Friday, April 27, 2007

Artsy Prepuce

In case you don't know, a prepuce is an old word for foreskin. The most famous prepuce in the world is the Holy Prepuce, and maybe, as of last night, the most famous prepuce (at least in Washington, DC) hanging in an art gallery now hangs at the "Supple" exhibition in the Warehouse Galleries, as last night Adrian Parsons self circumcised himself in front of a rapt audience. He then hung the foreskin on the gallery wall.


Performance artist Adrian Parsons with his foreskin hanging on the wall
Adrian with his foreskin hanging on the wall

At the start... yesterday I attended the gala opening for artDC, and the place was packed with dealers, collectors, press and artsy folks.

I left pretty late and pretty tired (I had risen at 4AM in the morning as I had an early morning appointment in Annapolis).

And so I unfortunately decided to head to bed, rather than head on over to Warehouse across the street.

It was there, at the opening of "Supple," that Parsons may have become the world's first arts mohel.

But tonight, after spending the whole day at artDC, around 10PM I did go to see "Supple" and also "No Representation" at Warehouse, and while there we ran into Parsons, who gave me a walking tour of "Supple" and he described the whole self-circumcision performance for me.

Below is a video of the self-circumcision - all normal warnings apply:





Video of Adrian Parsons' Shrapnel Performance
Update: YouTube has removed the video, but the CP has it here


If you can handle it, check out the photographs of the performance and the self-circumcision here.

Reviews of Supple, No Representation, and artDC coming soon. The men go: Ouch!

Wanna go to a Baltimore opening tonight?

The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) highlights eight first-year students in MICA’s graphic design master of fine arts (M.F.A.) program in conjunction with the Graphic Design MFA Thesis Exhibition. First-Year Graphic Design MFA Exhibition provides a glimpse into the work of emerging artists and graduate students in the College’s graduate programs. The exhibition takes place in Bunting Center’s Pinkard Gallery at 1401 Mount Royal Avenue, with an opening reception on Friday, April 27, 5–7 p.m.

The eight students showcasing their works are Kim Bentley, Viviana Cordova, John Corrigan, Hyun Soo Lim, Gregory May, Kelley McIntyre, April Osmanof, and Yue Tuo. The exhibition goes through May 2, 2007.