Adventures with Billy
"He's the only human being in recorded history to claim the distinction of swimming the entire length of the Mississippi River. He was buried alive for three days in a much-ballyhooed effort to bring art to the spirit world that included a New Orleans-style funeral complete with Christlike resurrection. He once publicly imprisoned himself in a tiger cage to protest the inhumane treatment of POW's in Vietnam. Maverick/ Eccentric? Full-blown madman? Billy X. Curmano will be delighted to let you decide. For the past 27 years the Minnesota-based performance artist/environmental activist - who earned an M.S. in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin and has had exhibits and installations in the U.S., Japan, Spain and Austria - has been a fixture in the public consciousness of the Midwest (journalists have described him as 'the court jester of Southeastern Minnesota') and has earned praise around the world for his creative vision and politically directed artistic consciousness. 'I don't consider myself an extremist,' the bushy-headed, mustachioed Curmano mused during a TV interview. 'Actually, I'm a conservative living in extreme times.' This weekend Curmano ventures forth from his farmhouse in Rushford, Minnesota, base of operations for his Experimental Artwork Terminal #1, to make a rare live appearance in L.A. His show, entitled 'Adventures with Billy', is an obstreperous blend of monologue, video, slide projection and live music chronicling his most famous achievements. Among these are his swim of the entire 2,500 miles of the Mississippi, from Lake Itasca, Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, a ten-year-long performance piece/activist statement designed to inspire people towards awareness and respect for 'water, the source of life'; his self-imposed interment, where he spent three Houdini-esque days in a coffin six feet under (cheating a bit with full life-support systems on hand); and his delightful 'Cow-a-Bongo: Bongo Bovine', in which Curmano and his band staged a jazz/pop performance for a herd of bewildered cows in the wilds of rural Minnesota, witnessed by an equally bewildered audience aboard a tour bus to the site. Curmano calls 'Adventures with Billy' 'a slightly satirical journey documenting art as life and life as art.' I call it an uninhibited blend of courage, charisma and chutzpah, the sort of thing you either love or hate but definately aren't allowed to regard with, God forbid, neutrality." - Mary Beth Crain, "LA WEEKLY", Vol. 21 #12, Feb. 12-18, 1999, Los Angeles, CA.
Billy X. Curmano: Press
Bringing an Eco-Art Tributary into the Media Mainstream by Swimming the Mississippi
A great majority of conservation biologists agree that we are in the initial stages of a sixth megaextinction. Unlike previous "catastrophic" extinctions attributed to various geological, astronomical, and climatological causes, this one is human-induced. How can we translate such abstract knowledge into embodied action? Witnessing the vulnerability of another's fragile flesh evokes a visceral identification--a sobering reminder that we are all at risk. Billy Curmano, intermedia artist, musician, activist, and Vietnam veteran, literally swims through our collective sewage to wake us up. Traversing the Mississippi from its source to the Gulf of Mexico concluding on July 23, 1997, Curmano brings attention to the promises and perils of this "Father of Waters." In his award-winning documentary video, he engages those who live and work along the river - taking periodic breaks to converse with a fisherman or stage a performance along the shore. In reflecting on his work, while floating downstream, Billy asserts, "Artists often paint their fantasies; I try to live mine."
Curmano asks nothing less of his students. He opens his workshops and residencies with a performance, inviting his students to engage their bodies and senses. In his CAA ECOtistical workshop, he performed on a Vietnamese ocean harp and mingled the waters of the Mississippi and Atlanta's Chattahoochee River. He then discussed some of his students' projects. At University of North Carolina, Curmano's Chapel Hill students put their sculptures on the line, siting them outside the Hanes Art Center, a common exhibition area for art students. Knowing that there was a history of art vandalism on the campus, members of the eXperimental Art Research Team (XARTCH) staged a "clandestine art operation." Between March and April 1995, XARTCH trained hidden video cameras on 11 sculptures over a period of three weeks between 10pm and 3am. Though they were not surprised that the work was broken or stolen, they were unprepared and angered by the extent of the damage caused to five of the pieces. True to Billy's own strategy of placing his body in harm's way, his students confronted the vandals and gave them the choice of either a public forum in which they could answer to the students or face criminal charges (vandalizing university artwork valued at over fifty dollars is a Class H felony). The process of confrontation and dialog not only educated the broader campus community, but the event gained wide media attention, with articles in two local papers and a news brief in the New Art Examiner. The students created a social sculpture
in which their collective works became a catalyst to rectify a problem endemic on university campuses. The students learned how to turn their anger into an opportunity for public education through direct action, civic engagement, and savvy media strategies.
