Atomic Elroy

tryptic self portrait

tryptic self portrait

Oct. 6, 2012

NFS Commodifying The Ephemeral at Studio Atomique

In conjunction with Artober art’s month in Sacramento, Studio Atomique will present a video installation byAtomic Elroy and Zelda Bubbles titled ” – NFS – Commodifying The Ephemeral”. Sat. Oct. 13, 2012. 6-9pm. At Studio Atomique’s midtown location 1914 P Street.

NFS Commodifying The Ephemeral, references the paradox of selling video, installation, and performance art in an art market designed to commodify objects.

…The longer the better” (Barney Bozo) honk honk!

What can I say about Firesign Theatre… They are called the Beatles of comedy… but they left the Beatles in their tracks. They Were the Bach of comedy with exquisite 4 part contrapuntal lines of dialog that enveloped your mind in a mesmerizing macrocosm of mirth. I first heard Firesign in 1968 on the radio, side two of “How Can You Be In Two Places At Once, When You’re Not Anywhere at All” ( take that Fiona Apple). It was Love at first sound! I immediately went out and bought the album and wore it out. They were great, 2 Yale Drama grads ( Proctor and Bergman), a Radio DJ (Ossman), and a Rock Star ( Austin). They wrote the densest heavily referenced comedy ever. I had never heard of half the writers they referenced, and of course had to go out get educate myself as to who Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, etc. were. The material was complex, I remember friends who didn’t like “I Think Were All Bozos On This Bus” because it was too complicated. It was four things going on at once, but this was the age of head phones.
In a One Man show I did a few years back “I Was A Teenage Surrealist” I used the “Pep Rally” from ” Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Pass Me The Pliers” as an example if the surrealist humor prevalent when I was going to High School. They were so influential in my development. Firesign, Zappa, Beckett, Lennon were my big 4.

Bergman a Yale graduate was the founding member he had a radio show in LA called Radio Free OZ, which was the central point around which the Firesign formed. He also coined the phrase Love-In.
Rest In Peace, Duke of Madness.

on the social disease networks… content=advertising… and the boys and girls can’t tell the difference…

The great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable. No virtuous man — that is, virtuous in the Y.M.C.A. sense — has ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading.” – H. L. Menckin

It just dawned on me… I LOVE TV… Not what’s on it. but the medium itself. I’ve been fascinated since I was quite young with TV. I loved the way the device looked as much as I loved Capt. Kangaroo and Sheri Lewis. Yes I’m that old.
Part of the fascination is the fact that my family didn’t have a TV for long stretches of time, it would go haywire and my Mom didn’t have the money to fix it. So up until I was about 9 yrs. old TV was a treat. Since then it’s been a love hate relationship.
After my early teen years I lost interest in TV. There were only 4 or 5 channels, and most of it did not appeal to a Teenage Surrealist such as my self. Then when we moved to Colorado in the late 60′s the star was one of the early adopters of cable TV, which had it’s perks, they broadcast underground FM radio on cable so most everyone I knew had there stereo receivers hooked up to it. I also allowed 24 hr. viewing and it certainly helped on certain evening under the influence of psychedelics to have something other than “snow” to watch.
I took TV production in College and learned camera operations, switching, tape editing, etc. I investigated the physical internal science of TVs, but it quickly went right over my head, I understood RGB, and the tube technology conceptually and not scientifically. Yet This only made my LOVE grow.
The expense of video production at the time was prohibitive even for organizations, let alone individuals. VHS helped but it really was a shitty format and difficult to edit. That never stopped me, I still used TV and most importantly TV sets ( monitors) as an integral part of my theatre/art practice.
The advent of digital video and the miniDV format changed everything and caused the video revolution ( which is being televised sorry Gil) we live in now.
Truly I love the way TV monitors look, I love to see 5 of them in a row, I love to see them lying flat on the floor screen up. I also Love how faces look in close up on a monitor. It just excites me to see Video Installations in museums.
Now here comes the part people are bound to disagree with… TV is the modern canvas. The advent of photography made realistic rendering in painting and drawing useless and quaint. Don’t get me wrong I’m not one of those who every 5 years declares pinging dead, it’s not, and never will be, it’s just… well… antiquated, like wax cylinders or cassette tapes. Yes I a firm believer my AADD is not a malady but a blessing. Things never change fast enough for me.
I am biased my LOVE of TV monitors makes me want to see entire museums with nothing but TV monitors and projectors in them ( hint, hint on my next art venture in NoCal.) So there it is I am a Video Installation artist because I LOVE TVs, Some say I use them to a fault, but who cares when it’s LOVE baby go for it!