Dadaist sensibilities characterized much of the remainder of Buffluxus’ performance: members of [the University of Buffalo’s] PressBoardPress lowered rolls of toilet paper from a balcony into the audience, Melgard performed Emmett Williams’ “Is La Monte Young in the Audience?” (which consisted of posing that very question – a comment on the nature of performance), and a rendition of Metz’s own “There is no good or bad, only placement” was “interrupted” by incessant coughing fits from Basinski and Melgard.
The Toronto Research Group’s half of the presentation started with hefty helpings of irony and disconcertion: Poet and troupe member Chris Sylvester beseeched those in attendance to leave their seats and proceed to the back of the room for security pat-downs, all the while mimicking the tone and disposition of airport security. The implicit political comment was not lost on the audience.
Sylvester’s charged and insistent irony was immediately counterpointed by McCaffery and the rest of the Research Group – made up of the two aforementioned men plus McCaffery’s wife and adjunct English professor Karen Mac Cormack – imitating the detached and sterile instructive pleasantries of flight attendants. The skit was complete with humorous instructions for various safety devices that could aid the audience throughout the rest of the performance.
February 23rd, 2012 at 1:00AM
There is no “University OF Buffalo” There’s a University AT Buffalo.