The
'irritating' Istvan Kantor
INDIEEYE
CJ
O'Connor
Patient's
Name: Istvan Kantor
Aliases:
Monty Cantsin; Amen!, many others.
Case
History: Born Budapest, Hungary; formed "anti-music orchestra"
Drazse Express (1968-'72) and Kantor Inform ('74-'76). Emigrated
to North America; formed assorted musical units in Portland, Montreal
and NYC (pipe banging and wanton screaming standard features on
most). Patient later founded Neoism?!, an art movement of which
he appears to be the only member.
Symptoms:
Made impromtu "blood painting" with his own plasma at
AGO, the National Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art in NYC
(last of which spattered a nearby Picasso). Patient concocted
art video where two cats had their throats slit and their bodies
worn as hats. Latest performance project, "Accumulations",
involves sound manipulations generated from the rhythmic pummeling
of filing cabinets, screaming through megaphones and seemingly
unrelated lewd gestures. Patient now resides in Toronto, which
he deems "the post-dictatorial capital of the incorporated
yuppie empire. My inspiration always comes from misery. For this
reason, I could not find a better place . . ." . . . Run
transcripts.
Session
I
- :
Hello, Istvan. I want to begin our treatment by talking about
our choices. You, for instance, choose to hammer incessantly
on filing cabinets. Why?
"Well,
if you go into an office, people everyday open and close file
cabinets, and this makes a certain noise. They take information
from the file cabinet, and through the computer, they send this
information somewhere else. Another person gets this through the
electronic system and, to answer the questions, has to open another
file cabinet. So there is a chain of these gestures, and if you
could imagine accumulating all this noise made by the file cabinets
in all of the offices all over the world, it would be the most
chaotic, rhythmic noise you could imagine. When I do this performance
with the file cabinets, with sampling the sound and looping it
into layers and layers, in a way I am doing a representation of
what happens in real life, although in a much more intense way."
Yes,
now tell me about your mother . . . .
Session
II
- :
I notice, Istvan, that in addition to this pounding on filing
cabinets, you and your performance assistants seem to have
this . . . predilection, if you will for . .
. ah, rhythmic pelvic thrusting against these things
"Ah,
yes: fucking the file cabinet. First of all, fucking things is
something I have employed in my work always ---not only with file
cabinets, but also walls or any other object I can amplify and
use. You can interpret this in different ways; just as a body
action, or with a social or even political aspect. Fucking the
file cabinet is, perhaps, a very amusing thing, but let's face
it -- most people hate these file cabinets for some reason. If
you want the correct symbolic interpretation, then maybe it's
a kind of visual subversion."
Mmm-hmm.
Now take a look at these ink blots here . . .
Session
III
- :
I thought we'd talk about 'fun' today, Istvan. I, for instance,
derive many a chuckle from systematically smashing an analysand's
ego into tiny pea-sized fragments. But this shouting through
megaphones and flying hardware and all, can this be entertainment
?
"Ho,
ho! Certainly not! Sometimes we call it 'irritainment.' We are
also fond of 'abusement' or 'vexstasy.' But I think the audience
should take the fun part, instead of looking at it as something
very serious. It's not very complicated, something anybody can
do. Maybe it is a little more sophisticated than banging on a
piece of metal. But then, that's what it is.
(Reprinted
from eye music; May 30, 1996. Vol. 5, issue 33)
