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Topic

 

”It’s too early yet,’ thought he, glancing at the hairdresser’s cuckoo-clock, and seeing it was only nine.’ — Gustave Flaubert

‘God does not play dice with the world. Yet there is now abundant laboratory evidence that unpredictability reigns supreme at the atomic realm. Newton’s majestic clockwork has been replaced with a cuckoo clock cosmos, hooked up to a random number generator.’ — Albert Einstein

‘I wind my way across a black donut hole / and space that clunks. / Once I saw on a stage, / as if at the bottom of a mineshaft, / the precise footwork / of some mechanical ballet. / It was like looking into the brain / of a cuckoo clock and it carried / some part of me away forever.’ — Elaine Equi

‘Switzerland is a small, steep country, much more up and down than sideways, and is all stuck over with large brown hotels built on the cuckoo clock style of architecture.’ — Ernest Hemingway

‘Wouldst thou be taught, when sleep has taken flight, / By a sure voice that can most sweetly tell, / How far off yet a glimpse of morning light, / And if to lure the truant back be well, / Forbear to covet a Repeater’s stroke, / That, answering to thy touch, will sound the hour; / Better provide thee with a Cuckoo-clock / For service hung behind thy chamber-door; / And in due time the soft spontaneous shock, / The double note, as if with living power, / Will to composure lead, or make thee blithe as bird in bower.’ — William Wordsworth

‘Somewhere a cuckoo-clock, having struck between twenty and thirty, became the echo of a street city, which now entering the mew gave Quid pro quo! Quid pro quo! Directly.’ — Samuel Beckett

 

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Further

Cuckooland Museum
Black Forest Clocks .org
The World’s Largest Cuckoo Clocks
Cuckoo Clock World
Cuckoo Clock Nest
Edible Gingerbread Cuckoo Clock with Internal gears
Cuckoo Clock Hospital
Cuckoo Clock @ Facebook
Cuckoo Bird Sounds

 

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Newbies

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‘Do you want to make those fairy tales come to life, which you might have heard in your childhood days? Well, not all stories can come to life, but the Wildermann cuckoo clock for sure gives the feel of a fairy tale. This wall mountable cuckoo clock is a bizarre mix of modern tech, with it’s red LED display, and old world materials and craftsmanship with the cut wood in the shape of wood forest creatures.’ — this next

 

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‘This interesting project by French artist Stephane Vigny, is a combination of a cuckoo clock and a giant loud speaker. When the bass is loud, the largest speaker on the bottom is released on a hinge-mechanism and catapulted into the room, retreating back to the cabinet when the sound softens.’ — Make:

 

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‘The Long Now Foundation are taking a much longer view than next year, or even the next hundred years. They’re building a clock into the side of a mountain in Texas which will run for 10,000 years. The 200-foot tall clock is being built on a piece of land in the Sierra Diablo Mountains, in West Texas. It will tick once a year, with a century hand that advances once every hundred years and a cuckoo that comes out once each millennium. Carved into the mountain are five room-sized anniversary chambers; the one year anniversary chamber contains an orrery showing our solar system’s planets and the Earth’s moon, in addition to all of the interplanetary probes that we’ve launched during our first century in space. The orrery will run an automatic animation sequence once each year.’ — Gizmodo

 

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‘Struggling actors in Hollywood have a new way to lose their dignity. As part of a new cereal promotion, a 66-foot cuckoo clock has been unveiled in Los Angeles featuring actors in costume as the cuckoo bird, or, in this case, shark.’ — CNN

 

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‘Designer Chris Dimino created a cuckoo clock themed after Stanley Kubrick‘s classic The Shining. Dimino was challenged to create a cuckoo clock in which the clock itself, the cuckoo motion, sound, and the pendulum capture a moment in time fitting these elements to a concept. The solution was the classic moment from The Shining in which Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance comes crashing through the door wielding an ax. The clock mimics the moment from the film, and every hour Jack breaks through the door and the famous line “Here’s Johnny” plays followed by a scream by Shining co-star Shelly Duvall.’ — Slash Film

 

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‘Dubbed the Nooka Cuckoo by designer Hannes Grebin, this concept cuckoo watch features a digital, Tamagotchi-esque bird that appears on screen to delineate the time. And indeed, its mixture of an angled roof and rounded bottom seems to merge modern design trends with the iconic bird house clock of yore.’ — Yanko Design

 

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‘With themes ranging from violence, to death and even sex, these extreme cuckoo clocks by German artist Stefan Strumbel exaggerate the traditional cuckoo clock with elements of urban art and pop art. Five years ago he decided to stop painting graffiti and concentrated on his art. Strumbel’s clocks, which are based on traditional models but are adorned with grenades and handguns instead of rabbits and antlers, now sell through Galerie Springmann in Freiburg for $1,200 to $35,000 each.’ — Trendland

