Rejected proposal "Action Pants" for Off the Strip at the Contemporary Art Center, Las Vegas.
Action Pants Proposal for Off the Strip Contemporary Art Center, Las Vegas February 2009
In 1968, artist Valie Export performed her work Action Pants: Genital Panic in a Munich porn theater. She walked up and down the aisles, wearing crotchless pants and wielding a machine gun as she confronted the mostly male audience with her exposed genitalia. She challenged the passive audience to take a look at “the real thing” in opposition to the mediated and idealized bodies on the screen.
Forty years later, I made my video work Action Pants in reference to Export’s work. In this performance for the camera, I used a razor blade to cut away the crotch of the jeans I was wearing. The work uses close-ups of the act of cutting to heighten the visceral impact of the work through the tension between flesh and potential violence.
Images of showgirls, scantily clad cocktail waitresses, and strippers define the lurid appeal of the Las Vegas strip. These women’s bodies are turned into fetish objects, and appear like mute sex-dolls, devoid of their own sexual possession. With Action Pants, I aim to present female sexuality in a raw and direct manner to counter the distorted and depersonalized fantasy representations of women.
For Off the Strip, I propose looping my video Action Pants on a large outdoor digital screen amongst the advertisements for casinos and shows. If this is not technically possible, the work could be projected on the outside of a building or other public architecture.
Rejected proposal "Action Pants" for Off the Strip at the Contemporary Art Center, Las Vegas.
Action Pants Proposal for Off the Strip Contemporary Art Center, Las Vegas February 2009
In 1968, artist Valie Export performed her work Action Pants: Genital Panic in a Munich porn theater. She walked up and down the aisles, wearing crotchless pants and wielding a machine gun as she confronted the mostly male audience with her exposed genitalia. She challenged the passive audience to take a look at “the real thing” in opposition to the mediated and idealized bodies on the screen.
Forty years later, I made my video work Action Pants in reference to Export’s work. In this performance for the camera, I used a razor blade to cut away the crotch of the jeans I was wearing. The work uses close-ups of the act of cutting to heighten the visceral impact of the work through the tension between flesh and potential violence.
Images of showgirls, scantily clad cocktail waitresses, and strippers define the lurid appeal of the Las Vegas strip. These women’s bodies are turned into fetish objects, and appear like mute sex-dolls, devoid of their own sexual possession. With Action Pants, I aim to present female sexuality in a raw and direct manner to counter the distorted and depersonalized fantasy representations of women.
For Off the Strip, I propose looping my video Action Pants on a large outdoor digital screen amongst the advertisements for casinos and shows. If this is not technically possible, the work could be projected on the outside of a building or other public architecture.