Carolee Schneemann DIVISIONS AND RUBBLE notes

Stepping forward activating a switch under their feet which would start fans blowing on a suspended wire cage full of-Vietnam atrocity photos. (original image: this entire area full of loose photos blowing, slapping people as they move. Weak fans - change to cage.) The natural debris: a rotten mattress, plastic garbage bags filled with leaves, old clothes, food containers, discarded toys, dirty papers. One wall collaged with huge torn l.b.J. image and Vietnam photos (again from my film, "Viet-Flakes"). Groups of words smeared for lbj Who Destroys Dreams buckets of paint brushes hammers nails scissors for people to use as

STAR LUST ROCKET SHIP remember star lust lust lust to be star to be shaking sky ward lust i don't want to describe it at all at all leave it all to you to do and you can do it yes please

Conditions: very small space, few days to construct, no money available; found materials. Garbage gestalt; what refuse would be found in immediate vicinity -- natural to Thompson & West 4th. And image for the room: a place that was already destroyed, a place that would undergo progressive destruction. Any materials left from previous manipulations could be incorporated. A discomforting labyrinth, cubicles, closures all through it of paper or fabric which the participants would have to first cut and tear their -.,:ay through. Grim, Dark and Dirty. At first points of entrance flashing slides seen through networks of remaining cloth/ paper enclosures. (Slides of Meat Joy," "Water Light/Water Needle," "Snows.") Focus becoming clearer as subsequent cloths are torn away. A turn to a group of false doors, pushed, banged open

(those north americans hard stiff cold repressed brutality sentimentality wouldn't hurt a dog might just kick a dog moving into icy psychic technological "cool" have to turn them all on and on falling in love they are full of hope and fearful emotion)

saw that everything in the world was quivering shining undulating ionic plasmic life dancing (we rarely perceive cut off from it) in the country in silence peace unbroken moments seasons in the quiet we feel internal light become light hinged all around in us city breaks inner life motions fused to utility mechanical labyrinths ring us we are taken that much further away

these distances compacted in organic waste the nature of debris rhythms textures densities relating to source no pure moment of perception this tangle concrete and metaphorical banal and fantastic (sure they lack charm they play with magic charms in the world everything dies under their hands and they dont know why they blame secretly they indulge in false pleasures-and are depressed)

Those three words I wanted thought well that's a start (or and end?) lets not forget "by their garbage you shall know them" not having a prescribed beginning it would not have a defined end -- that appealed to me (my Ferry environment-for-sleeping destroyed in three hours) this time i was hoping for an undefined irritable sort of destructiveness enacting transforming the environment by its own nature Vietnam images to compact this but the people were thoughtful quiet slowly cutting carefully pushing avoiding the floor switch which shot off the photos (finally plugged the fans in directly) tapes of crying cats beast complaint and comment

Cock Robber killed Che Malcolm X JFK (pale culture) D.H.L. V. Woolf Wilhelm Reich Artaud Bruce atcetcetcetdm.hggks

Destruction -- furthest degree of transformation an element undergoes toward extinction. Destruction not always negative.

(wild thing/wild life confuses them makes them uneasy bugs birds snake mud dirt sand dust discourage them their insecurity increases- guilty cast-out full of anger and impatience their pleasures obstructed egoistic guarded jealous of their effectiveness they feel crowded they open to everything to devour it render it harmless they misunderstand their need of one another they proportion ration contacts emotions distrustful distrusted open naive and generous! their myth their dream which always escapes them/destroys them)

-- and it would already be found in state of decay - a progressive destruction. Contrasted against a rural agricultural ancient delicate organically balanced society which had no garbage -consumed without waste, without exploitation; so integrated that its very waste became nourishment -- fertilizer, mulch, materials for building, clothing ( A vegetable culture basically. & AT WHAT YOU KILL yeah)

That nothing can be created without destroying something. But we can destroy without creating. (Creation carries degrees of destruction, transposition, changing original nature of material, element.)

DIVISIONS AND RUBBLE a destruction event

Basic image An environment which people will have to destroy to enter it, to move in it: means of action altering action/means of perception altering perception. An exposed process.

like it or not activists -- every situation has its Star Stars -a matter of matter energy presence response reaction sensitivity clarity. Star of Divisions and Rubble happened to be Carol Grossberg (director of Angry Arts) who feather footed into debris, "at home" with atrocity imagery (also her "pin-ups"?). Off she went sort of humming to herself, self-involved she moved rags around, kicked open doors, knocked piles of leaves open, napped on the rotten mattress, rhythmically attacked ripped montage of lbj with red paint, became immersed in a hacking structure of red and black stroked over walls, molding, windows, around into photo images. Her activity setting off impulses in others; rich confusion of actions.

you can't tell an idea STOP I'm not ready for another idea yeats -you can ignore it put it out of yur head but a real impulse insight zooming in try and stop it youd be mad or to stop voluptuous mad wild desire lust superimposition dream action breaking yur eyeballs open

What we need and want we want everyone else to have a chance at -- it ensures our gains, affirms their importance, provides an enlarged "community". Getting sexual beast nature love cleared into immediate, organic energy awareness exchange. (Now struggling with political forms,, pot, acid, "black power"# technology# conservation all of which would carry liberation of old wormy white-spirit energy and the clarification of sick autocratic ambivalence towards woman.)

(they gather concentration for work, materials of "earning"; they are not concentrated for loving -- to be abandoned, childlike, convinced joy can be in them for then their due. Cut off in their emotion their relations to materials objects landscapes and each other become brittle inconsequential they keep moving they are accepting of what surrounds then lacking interior self-confidence to change and be changed. Giving going over to emotion is most difficult they employ masks costumes festivities which reveal them slightly. They are hot or cold they do not stream in their flesh. Many stream in their mouths out of their mouths and they confuse shit and material, shit and sex, excretion with excess gifts with taking - that is,, losing essence so bewildered are they as to where essence might live in them. Cut off from their own essential natures they are incalculably dangerous.

all the things this generation has individually discovered defined hacked hewn structured as unique personal becoming spectrum of interchangeable elements freely available and subject to certain commonplace understandings and surprising now uses

Original format: Two legal-size sheets printed on both sides.

Adapted for the web by Andrew Stafford.
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