 

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‘Wind these guns like watches with a key that’s stored underneath the barrels, and when they’re “fully loaded” use your thumb to pull back the safety levers. Then squeeze the triggers. What emerges is not a bullet but the tiny bird, no larger than a cherry pit. It rotates around its own axis, flaps its wings, shakes its tail and moves its two-millimeter beak. It even sings. (Unlike the cuckoo in a clock, it doesn’t tell time.) On May 20, not one but a pair of identical singing-bird pistols, estimated to sell for 20 million Hong Kong dollars to 40 million Hong Kong dollars for the pair (US$2.5 million to US$5.1 million), will go on sale at Christie’s auction of watches. These pistols, which date back to roughly 1820, are attributed to the Rochat brothers, Swiss artisans who pioneered the art of mechanical singing birds.’ — Coocooclocks.org

 

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‘Ben Hagari’s ‘Cuckoo’ is a video and sculpture piece made from a two-story gallery window (Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv). The video is a cuckoo clock with his eyes looking out of it. Running for twelve hours, the video is projected from sunset to sunrise. Every half hour he says “cuckoo” and a cuckoo bird comes out. The sculpture is a relief with parts made of various materials.’ — BHW

See it in action

 

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Oldie

‘The very first cuckoo clock is attributed to Anton Ketterer of the village of Schönwald who added the famous cuckoo to his clocks in 1738. It is possible that the rooster clocks were Ketterer’s inspiration. It was certainly easier to make a clock go “coo-coo” than making it crow, but it still must have been difficult to develop the mechanism to do this. Ketterer’s answer was the same gadget that is used today; twin bellows that send air through small pipes like a pipe organ. By this time, clockmaking had become widespread in the Black Forest, and folks began to specialize. Some cut gears, others carved the decorations or made the cases, and still others did the painting. Many cuckoo clocks in the 18th and 19th centuries were painted with elaborate scenes on the front of the case. According to one source, in 1808 in the town of Triberg, 790 of the towns 9,013 residents were involved in clockmaking.’ — Salem Clock Shop

 

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Prop

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‘These screenshots shows a cuckoo clock located in Jacques Renault’s (character) cabin in David Lynch’s TV series Twin Peaks. When the clock strikes the cuckoo’s call is heard but the bird does not emerge and the doors remain closed, awakening Sheriff Truman’s (Michael Ontkean) curiosity. After he opens its little doors several chips fall down, one of them is a notched chip from One-Eyed Jacks casino/brothel, providing another clue to Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan).’ — Cuckoo clock in culture

 

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‘Dave Fleisher’s 1937 “Pudgy picks a Fight”, an episode of the Betty Boop cartoon series, undoubtly is the most inspired of the Pudgy cartoons, the nightmare sequence centered on a cuckoo clock being particularly imaginative. Its theme of guilt and imagination running away with it would be revisited by Disney in Donald’s Crime (1945) with equally impressive results.’ — animationreview.com

 

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‘In Roman Polanski’s first short film The Lamp (1959), a doll maker works in his shop in waning winter light, a kerosene lamp beside him, a jumble of dolls and doll parts, whole and broken, surrounding him. There are noises, too: a cuckoo clock chirps the workday’s end. The artisan completes a repair and leaves, shuttering the shop from outside. Back inside, whispering begins. What else is in store for the shop’s seemingly lifeless denizens?’ — IMDb

 

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‘The Wolf’s Head Clock is Pugsley Addams’ favorite clock. Much like a cuckoo clock, on the hour the head pops through the doors and growls to signify the time. Though it is called a wolf’s head, the head appears to be that of a wildcat instead. When Gomez donated it to a charity bazaar, Pugsley was so depressed that he hid up the chimney. Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester and Thing all bid to get it back but a Mr. Clayton won the auction for $1100. When he realized it was not a priceless antique, he paid Lurch five dollars to take it. It likes to lick envelopes for Morticia.’ — Fandom

 

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‘Certainly what is most interesting in this Tex Avery’s short cartoon The Cuckoo Clock is its rare immersion in a dark and Gothic universe more associated with the psychological dramas of the previous decade (a mansion, a tortured main character) as with Poe’s short story in which is informally based. Avery’s tone of course is more subordinate to the generic conventions of the cartoon universe of its time, as shown by the fast reorganization from its uncommon prologue to more usual clichés of the cat-search-a bird in a Sylvester-Tweety style.’ — nickmovie

 

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Zack Lerner ‘Cuckoo Clock’ (2006)

 

