INSTALLATION // PERFORMANCE

COWBOY CALLING

Cowboy Calling is an installation and performance that took place at UCLA in 2011. The work consisted of a portable stage, fifteen individual paintings, three performers, and one original song. The work existed as a response to UCLA’s decision to halt funding for the event Festivus Collectivus under the assumption that the project  did not belong within the context of the contemporary conversation. The majority of my work while at UCLA existed as an attempt to create a bridge between the world of contemporary theory and gallery work  with the process of art making seen in the uprising of transformative festivals throughout California. Cowboy Calling was designed to directly confront the faculty and students that consistently resisted my attempts at creating this union of contemporary art and spirituality.

The performance began during my final school critique as I assumed the character Janx, backed up by two other performers from our troupe, the Bushwa Hawkers. During the critique performance,  I presented fifteen paintings that followed a typical folk-art aesthetic, utilizing stylistic methods such as quilting and simplistic line work. The subject matter of all the work involved symbols in reference to the American Cowboy story arch along with alien representations.

I described my painting final as being inspired by a religious experience where I met an alien cowboy in Joshua Tree, California during a camping trip. The alien had given me the secret to enlightenment and all the works under critique were my attempts to interpret this message. I then attempted to sell the piece de resistance   to my classmates for a total of $50,000.  When no one bought the piece, we performed the final part of piece, the original song, Cowboy Calling.

The piece was performed again during show Here’s Your Hat, What’s Your Hurry?, at the Broad Art Center.