The High Art Connection: October 2008

David Liebe Hart is a public access god, a street artist and musician residing in Los Angeles. On his public access show, The Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show, Hart employs the use of puppets (mainly Chip the Black Boy) and music to teach children about God, saying no to drugs, and being a overall great person. I first ran across David Hart on Tim and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job, it 2007. He was singing a song called "Salame" and I immediately fell in love.

I love David Hart and his work. Although his puppets are makeshift, and his music and art are not innovative, he has a passion and a purpose which is clearly illustrated in all of his work. Also, his work is very simple and to the point, and I love and appreciate pure honesty and the stripped nature of any art form. And he is oh so serious about his work.

Below are some clips of David Liebe Hart, his music and his work.

Chip The Black Boy

Puppet Show

Corinians

I Love Christmas

Carnival Worker

Writing on a carnival wall

Big Tops at the VSF

Now the cards are everywhere face in dust
The fairground
I don't think I ever seen so many headlights
But there's something pulling me
The circus and the crew
Well they're just passing through
Making sure the merry still goes round
But it's a long, long, long way down - The Killers "This River Is Wild"

Ever since I was a child, something about the carnival/circus life has always fascinated me. Every school paper where I had the freedom to write about anything I wanted to was often about some disease or deformity that was seen at circus and carnival freak shows(my portfolio of work is quiet disturbing). My evenings were spent looking at pickled punks (preserved babies in jars that were seen in freak shows in the early 1900's), and I was chastised in some writing class in college for writing about Lobster Boy who was exhibited in the 70's and 80's (apparently she didn't find that to be high art). And you can imagine my joy after finally finding Mark Browning's 1932 movie "Freaks" at the Naro a few years back. I watched in three times in one day.

My whole obsession with carnivals was wonderfully refreshed this weekend after going to the Virginia State Fair. Nothing screams marginalized communities as much as witnessing real life carnies begging the yokal locals to play a rigged game for the chance to win a gold fish, and looking into the eyes of the 'world smallest woman', who sat calmly in a wooden chair inside a box talking about her life. Seeing these things always refuel my obsession. What causes a person to leave behind their family and friends to travel around the country for low pay and long hours? Why would someone with a difference in physical appearance put themselves on display in a negative way?

I am obsessed with the 'other', marginalized communities which are placed on the fringes of society; outsiders, freaks, anything that is outside of the "norm" that society has created. But I think what I love the most about the carny life is the physical departure from typical life. The decision that they make to travel around the country, work for minimal wage, and be publicly seen as the 'other', and to seemingly be okay with it. It is a juxtaposition of oppression and freedom. Freedom through the release of the societal norm, but oppression with in the binding carny life. These people are publicly seen in a low caste, trapped within a contract to work long, hard, hours for nothing, but at the same time free from the pressures of society. To be different and okay with it is beautiful.

Apparently I'm not the only one obsessed with the carny life, the idea of the 'outsider', and freedom from the societal norm. Carnival life, freaks, and the whole scenario of running away from everything is enchanting, and has inspired art, music, and film. One can simply listen to Daniel Johnsons 'Speeding Motercycle" which was inspired by his decision to run away and work for a carnival. Or "This River Is Wild" by the Killers, which tells the story of someone who has the need to run away and work for the carnival. Diane Arbus body of work bekons the observer to recognized the beauty in the outsider, and Mark Browning's Film 'Freaks' is based off of his fascination with this marginalized community and attempted to show the normality within it.

Below, I have posted videos of film and music which focus on the dynamics which occur in carnival life, directly or indirectly: departure from society, isolation, marginilazation, freaks, etc. Listen, and feel the spirit of the carnival run through your body!