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‘”In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.” When Orson Welles spoke these lines as Harry Lime, the charismatic villain at the heart of the film The Third Man, released in 1949, Welles can’t have realised how they would resonate ever after. Graham Greene, who wrote the screenplay, credited the lines to Welles, and it seems clear the actor added them when some extra dialogue was needed while the film was being shot.’ — BBC

 

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‘The Raven (voiced by Mel Blanc): A raven who lives in The Munsters’ cuckoo clock and repeats the word “Nevermore.” When the raven occasionally makes smart alecky remarks, Herman throws objects at him. Sometimes, the raven will come out of his clock, but often only for short breaks, or to flee when frightened.’ — retroland

 

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‘Bananas in Pajamas is an Australian children’s television show that premiered on 20 July 1992 on ABC. It has since become syndicated in many different countries, and dubbed into other languages. The main characters are two humanoid bananas named B1 and B2. Other characters include three teddy bears named Amy, Lulu and Morgan, and Rat in a Hat. The bananas, the teddies and Rat in a Hat all live in the same neighbourhood, a cul-de-sac called “Cuddles Avenue”. The show was performed using human actors in elaborate costumes, in the style of the British Teletubbies or Tweenies. In the show’s early days, the voices of the bananas were provided by the same actors as were inside the costume, but the original actors eventually gave up that aspect of the show and substitutes manned the hot, stuffy costumes.’ — AnimationXpress

 

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‘A Cuckoo clock is a Muggle device that shows the Common Cuckoo and sounds like a bird. The Dursley family owned one, and it was able to give one of the Letters from No One. It started going off in the Prisoner of Azkaban when one of Aunt Marge’s buttons flew off and hit the door, making it go off repeatedly while Marge inflated.’ — Harry Potter Wiki

 

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The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell (2011): “Most people have vanished from the plague…There are a few thousand that still walk the earth……Among them, two outlaws, Harry Russo and Terry Hawkins. Come face to face with one another in a clash that sets them on a road into destiny, to find the heart of America .The lines are drawn and the sands of time are running out fast. Will mankind be saved? We better hope so….Because Harry and Terry are having a good time…………and The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell are coming.”

‘A movie like this is not meant to invoke the same sensation as you would from a “normal” feature film. It’s rooted in crudeness and wacky extremes which carry forth like leprosy of the mind that is infected into your psyche. You might even question the nature of how you came to watch this or how the actors came to perform such atrocious acts on screen.’ — HNN

 

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‘In Rupert of Hee Haw (1924), Stan Laurel as the king has been helped to his feet by the smallest guard you can imagine (Sammy Brooks, a real-life midget actor) in an act of duty. The sound of a cuckoo clock triggers a rather unnecessary reaction from him and he forcibly shoves the tiny guard to the ground by pushing the palm of his hand into his face. It’s both cruel and funny at the same time!’ — Another Nice Mess

 

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Bird

‘This is truly the mother of all cheaters — the female cuckoo bird will not only raid the nest of her warbler neighbor to steal eggs, she then leaves her own eggs behind to replace what she just ransacked. In a true testament of nature vs. nurture, despite being abandoned, the baby cuckoo bird is just as much of a con artist as its birth mother. Thanks to incubating an egg similar in appearance to the other warbler eggs, the baby cuckoo bird blends among the other chicks and is therefore treated and fed like one of the family. You’d think with the baby cuckoo bird’s rapid growth (we’re talking 10 times the size of its foster mother!) the warbler would finally take notice that something is amiss.’ — Animal Planet

 

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Muse

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‘”The Cuckoo Clock” (1932) is a song for piano and vocal by Thomas Griselle and Victor Young. It was recorded in 1934, performed by the soprano Rosa Ponselle and conducted by Andre Kostelanetz.’ — allmusic

 

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Dr Acula ‘The Cuckoo Clock of Doom’: ‘I’ll shank you real ol’ fashion style for the win / that shit is vintage / like us now? / i’m sick of your status quo / your so god damn literal / your kind is a dying breed / like us now?’ — lyricsmode

 

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‘One song that totally stands up for me is “Cuckoo Clock” by Rachel Sweet, one of the Stiff Records mafia in the late 70s and a total Midwestern American girl. Yes, despite the fake British accent on this one. I think it rules. I wish someone besides The Mr. T Experience would cover it.’ — Detailed Twang

 

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‘no description available’ — youtube

 

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‘Video Game Music is Pretty Neat (HQ) #23: Lumines, the excellent and addictive puzzler for PSP and PS2 has had some excellent music as a core part of its game play. Series sound leader Takayumi Nakamura has released a few albums of the music. Opening with the serene “Cuckoo Clock”, telephone dials, electric piano and clock chimes are integrated into break beats that roll off your tongue. It’s a very well choreographed piece and one that sets you nicely into the world of Lumines.’ — Higher Plain Music

