite loop
both sides play simultaneously, with competing soundtracks
displayed on 46″ HD flat screen monitors, hung vertically and side by side
GRATEFUL-ACIDPUNK-EDECLIC is dedicated to the late John Perry Barlow.
GRATEFUL-ACIDPUNK-EDECLIC comments on the psychedelic underground. It points toward the role which psychedelics have played in the advancement of humankind. Specifically it references the impact psychedelics have played within the technologies industry and within popular music. The piece further takes a post-feminist look at women in rock and documents the unceasing ‘changing of the guard’ within subculture.
GRATEFUL-ACIDPUNK-EDELIC is a homage to musical subculture and creative freedom. It nostalgically references how these were once integral aspects of the San Francisco Bay Area, before the recent mass gentrification.
Two sides of the diptych play simultaneously with competing soundtracks. On the left is a humorous and idealized female character from the Bay Area’s psychedelic world of the late 1960’s surrounded by moving fractals. She sings Sugaree accompanied by a vocal-less version of the track by the Grateful Dead. On the right we find a late 1970’s character singing March of the Chrome Police by Bay Area Punk psychedelic phenomenon Chrome. She performs with the band’s legendary, experimental guitarist Helios Creed, and both are drenched in video effects reminiscent of the era’s Target Video. The piece acknowledges both bands prospective impacts on the evolution and deconstruction of sound in popular music.