ARCHIVE EVENT 20.
BUTTSEX
28.04.2023
LOCATION: MOLT, Tempelhofer Ufer 1A, BERLIN
FORMAT: Exhibition, performance
CURATOR: HURRICANE and MOLT TEAM
ARTISTS:
HURRICANE ALEXANDER
BUNK-BED BUTT-SEX
THE DEATH OF A GIFTED CHILD
ALEXANDER “HURRICANE” SCHAEF
ALEXANDER “HURRICANE” SCHAEF IS AN INSTALLATION/PERFORMANCE/CHAOS ARTIST WHOSE WORK CENTERS AROUND QUEER VIOLENCE, MENTAL ILLNESS, AND THE PRIVATE LIFE OF FEAR. THEIR WORK EXISTS AS A CONGREGATION OF SYMBOLIC SCREAMS, SOME SILENT, INTERNAL, WHILE OTHERS QUITE LOUD, ERUPTING VULGARLY INTO THE OUTSIDE WORLD. THE NIGHTMARISH SOLITUDE IMPARTED ON SCHAEF THROUGHOUT ADOLESCENCE, GROWING UP QUEER AND NEURODIVERGENT IN RURAL AMERICA, THE FEELING OF NEEDING TO HIDE, IS WHAT FUELS THEIR CREATIVE PROCESS. SCHAEF BLURS THE LINE BETWEEN TRAGEDY AND SATIRE, ALLOWING PLAYFUL ABSURDITY TO CREEP INTO SPHERES OF PARANOID HORROR. THE FICTITIOUS EVOLUTION FROM GIFTED CHILD TO GIFTED ADULT SELF-DESTRUCTS AND RAPIDLY MUTATES, ALONG WITH THE ARTIST’S UNDERSTANDING OF ART ITSELF, AND THEIR CONFOUNDING DESIRE TO BE, IN ITS MOST RADICAL FORM, ARTLESS. THROUGH THE REGURGITATION OF THEIR DEEPLY PERSUASIVE MANIC-DEPRESSIVE EPISODES, SCHAEF STRIVES TO UNEARTH AND DEVOUR THE INTIMATE VULNERABILITIES OF EACH ART-VIEWER/AUDIENCE IN AN ATTEMPT TO RECLAIM OUR OWN HUMMANNESS.
STATEMENT FROM THE ARTIST:
THE BUNK-BED BUTT-SEX COLLECTION IS A COMING-OF-AGE STORY, THE STORY OF CATASTROPHE, OF BURN-OUT, OF MASS-MURDER AND THE MASS SUFFOCATION OF QUEER, CREATIVE INDIVIDUALS … IT IS THE GRIM SATISFACTION OF A CLEAN SWEEP INTO NOTHINGNESS. THE STICK FIGURE DRAWINGS, WITH BIG DICKS, BIG BOOBS, AND BIG SMILES, SYMBOLIZE A COMMUNAL LOSS OF INNOCENCE, THE ADDICTIVE PROPERTIES OF SELF ABUSE, AND THE TOXIC, CYCLIC SIMPLIFICATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL IN AN EFFORT TO PERFORM NORMALITY. AND FOR WHO?? ESSENTIALLY, THIS IS THE DEATH OF A GIFTED CHILD – THE GRADUAL DISAPPEARANCE OF HOPE IN THE EYES OF AN ARTIST, (EVERYONE), AND THE MENTAL TURMOIL THAT COMES WITH KNOWING ONE’S POTENTIAL AND HAVING NO APPROPRIATE OUTLET FOR SELF EXPRESSION. IN A SOCIETY THAT WAS NEVER BUILT TO ACCOMMODATE ORIGINALITY OR IMAGINATION, WHERE THE COMMODIFICATION OF HUMAN EMOTIONS TURNS GREAT MINDS INTO PRICE TAGS, BEING YOURSELF IS A TRULY MOMENTOUS MISSION.
I THINK IT’S SAFE TO SAY OUR SUBJECTIVE INTERNAL DIALOGUES ARE THEIR OWN BEASTS; WE SLAUGHTER OURSELVES OVER AND OVER, OFTENTIMES WITHOUT CONSENT, AND FIND OURSELVES TRAPPED INSIDE OUR MERCILESS MINDS, AGAIN, SUDDENLY NUMB TO THE WORLD. I SAY, ONE HUNDRED YOUNG BOYS WENT INTO THE FOREST AND NEVER CAME BACK, AND I’M REALLY NOT JOKING. AND IT’S SAD, SURELY, BUT NOT SO SIMPLE; 100 BOYS ENTERED, AND 100 RETURNED, BUT THESE ARE NOT THE SAME BOYS. – ON THE TOPIC OF TAMING THE WOUNDED SELF, THE UTTERLY-BEYOND-REPAIR EGO, THE GIFTED-CHILD-TO-TORTURED-ADULT PIPELINE, TAKEAWAY THIS: THE FOREST CHANGES YOU. THE DARKNESS DOES. THE SWAMP. THE ATTIC. THE DIRTY MATTRESS. THE PICKUP TRUCK. THE GLOVE BOX. … DEPRESSION LINGERS. AND THAT’S WHY I’M HERE NOW, TO SHOW YOU WHAT’S LEFT OF ME … TO SHOW YOU WHAT’S BEEN BURIED, OVER AND OVER, BUT NOT AT ALL LOST.
MENTAL ILLNESS IS REAL, ITS CONSEQUENCES ARE REAL, AND THE CONVERSATIONS SURROUNDING IT, OR THE LACK THEREOF, ARE AN INCREASINGLY URGENT SOCIETAL DILEMMA. WHICH PERSON IN YOUR LIFE NEEDS TO KILL THEMSELF FOR YOU TO TAKE THIS ISSUE SERIOUSLY? SERIOUSLY.
IT IS TIME WE TAKE THE PRESSURE OFF WHAT WE DO OR MAKE, AND EMPHASIZE WHO WE REALLY ARE.
REMEMBER THAT ART IS NOT ENTERTAINMENT; ART IS PASSION.
I ENTERED THE FOREST AND DID NOT COME BACK.
I ENTERED THE FOREST AND DID NOT COME BACK.
Photos by Gil Corujeira