 

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‘”Cuckoo Clock” is a single by Italo disco singer Tom Hooker, released in 1986 under the pseudonym Lou Sern (a pun on the Swiss city of Lucerne). Although the song was popular in Italy and in Europe, it was a much bigger hit in the Philippines.’ — Alamin Kay Kuya Dex

 

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The Beach Boys ‘Cuckoo Clock’: ‘We knew it must have been late/ (Tick-tock, tick-tock) / We had no time to wait / (Tick-tock, tick-tock) / I went to light the fireplace / (Tick-tock, tick-tock) / I planned it all this way, and / (Tick-tock, tick-tock) … ‘ — songcoleta

 

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‘American composer Morton Feldman intended Madame Press Died Last Week at Ninety as an elegy for his piano teacher, Maurina Press. I must say that the charm of Feldman’s music usually escapes me, but this is a highly poetic four minutes. A cuckoo clock continually strikes over a slowly shifting texture of block chords, to evoke an innocent, almost Mahlerian vision of eternity.’ — Classical Net Review

 

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‘The Monks’ rhythmic attack is intact on “Cuckoo.” It’s the lyrics and vocals that strike one as eccentric. Burger’s vocal opens the tune, swiping a page out of some outlandish Beach Boys’ songbook. He nails high notes that no male, unless he’s a castrato, should be able to hit. Johnston’s monotonal singing voice tells an odd story about somebody stealing his pet cuckoo. During the bridge, fuzzed-out guitars and booming drums remind the listener that, yes, this is the Monks. Then, Burger reprises the chorus, jarring the listener back to unreality.’ — Liberal England

 

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Outro

‘What is the horror film about an evil cuckoo clock growing insde the walls of a house that takes over the minds of the family living there, all but the son?’ — Anonymous

‘A few months ago I was watching a 50’s black and white movie where a possessed demonic clock is trying to kill a housewife and/or ruin her marriage. The clock is a wall style cuckoo clock with a feminine voice that makes the dog lay in the doorway so the wife will trip over it and break her neck. Anyone know the title?’ — Katie

‘Does anybody know the title of the movie that has the evil cuckoo clock that attaches itself to the fireplace and starts to cause glitches in time, as well as turning the father and daughter of the new family into evil versions of themselves? I think the clock turns the entire house into a cuckoo clock?’ — Ry

‘I’m looking for the title of a film that is famous (infamous) for a scene where a young girl is raped by a demonic cuckoo clock? Can anybody clue me in?’ — George

‘Can anyone tell me the name of this movie a friend of mine told me about where an evil witch claws out of the vagina of some chick and there’s a cuckoo clock where the bird is replaced by a tiny human head that belches blood when it strikes the hour? I think maybe it was Italian?’ — Avra
—-

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Well, you’re only six years older then me, but, yes, I think I get where you say you’re coming from, and let’s leave it at that. Everyone, Mr. Ehrenstein’s FaBlog takes on the blown-over southern US border wall in Ehrenstein-ian fashion here. ** Sypha, Hi. I think I’ve only seen a few pix of George R.R. Martin, but the resemblance to Nitsch escapes me. Martin wishes, maybe? I read the interview with Justin yesterday, and it’s excellent! Everyone, Here’s Sypha with something for you to read that I recommend you read. Sypha: ‘Today my blog has posted a new interview with Justin Isis, conducted by Colby Smith (both friends of mine), in advance of the publication of Smith’s essay “Hiccups in Paradise: the Fiction of Justin Isis and Alienation” (which is being put out by Snuggly Books this year). Topics include occultism and magick, Marxist fiction, Neo-Decadence and Post-Naturalism, the perils of craftsmanship and professionalism, and other topics of interest.’ ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Ah, good old Stuart Morgan, excellent writer and thinker. I haven’t read that book, though. I’ll rectify that. Thanks. ** Steve Erickson, I think it will be interesting to find out if BE is ‘the real deal’, by which I guess a mean a lengthily interesting figure, or not. I think it’s very hard to tell at this point. I can imagine that NYC just inherently feels like a dangerous place for a possibly deadly virus run loose. I think we now have two cases in Paris, last I checked. ** Bill, Haha. Glad you dug it/him/them/it. Yeah, I think sticking close to home might be the operative plan until the virus is … I don’t know … not potentially in one’s face? ** Right. Today the blog pays tribute to that wonderful invention best known as the cuckoo clock. Celebrate with it, please. See you tomorrow.

