A Gorilla Performance and Exhibition by Tina Takemoto & Jennifer Parker
Preformed on June 21, 2006 during the opening of the Matthew Barney: Drawing Restraint exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition itself showcased sculptural installations, drawings, and photographs related to Drawing Restraint 9, a recent film by Matthew Barney (also playing at SFMOMA), featuring Barney and Björk as “occidental guests” on a whaling ship in Japan. Their epic non-narrative journey includes being prepared and dressed in elaborate fur kimonos by Japanese lady servants, participating in a formal and “informative” tea ceremony, and erotically slicing each other’s legs off in order to grow whale tails and swim off as whales.
In response, Takemoto (aka Björk-Geisha) and Parker (aka Matthew-Whaler) arrived at the opening and presented unsolicited performances of fan dancing, lip synching, samurai whaling, and chopstick hara-kiri amidst crowds of confused viewers and gallery guards who couldn’t determine whether they were part of the hired entertainment or not.
To view performance documentation on YouTube click here and gallery installation at Famina Potens Gallery in San Francisco, California can be viewed below.