Many artists use blatant confrontation to goad the public into recognizing their social complicity and responsibility. Such strategies can be highly effective but they can also backfire, resulting in resentment and little insight. What distinguishes Curmano's work and pedagogy is its intent to educate and enlighten - it is eco-tistical, not egotistical. When confrontation is embodied in a social desire to transform rather than taunt, to teach rather than manipulate, it can become a potent device in a young artists' toolbox for transforming communities and landscapes. - Ann Rosenthal, Billy X. Curmano- Bringing an Eco-Art Tributary into the Media Mainstream by Swimming the Mississippi (NYC, NY: CAA, Art Journal, Vol. 6, no.1, Spring 2006), 67.
Threat Level 3 Orange Alert
Neither the name of the band nor the album connotes any danger from Homeland Security. Instead, Threat level 3 turns their Orange Alert into electro-acoustic free jazz meditations on world music. Ex-Milwaukeeans Billy X. Curmano and John Pendergast pluck, strum and bow their stringed instruments as Minnesota Steve Smith blows tenor sax and didgeridoo. The inclusion of ocean harp and Zimbabwean Mbira and trippy electric dulcimer makes for textures harsh enough for intentional listening yet unobtrusive enough for background ambience or avant-garde soundtracks.
One piece accompanied by a spoken-word love poem of ambiguous sincerity makes for a dry-humor hoot. Even more engaging, however, are the rickety samba grooves appearing on a couple of pieces. This album is not for smooth-fusion fans by a long stretch, but for those with ears to hear, Threat Level 3 make advanced music theory and dissonance fun.
The Sacrificial Aesthetic: Blood Rituals from Art to Murder
The artist becomes or enacts the sacrifice, the stage represents sacred space, the performance is held in sacred time, and significantly the blood is fresh, crimson and free flowing. A classic example of performance art as blood sacrifice is a performance entitled "Bloodbath" by Minnesota Artist Billy Curmano. Press releases announced that "The artist’s own blood is shed in a human sacrifice intended to focus attention on global violence."(16) At the performance, which was symbolically held on Saint Valentine’s Day, Curmano was dressed in white and sitting next to a globe of the world; the audience was informed that his blood would be spilled as a sacrifice to ease the need for suffering and death."(17) Since Curmano had promised that he would supply his own blood for the sacrifice and would not mutilate himself on stage, a nurse sat next to him and extracted a dozen vials of blood by needle from Curmano’s arms as a drum beat in the background. During the ceremony Curmano opened each vial with his teeth and spilled his blood on the globe while a voice offstage announced the names of countries in conflict. (18) Although this encompasses all aspects of the use of blood in sacrifice, it is basically a non-violent performance.
Midnight Babylon
"In 'Midnight Babylon" the audience looked on as the artist - awakened by a nightmare - spent a sleepless night recalling nightmares and ruminating on the horrors and humor of war, life and television. The work was performed on the first evening of a three-day teach-in on U.S. policy in Central America. Billy Curmano shared the bill with singer/songwriter Country Joe McDonald. Because of the context the audience was not a typical one for a performance piece. However, the attentiveness, laughter and several interruptions of the performance by enthusiastic applause were proof that Curmano's writing and energetic performance were reaching everybody. A vertical bed, a stool and a projection screen provided a stark setting that focused attention on Curmano, while reminding us that we were eavesdropping on an insomniacs monolog. Awakened by a nightmare and then frightened by a clothe-tree, Curmano recalled a nightmare containing both ridiculous and frightening symbolic images of war. The lights faded and then returned to show Curmano sitting on a stool staring at his left wrist, his left hand bent back. A razor blade in his right hand remained poised in the air - almost forgotten - as he spoke of the pleasure of watching his pulse beat, feeling the blood flow through his body. Then he agonized over the frustrations of life and society, sometimes wanting to blow the whole thing up. But, like blood circulating, his soliloquy came full circle when he concluded, 'It don't mean nothing. It don't mean nothing at all.' He described a television awards show, 'The Wammy Awards', for the top ten current wars. The description was interrupted for a word from the sponsor, Art Works USA, Curmano's studio in Rushford, Minnesota. Slides, music and recorded narration advertised three of his wearable sculptures: a pair of boots on small rockets, a vest adorned with sticks of 'dynamite' wired together and a strap-on pair of legs in the full-lotus posture. Returning to the awards show Curmano became the master of ceremonies, joyfully announcing the death-count and a brief history of the top ten current wars. Religious fanatacism - of both the right and left - were credited for the honors. The Iran-Iraq War, with a half-million dead, was the winner. Curmano became the grateful recipient of the prize; his thanks included appreciation to the Reagan Administration for helping both sides accomplish the slaughter. Suddenly Curmano realized the night was over. We were delivered from one surreal world to another: 'I gotta go. I gotta get to work. I'm almost late." - Reggie McCleod, "High Performance", Astro Artz, Los Angeles, Issue 38, 1987.