 

‘Art as life ritual. The conventional artist looks for his own style; he wants to achieve something but does not ask what. He thus serves the ruling institutions by making his products attest to the concepts on which these institutions have built up their existence. And he is repaid for this, honoured and pensioned. However, art is above all justified through the enjoyment of art and not through the pressure of a style. Art as experience, training, and as the destruction of all established ideas about life…’ — Rudolf Schwarzkogler

‘The six portfolios of photographs that make up ‘Aktionen Wien’ represent almost the entire artistic output left by the Austrian artist Rudolf Schwarzkogler, who committed suicide in 1969 at the age of 29 following a gradual deterioration of his mental health. The photographs of these six actions were to become highly influential to later artists.

‘While closely associated with the group of Austrian artists who became known as the Vienna Aktionists, principally Hermann Nitsch, Günter Brus and Otto Mühl, Schwarzkogler’s work differed in one important aspect: the Vienna Aktionists’ performances were highly ritualistic public actions, designed to be confronting and cathartic experiences for both performers and audience. However, with the exception of ‘1. Aktion ‘Hochzeit’ (marriage) 6 Februar 1965’, Schwarzkogler’s actions were staged primarily for the camera. Schwarzkogler used his collaborator, Heinz Cibulka, more as a passive prop than as an active participant, wrapping him in bandages and subjecting him to implied mutilation by knives or syringes.

‘Some of Schwarzkogler’s contemporaries criticised his ‘staged’ actions as a return to pictorial illusionism, an artifice that live actions were supposed to have eliminated. Schwarzkogler did not limit himself to direct action or endurance in the manner of Marina Abramovic or Mike Parr but developed theatrical scenarios that, in their linear documentation, can be read as narratives. Hermann Nitsch, however, believed that Schwarzkogler’s work was a development that pushed the boundaries of Aktionism to create what he called ‘living pictures’. Whereas many performance works were hastily documented and by their nature were unrepeatable, Schwarzkogler planned his performances and acted them out before the camera: they were primarily staged and repeatable events as opposed to duration works that tested bodily limits. Many of Nitsch’s actions – for example, slicing open an animal carcass and letting its blood and entrails fall onto a naked human body – were intended to create an atmosphere of shock and chaos that was essentially nihilistic. Schwarzkogler, on the other hand, was inspired by his abiding interest in esoteric philosophies and developed a more subtle use of symbolism within his actions.

‘Conscious of Carl Jung’s theories of archetypal symbolism, Schwarzkogler’s recurring images of a man with his head, penis or whole body bandaged, juxtaposed with images of dead fish being sliced open or dead chickens dangling between his legs, are all open to various interpretations. In the later actions his symbolism became more personal, exploring psychological states, and were open to wider interpretations than the more obvious alchemical symbolism of the first action ‘Aktion ‘Hochzeit’ (marriage) 6 February 1965’.’ — Edith Adam

 

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Further

The Mind Museum: Rudolf Schwarzkogler and the Vienna Actionists
RS @ Richard Saltoun Gallery
Rudolf Schwarzkogler | the artist
Rudolf Schwarzkogler Brochure
L’imaginaire à l’Action
Surveying the Wounds
An Aesthetic Panorama: The Art of Rudolph Schwarzkogler
Zwarte kogel – in memory of Rudolf Schwarzkogler
Abject Modernism: The Male Body in the Work of Tatsumi Hijikata, Günter Brus and Rudolf Schwarzkogle
The image of the artist in Performance art: The Case of Rudolf Schwarzkogler
“Altered.” (Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Austrian Cultural Institute, New York, New York)
BODY ART #4: Rudolf Schwarzkogler
the transvestism of objects (thinking of Rudolf Schwarzkogler)

 

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Rudolf Schwarzkogler’s Penis

 

There is an account of Rudolf Schwarzkogler—introduced to the public by Time Magazine critic Robert Hughes in 1972—that maintains that the artist died as a result of deliberate and self-inflicted penis mutilations undertaken in a series of performances in the late 1960s. This account is entirely false. What is more, evidence of its falsehood is available and familiar, having been exposed by a multitude of scholarly studies and exhibitions on Schwarzkogler’s work. During his lifetime, Schwarzkogler was all but unknown outside his native Austria. The myth of his death made Schwarzkogler and the Viennese Actionists (the group of artists with whom he collaborated between 1963– 1969) notorious; but it has also demonstrably impacted the reception of performance art more broadly.

In June of 1965, Schwarzkogler undertook a scripted action for a private audience of colleagues and friends, which was performed in the Viennese apartment of Heinz Cibulka, his model. This action, Schwarzkogler’s third, was also explicitly intended to be photographed—by Ludwig Hoffenreich, a professional photographer—and it followed the descriptive outline of a written Aktionsablauf or ‘action program’. Schwarzkogler’s textual scores and drawn sketches indicate that he conceived of his actions as vehicles for methodical aesthetic exploration in the form of successive tableau arranged to be photographed. The production of action programs and preparatory sketches was by no means unique among the oeuvres of the Viennese Actionists, and Schwarzkogler’s contain specific details for understanding his actions. The sketches show the planned configurations of rooms, props, and models; the scores provide lists of materials used in the actions as well as the identities of the principal actors involved, for example, ‘C.’ indicating Cibulka and ‘S.’ Schwarzkogler.

