This is a portrait of Thoth, who is my favorite performance artist of all time. He travels around the world but mostly you can catch his performances in the Angel tunnel near the Bethesda fountain in Central Park, NYC.
A few years ago a film about him won the Oscar for Best Documentary. It's something you should see. Meanwhile, the reason I'm bringing Thoth into today's class is because he's a fascinating example of the complex challenge of "locating" yourself in American culture.
I'm not sure why this artist chose the name Thoth, but I can tell you that Thoth is the name of the Egyptian god of scribes.
The performance artist Thoth is an American from Brooklyn, NY. His mother is African American; his father is also American, but he is Caucasian, Jewish, and Eastern European. Both of Thoth's parents were professional musicians who performed in philharmonic orchestras around the country. In his interviews, Thoth explains that he never really seemed to fit into mainstream culture, and his mixed racial background was definitely a part of that.
So he invented a world of his own, called the Festad, a mythical place with its own geography, languages, life forms, music, and stories. His performances (which he called "Prayerformances") are Thoth's way of attempting to heal the world's divisions through his art. All of these performances are done in the languages of the Festad, telling its stories (this is the music you hear when you go to his website). You can watch an excerpt of his prayerformances here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=jDFnWIMWv1c.
So what does all this have to do with our class?
Hopefully, you already have some thoughts on that! And I'll ask you to discuss that in a few minutes.
For now, I'd like you to consider this idea of creating a mythical place: Thoth did it partly because it gave him a way to create a community where he truly belongs, the Festad is wholly Thoth. Think of other mythical places, such as J.R.R. Tolkein's Middle Earth (from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, or C.S. Lewis's Narnia. Tolkein and Lewis were also, like Thoth, spiritual men and artists who created places that dramatized Good and Evil at work in the world, perhaps to help their audiences pay closer attention to the injustices and heroism in "real" life.
Thoth, Tolkein, Lewis all created mythical worlds.
But in class we've been using the term "mythologized" to describe Deep Deuce and Underground Chinatown. Because a mythical world is a place that never really existed, physically anyway, as far as anyone can tell. But a "mythologized" place is one that did exist (or does exist) but its reality has been altered to exaggerate some of its features. Stories are woven around these places and the end-result is a place that seems much more magical or horrible than a humdrum, everyday world. And this often happens because the average person doesn't know the real details about the place but instead bases his knowledge on rumors or tall-tales or movies or advertising campaigns.
So, for example, Underground Chinatown: it existed as a fairly straightforward place. Chinese immigrants worked in shops downtown, living in basements beneath their employers. But what we mostly saw in the newspapers were little snippets of detail: teenage boys venturing downtown on a dare to confront knife-wielding villains in opium dens; vague clues about a place that may or may not exist and that, evidently, people preferred to wonder about rather than research.
Or Deep Deuce: today it's the brand-name of a part of town known mainly for its glorious musical heritage. Segregation isn't mentioned, nor is the demolition of a thriving business community.
When we mythologize a place we make it much more and much less than it really was or is. We encounter a place that is fascinating in ways that are somehow based in truth. But the truth is more complicated than the myth.
So here are a couple of questions for you. Please write one or two paragraphs in response to at least one of these questions:
(1) After viewing the Thoth video and exploring his website, which real cultures and places seem to be the basis for his mythical Festad? What might Thoth be teaching us about American culture through his performances about the Festad?
(2) In what ways is the Paseo Arts District a mythologized community?
7 comments:
In response to the question, Thoth truly believes that this is his way of paying his debt to the universe for his very existance.
The way that he refers to the mystical world of the Festad is portrayed through his use of music, rhythm, dance and dramatic performance.
It combines vocals, musical instruments and dance to create a routine that has a healing quality to it.
The soothing sounds of the music combine with the artistic approach and delivery help to create multi-dimensional space that include racial diversity and cultural differences. This is really a visualization of what America has to offer future generations. Rather than being afraid of what we do not know, it is important to focus on our similarities and differences that enhance our way of life. Let your imagination take you places that are unlimited and without boundaries. Debbie Boles
(2) In what ways is the Paseo Arts District a mythologized community?
This question really brings it home to me. On Thursday I went out on my excursions. I really thought that I would be captivated by the Paseo, and Deep Deuce would be just so so. In fact it was quite the opposite.
I'd been to the Paseo before. A short, colorful, cultured block. I would go get pizza from sauced or listen to my friends play at galileo's. These events gave me good feelings and I associated these good feelings with the Paseo. Likewise I built up magic place in my head where I would enter and automatically be welcomed with that good feeling.
When I did go down to the Paseo I didn't get any pizza from sauced or even enter Galileo's. I was looking for what else it had to offer.
I was met with so much trash. It was everywhere. Smashed beer cans or other found objects covered the ground. I walked up the street and could not find the feeling that I usually associate with that area. I entered a few shops, bought some canles, and left.
Now I'm not emplying that the Paseo is a bad place. It's just a real one.
I agree with John about the Paseo. I mentioned last night that my odd connection with the Paseo is that I can pass for a total insider in that [sub]culture, the "arts" or "Bohemian" culture that it seems to embody-- whether at Isis, Galileo's, a private or public late-night art show, a spontaneous drum circle in a parking lot, or at a nearby house or apartment. But this culture takes place after dark. When I leave the place, I am a complete outsider. I do not walk the walk. I have fun and pretend to be an insider, but then I leave and get back to my real life. I fake it when I'm there and it's a great experience.
But this led me to think. Is everyone else, the "insiders" in the Paseo, walking the walk? Are they living the "Bohemian" life 24-7 and making a living at it? Probably not. Even the artists generally have day jobs. Then--at night--they leave the real world to go to this mythologized place where artists rule the world and make a living for their art without caring what the world thinks.
In that case, am I really an outsider pretending to be an insider? To be a true insider, should I walk the walk every hour of every day? Or is this subculture just an "after dark" subculture--a utopian escape for communion among those who see the world through an artist's eyes?
Another idea! We said yesterday that The Red Cup was technically part of the artist [sub]culture...I see this as an attempt to extend the artists' utopia into the daylight hours.
I would also like to add to my last post that I am sure that there are some who live the bohemian life 24-7 (especially if they work in a shop in the Paseo or at the Red Cup), but that is a feat in itself in today's society. Then, could those few people be the few, the proud true artists in the subculture as a sub-subculture of their own while, for most, the Paseo is a place to visit as an insider yet leave behind as an outsider?
So far, these are just ideas and speculations, but it would be interesting to investigate this further.
(2) In what ways is the Paseo Arts District a mythologized community?
I think many of people here in the city may think this is a mythologized community only because they do not go there or hang out. They know it's here in the community, but they really don't know the area because they have not taken the time or the interest to find out more about the area or the people. I would even know where to go in the Paseo if the signs didn't mark the area. So to me it wouldn't even have exsisted.
1) After viewing the Thoth video and exploring his website, which real cultures and places seem to be the basis for his mythical Festad?
I think I need to read more about Thoth, because I don't understand what it is all about.
What might Thoth be teaching us about American culture through his performances about the Festad?
I think the performance he maybe trying to teach others in the believes of thoth. showing others another side of what things may be like.
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