OAF Obscure Artist Front unite!
INDIVIDUAL: Artist overlooked by “art-world” bourgeoisie curatorial elitists, gallery patron snob, and apathetic public numbed by entertainment spectacle.
GROUP SIZE: Apathetic public too vast to conduct census numbers but OAF target of Artopia 2015 held approximate two thousand and five hundred capacity crowd of sell out.
NATURE OF GROUP: Bourgeois elitist and apathetic public too numbed by entertainment spectacle to recognize art of passion and humility even when literal hit on head with it.
INCIDENCE: OAF Obscure Artist Front unite!
See site-blog of OAF for full realization to power of internets!
Event of Artopia rumored to be annual examination of popular art and artist in Denver Colorado of USA but in actual to be vapid spectacle of libation and hollow entertainment! OAF reject bourgeoisie curatorial elitists who select what is art of value to uneducated apathetic public!!
Two month in future of event Artopia, OAF agents (1) band together to attack media of curatorial elite (2) with internets comment, OAF website blog, and flyer on corners with solicitation for obscure artist to unite and submit jpeg art of passion and authenticity to OAF on web portal!
OAF manifesto link to site for read statement of passion and authenticity.
OAF unite flyer with fringe cut bottom for upload jpeg art without curatorial elitist gate keeping.
Few of many artist submission to portal OAF print on mini canvas of on archival premium gesso to blast from air bike pump powered air cannon. click for to enlarge stunning artworks. Top to bottom: Alexis Leigh Warner, Tony Bearzy, Bertha Sangre, Anthony Garcia Sr., David Lemmo, Charlie Vurmin, Peter Yumi. Link to scroll for to see all of art submission jpeg.
One month in future of Artopia, OAF post threat video on Artopia event facebook showing demonstration of capability to rain down mini-canvases of obscure art with bike pump powered air cannon onto heads of apathetic Artopia patron to much fanfare of click-liking. Submission of jpeg to web portal increase with more flyer on corners and advertisement on Denver Craigslist. OAF agents gathered for back-alley bike pump powered air cannon training, beret fitting, and video reel inspiration of nihilist scene from Big Lebowski and trailer of The Baader Meinhof Complex. (3)
OAF from Obscure Artists Front on Vimeo.
On night of big events OAF agents storm building of Artopia refusing to wait in line for passive consumption or to pay cover of support for bourgeoisie entertainment spectacle. With 1111 mini canvases of obscure art inkjet printed on archival premium gesso canvas from over two dozens obscure artist comrades, OAF forced attention of apathetic public to plight of Obscure artist with four hour of mini art canvas bike-pump powered explosion terror!! (4)
OAF Artopia 2015 great blow strike for obscure artist toiling in obscurity and overlooked by “art-world” bourgeoisie curatorial elitists, dealers, gallery patron snob, and apathetic public numbed by entertainment spectacle. Almost 1 year to day Artopia 2016 will once again deploy passive consumerism to numb intoxication public into serene feeling of placid calm and enjoyment. OAF will NOT grace event with presence and continues to lay low in safe house uncaptured by jackboot thugs employed by elites of spectacle promulgation and shall live to emerge one day victorious in our conquest!!!! (5)
Obscure Artist Front UNITE!
Photos: landscape Kendall Pavan, Portrait Peter Miles Bergman,
glamour shot 4 frames up Westword / Ken Hamblin
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(1) In 2015 Denver’s Westword newspaper, the entity that organizes Artopia, sought to freshen up the brand by inviting renowned Denver street artist JOLT to curate the event. JOLT sent an RFQ text message to this agent which we responded to with links to the QwestVex and Carpet Cranes reports detailing coordinated public art interventions. His response was curatorially prescient, “We’ve got some t-shirt cannons. Can do anything with those?”
(2) OAF was formed by a cadre of special agents of the Institute of Sociometry, or (at the time) IS. IS assigned a case agent and put together a spreadsheet budget with the following line items: 1 dozen black turtlenecks, 1 dozen French style black berets, 6 black shotgun shell bandoliers, inkjet canvas matte 24”x40’ – 1 roll. The t-shirt cannons weren’t panning out so an IS technician began welding spare stainless steel handrail parts from their commercial construction day job into bike pump powered air cannons.
(3) After watching the stylish German revolutionaries in The Baader Meinhof Complex trailer get gunned down by a jack-booted tactical response unit we contacted security at the Artopia venue with a notification that a dozen black-clad artists with face coverings and shoulder sling stainless steel pipe contraptions were part of the evening’s art showcase and under so circumstances were to be shot.
(4) Coming down the stairs in formation from the third level of the Artopia venue, an annoyed patron with a sloshing full drink yelled, “You LOOK LIKE ISIS!!” The reference of course being to the middle east militia, terrorist group, and quasi governmental organization Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. ISIS (an acronym preferred by mainstream media) is also known as ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, preferred by President Obama and the US security and military apparatus), Daesh (a derisive word-play which is the acronym ISIL translated into arabic, “al-Dawla al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham”, but sounds like two arabic words; daes, ‘one who crushes something underfoot’ and dahes, ‘one who sows discord“. Both arabic words have the popular synonymous connotation of “jackass”. Daesh is preferred by The State Department, David Cameron, François Hollande, and the governments of Iraq and Syria). The organization itself identifies as IS for The Islamic State (this acronym has been picked up by wonkish media like The Economist magazine). Not only did we look like ISIS or ISIL or Daesh but OAF was in fact a product of The Institute of Sociometry – we WERE IS…
Photos: Kendall Pavan
(5) On November 13th 2015 three IS terrorists armed with military grade automatic weapons and suicide detonation belts stormed the 1,500 capacity Bataclan concert hall in Paris as part of a city wide attack planned by IS central command in Raqqa Syria. 90 of the 130 total victims in the Paris attacks died in the Bataclan. As part of the horrified international populace, this agent was also faced with the acronym IS everywhere I looked – tied to twenty years of art-intervention pranks by myself and my fellow agents in The Institute of Sociometry. My hard drive was named IS. My business cards said IS. My life’s work was brought to you by IS. I spent the rest of the month, and continue to this day, changing every instance of IS to is – lower case – as not to be confused with an organization who has hijacked our acronym. The type of organization that inspires a small group of actors to cover their faces in black and storm an entertainment venue to enforce their views on an unsuspecting crowd…
When JOLT sent an RFQ text for Artopia 2016, “You got anything for Artopia this year?” we begged off citing some other projects. In truth, the age of OAF and borderline threatening art pranks post-Bataclan is over. Terrorists, if we are to believe George W. Bush, “hate freedom”. Now and never into the future will is have the freedom be do another intervention like OAF. With the heightened state of fear, and an armed to the teeth American population, an OAF agent in 2016 would become a martyr for a laugh. Dead on the dance floor, clutching a mini canvas reproduction of an elk painting someone on Craigslist uploaded to a website. When is comes to IS… The terrorists have won.
OAF with Artopia curator JOLT and fellow Artopia artist Diego Manuel
Photo: Eric Robert Dallimore
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OAF is (or was) special agents: Peter Miles Bergman, Jim Hanson, Heather Link-Bergman, Matt Albert, Tony Bearzy, Ron Reeves, Sara Krieger, Victoria Furt, Alexandra Jimenez, Michael Bernhardt, Vincent Comparetto, and Carolyne Janssen