Specifically, Action #3 used Cibulka’s body, which Schwarzkogler deliberately posed and juxtaposed with various objects, including a gauze-wrapped ball, electrical wire, rubber tubing, a glass medicine bottle with dropper, a fish, razor blades, scissors, a knife, and a dark stone. Hoffenreich’s photographs of Action #3 illustrate Schwarzkogler’s intent to construct and control an‘action field’—what the artist defined as‘the real objects found in the surroundings’ and ‘the space around the actor’.6 In many photographs, for example, the controlled staging of the model and objects is readily apparent: We see a bare-chested Cibulka lying atop a rectangular board that has been placed on the floor and covered with a white sheet; Hoffenreich’s shod right foot can be glimpsed in the bottom corner of the photograph as he shoots his subject from above. In others, Cibulka’s body is concealed by gauze bandages, first tightly wrapped and then disheveled; and in the final images, his head and torso are wrapped again in clear plastic sheeting. In all cases, whether standing upright, sitting, or prone, Cibulka’s body is connected, sometimes quite literally, to a prop—electrical wires are arranged to emanate from his mouth, encircle his head, or seemingly enter his arm like an intravenous drip.

In two photographs, Schwarzkogler himself actually appears in the frame standing behind Cibulka, cupping the side of his face to steady the deployment of a syringe; the next photograph shows his outstretched right hand lifting the edge of the bandage over Cibulka’s eye. Several images depict a large fish hanging down the middle of Cibulka’s naked back, which then reappears, its head decapitated, facing the camera and protruding from Cibulka’s penis with razorblades placed in its agape mouth. What will subsequently become the most controversial element, however, is his bandaged penis. A number of photographs exhibit it swaddled in white gauze secured by flesh-colored adhesive tape, and a few augment the suggestion of wounding. One photograph in particular includes dots of dark color spotting the gauze on Cibulka’s penis, while two others of Cibulka sitting astride the bandaged ball illustrate Schwarzkogler’s written directive for a ‘thin dark trickle’ to run from the model’s penis onto the ball. Three photographs juxtapose a pristinely bandaged penis laid on a table edge with more than a dozen razor blades, or surgical scissors and a syringe.

 

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Extras: Vienna Actionists

Günter Brus and Kurt Kren Selbstbemalung/Selbstverstümmelung (1965)

27 February 1970 – Hermann Nitsch the Viennese Actionist Performs “Abreaktionsspiel”

Kurt Kren 20/68 Schatzi

Günter Brus Selbstverstümmelung Self Mutilation, 1965

 

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Rudolf Schwarzkogler’s Unperformed Aktions
(English translation by Supervert)

Text 21
(1965)

drum with whitewashed bones
r
stretch a wire and hack through it
spill ashes
fill balloons with gas
hang up whitewashed dolls and cadavers
fill a balloon with foam pop it with a whip

weissgestrichene knochen, um damit zu trommeln
r
draht spannen und durchhacken
asche verschütten
ballons mit gas füllen
weissgestrichene puppen und kadaver aufhängen
einen ballon mit schaum füllen mit der peitsche aufschlagen

 

Text 22
(probably 1969)

A: holds an amethyst in his mouth, drinks a sip of wine, then spits the amethyst into a silver bowl, pours a sip of water over the amethyst in the silver bowl, takes out the amethyst and drinks the water

A: halt einen amethyst im mund, trinkt einen schluck wein, spuckt dann den amethyst in eine silberschale, giesst einen schluck wasser über den amethyst in die silbserschale, nimmt den amethyst heraus und trinkt das wasser

 

Text 27
(between 1966 and 1968)

lise a teleplay

she is a pretty girl
lise sits between two palm trees in a conservatory
she wears white stockings and shoes, a white dress, a white hat
she is surrounded by four musicians, a string quartet
the string quartet plays the string quartet in g minor by arnold schönberg
lise puts an ivory ball in her mouth and then drinks a sip of cherry liquor and spits the ivory ball into a silver bowl
first movement
lise takes off her dress
second movement
[lise puts the ivory ball in her nicely painted pussy and wets her nipples with spit]
third movement vomits
lise kneels down and with the help of a feather vomits into the bowl
fourth movement
lise has a basket of eggs in front of her and uses a syringe to begin filling them with inks bright red bright blue dark blue bright green dark green violet and then breaks the eggs over her knees (one after another)

