Charlemagne Palestine
Yesterday, I went to Electronic Arts Intermix on 22nd Street in Chelsea to see Charlemagne Palestine, a composer, performer, and visual artist living in Belgium. He was originally a New Yorker, and lived here from birth in 1946 until the mid-70s. He made a lot of ritual actions where he chanted repetitively or clapped his hands against his body, often while holding a video camera, so that the movies that were made also became artwork in addition to the performances. There are strange props in the videos: stuffed animals, clove cigarettes, scarves, and cognac. He is an associate of Tony Conrad and is often associated with minimalism, so everything goes on very repetitively and for a long time. We set...