As VEC Performer
A typical example of a Summers performance is Rain, the text of which first appeared in the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee's Cream City Review in 1983.
-
- Rain
- Performed poem with
- prerecorded sound.
-
- From the sky drop
- 100,00 pieces of
- blue paper with
- a word printed
- on each.
-
- Tape sound multi-
- tracked voice copies
- words.
-
- Words: Drip, Drop, Splish,
- Splash, Pitter-Patter,
- Drizzle, Plit-Plat.
-
- Performed at Sur and Hasselt,
- Belgium, on 4 September 1982,
- With Liz Summers and
- Theo van der Aa.
A photo of Summers in the midst of the performance accompanies this text. We see him clutching an umbrella, dressed in a rain coat, sitting on a folding chair in the middle of a down-pour of paper released from the ceiling of the space. A few on-lookers seem bemused, turning away, while others are clearly caught up in the humor of the piece. Humor is an essential part of many of Summers' performances, albeit the humor of a zen koan, or of the impassive presence of Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton. A broader sense of humor, however, is evident in Summers' audio drama, where change of voice, sound effects and unlikely twists of plot clearly show the artist's debt to The Goon Show and Monty Python. The on-going Helgisaga project (1985–present) is a good example of this mode of operation.
Read more about this topic: Rod Summers
Famous quotes containing the word performer:
“Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face. As soon as one is aware of being “somebody,” to be watched and listened to with extra interest, input ceases, and the performer goes blind and deaf in his overanimation. One can either see or be seen.”
—John Updike (b. 1932)