third movement
lise drinks black coffee

lise ein fernsehspiel

sie ist ein schönes mädchen
in einem wintergarten sitzt lise zwischen palmbäumen
sie trät weisse strümpfe und schuhe, hat ein weisses kleid an, eine weissen hut auf
sie ist von vier philharmoniken umgeben, einem streichquartett
das streichquartett spielt das streichquartett in g moll von arnold schönberg
lise steckt eine elfenbeinkugel in den mund und trinkt darauf einen schluck kirschenlikör und spuckt die elfenbeinkugel in eine silbserschüssel
erster satz
lise zieht ihr kleid aus
zweiter satz
[lise steckt die elfenbeinkugel in ihre schöne geschminkte fut und benetzt ihre brustwarzen mit speichel]
dritter satz speiht
lise kniet nieder und erbricht mit hilfe einer feder in die schüssel
vierter satz
lise hat einen korb mit eiern vor sich und beginnt mit hilfe einer injektionsnadel tinten in die eier zu injizieren hellrot hellblau dunkelblau hellgrün dunkelgrün violett und schlägt die eier dann auf ihren knien auf (nebeneinander)

dritter satz
lise trinkt schwarzen kaffee

 

Text 37
(probably 1968)

screaming shrieking shattered glass
2 of the 3 actors lie head to head before the door, so that visitors must step over one of them to enter the room
3 bright red fluorescent squares measuring 1×1 m have been drawn at irregular intervals on the floor

sound:
air escaping from an air compressor
light:
blue
an actor holds a light bulb in his mouth and screws it into the socket
as soon as the light comes on, the sound of an electric bell is heard
darkness
flashlight
a man who has been nailed to the wall by the tips of his shoes at a height of 1 m, and whose hands have been tied behind him, bites on a [bright red…]
light:
rapidly alternating green and pink
then dark blue (indigo)
the first actor breaks open a vial containing ammonia
a sharp smell of ammonia penetrates the room
the third man opens a vein, the blood flows into a glass
kneeling the second actor presses a cloth soaked in chloroform over his face, until he falls unconscious
the first actor vomits into a bowl half filled with green fluid
sound:
SCREAMING
the first actor throws light bulbs
second

kreischen schreien zersplittertes glas
2 der 3 akteure liegen kopf an kopf so vor der tür, dass die besucher beim betreten des raums über einen steigen müssen
auf dem boden sind an 3 verschiedenen stellen in unregelmässigen abständen mit hellroter leuchtfarbe 1×1 m grosse quadrate gezeichnet

ton:
aus einer pressluftflasche entweichende luft
licht:
blau
[einer] hält eine glühbirne im mund und schraubt sich die fassung hinein
sobald das licht sichtbar wird, ertrönt das geräusch einer elektrischen klingel
dunkel
blitzlicht
einer, der mit den schuhspitzen in der höhe von 1 m an die wand genagelt ist, und dessen hände am rücken zusammengebunden sind, zerbeisst einen mit [hellroter]
licht:
schnell abwechseln grün und rosa
dann dunkelblau (indigo)
der erste zerbricht eine philoe mit salmiakgeist
eine penetranter geruch nach salmiakgeist zieht durch den raum
der dritte öffnet sich eine ader schweinwerfer, das blut fliesst in ein glas
der zeite akteur presst sich kniend ein mit chloroform getränktes tuch vor das gesicht, bis er ohnmächtig umfällt
der erste akteur erbricht in eine schüssel halbvoll grüner flüssigkeit
ton:
KREISCHEN
der erste wirft mit glühbirnen
zeite

 

Text 38
(1966)

painting action in an art gallery

syringes inject 1000 raw eggs with spirit colors (bright red bright blue dark blue bright green dark green violet) and the eggs thus prepared are cracked open on a large aluminum table by the visitors

malakt in einer kunstgalerie

in 1000 rohe eier werden mit injektionsspritzen spiritusfarben injiziert (hellrot hellblau dunkelblau hellgrün dunkelgrün violett) und die so präparierten eier von den besuchern auf einem grossen aluminiumtisch aufgeschlagen

 

Text 42
(1965)

his face is white
her dress is white
he knots a stocking around her throat
he blindfolds her eyes
he pours paint over her head he pours water over her breasts
he rips open her dress — he ties her arms behind her and then her legs and puts her on a bed
he slits her dress with a knife
he dips his hands in red paint
he touches her mouth
he bandages her face
he paints her white
he hooks a belt around her chest and hangs her from a hook — face down
he winds hoses around her

monochrome painted dolls and cadavers

sein gesicht ist weiss
ihr kleid ist weiss
er knotet ihr einen strumpf um den hals
er verklebt ihr die augen
er schüttet ihr farbe über den kopf er schüttet ihr wasser über die brüste
er zerreisst ihr kleid—er bindet ihr die arme hinten und die beine und legt sie aufs bett
er schlitzt ihr kleid mit dem messer
er tunkt seine hände in rote farbe
er greift ihr in den mund
er verbindet ihr gesicht
er überspritzt sie weiss
er bindet ihr einen gürtel um die brust und hängt sie an einen haken—gesicht unten
er umwindet sie mit schläuchen

monochrom gestrichene puppen und kadaver

 

Text 43
(ca 1965)

a white square a white circle

ether chloroform

a thin wire a needle

pulse glance

cut apart bitten off

the fever the conflagration

a yellow line a red line

ein weisses quadrat ein weisser kreis

äther chloroform

ein feiner draht eine nadel

pulsschlag blick

zerschnitten abgebissen

das fieber die feuersbrunst

ein gelber strich ein roter strich

 

Text 47
(between 1966 and 1968)

musical comedy for television (color television)

4 musicians (string quartet) sit in a conservatory and play the string quartet in g minor by arnold schönberg or another suitable string quartet
a young girl with white-colored hair clad in a white dress white stockings and shoes drinks a glass filled with a white liquid during the first movement
during the second movement she drinks a glass filled with a bright red liquid
during the third movement she drinks a glass filled with a dark violet liquid
during the fourth movement she kneels on the ground and with the help of a feather vomits into a bowl

musikalische komödie für’s fernsehen (farbfernsehen)

4 philharmoniker (streichquartett) sitzen in einem wintergarten und spielen das streichquartett in g moll von arnold schönberg oder ein anderes geeignetes streichquartett.
ein junges mädchen mit weiss gefärbtem haar bekleidet mit einem weissen kleid weissen strümpfen und schuhen trinkt während des ersten satzes ein glas gefüllt mit einer weissen flüssigkeit leer
während des zweiten satzes trinkt sie ein glas gefüllt mit einer hellroten flüssigkeit leer
während des dritten satzes trinkt sie ein glass gefüllt mit einer dunkelvioletten flüssigkeit leer
während des vierten satzes kniet sie auf dem boden nieder und erbricht mit hilfe einer hühnerfeder in eine schüssel

 

___
Show

1 Aktion

 

2 Aktion

 

3 Aktion 1965

 

4 Aktion 1965

filmed by Gunter Brus

 

5 Aktion

 

6 Aktion

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** kier, Hi, kier-ing. (That’s supposed to be smushed by your brain into ‘king’.)  Hope you liked the film. Cool that you’ll be here for the Pinault/Ray opening. Very psyched. Yeah, Zac and I saw the Heizer show, and, yeah, it was super good. Weirdest thing was his paintings. I had no idea he painted, and they were pretty amazing too. Yury’s pretty much off doing his own thing, but I think I can speak for Zac in saying we would love to accept your dinner invitation, whoop! I hope the group critique goes well and that you had a blast with your visiting friend, and, yeah, that your friends will get accepted. Does it seem likely? I wish I knew voodoo or magic or something and could transmit orders to the powers that be. My day wasn’t so exciting. I can hardly remember it. Yet more last minute TV script shit. Started writing a blurb for a book I agreed to endorse. I waited all afternoon for a plumber to show up to fix a pipe but they never showed up, and now they say I have to wait all afternoon again today for them to show up. Pretty blah day. I’ll see if I can squeeze something out today. And you? Day of days? Overarching love, me. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Yes, a wonderful and unfairly under-recognized filmmaker, I fully agree. By the time I lived in NYC, it was The Ninth Circle and The Phoenix in the Village and Rounds on the upper East Side for upscale renters/rentees and a couple of very skeezy bars in Times Square whose names I forget. Numbers moved to WeHo for a while, but it didn’t survive long. Are you referring to Billie Ellish? She may not be to your taste, but she’s not “a Piece of total Garbage”! Wtf?! And you’re decrying people who aren’t nice?!?! ** Steve Erickson, I adored ‘ken’, and the new one promises to be even greater, but I’ll find out today. Fun is all I’m expecting from COoS. I’ll be surprised if it gets a release here however. ** Bill, Hi, B. She’s terrific. I don’t know if Zulueta did the soundtracks. I’m imagining so, but … yeah, I don’t know. Strange that ‘Arrebato’ is so hard to see since it was his one big hit. Maybe Filmin has it, but Filmin is only useable in Spain unless you can hack into it. ** Okay. Someone popped in here recently and asked me about Rudolf Schwarzkogler, which made me realise I’d never covered his work, but now I have. Hoping it’s of interest, of course. See you tomorrow.