Frank Moore (performance artist)

Frank Moore

Frank Moore in front of the Art Institute of Chicago 1991 photograph by Linda Mac
Born Frank James Moore
June 25, 1946
Columbus, Ohio, United States
Died October 14, 2013(2013-10-14) (aged 67)
Berkeley, California, United States
Nationality American
Known for Performance artist

Frank James Moore (June 25, 1946 – October 14, 2013) was an American performance artist,[1] shaman, poet,[2] essayist,[3] painter, musician[4] and Internet/television personality who experimented in art,[5] performance,[6] ritual,[7] and shamanistic teaching since the late 1960s.

Moore is perhaps most well known as one of the NEA-funded artists targeted by Jesse Helms and the GAO (General Accounting Office) in the early 90s for doing art that was labeled “obscene".[8] Frank Moore was featured in the 1988 cult film Mondo New York, which chronicled the leading performance artists of that period. He is well known for long (5–48 hours) ritualistic performances with audience participation, nudity, and eroticism.[9] But he has also become well known for his influential writings on performance,[3] art,[10] life, and cultural subversion, for his historic influence on the San Francisco Bay Area music and performance scene, and more recently for his performance/video archive on Vimeo.com that has been viewed by over 22 million people worldwide.

Moore coined the word, "eroplay" to describe physical play between adults released from the linear goals of sex and orgasm.[11] He explored this, and similar concepts in performance and ritual as a way for people to connect on a deep human level with each other beyond the social and cultural expectations and limitations, and as a way to melt isolation between people.[12]

Moore has been an underground counter-culture hero and artistic inspiration for decades. He was born with cerebral palsy, could not walk or talk, and wrote books, directed plays, directed, acted in and edited films, regularly gave poetry readings, played piano, sang in ensemble music jams, and continued to lead bands in hard core punk clubs up and down the west coast until his death. He also produced a large collection of original oil and digital paintings that have been shown across the United States and in Canada. Moore communicated using a laser-pointer and a board of letters, numbers, and commonly used words.

Performance artist Annie Sprinkle considers Moore one of her teachers,[13] and Moore has performed with a host of performance and punk figures[14] of the underground since the 1970s like Barbara Smith, Linda Sibio, The Feederz, and Dirk Dirksen - The Pope of Punk.

Frank Moore first came to be known in the 1970s as the creator of the popular cabaret show, the Outrageous Beauty Revue. In the 1980s he became one of the United States' foremost performance artists. In 1992 he was voted Best Performance Artist by the San Francisco Bay Guardian. In the early 1990s he was targeted by Senator Jesse Helms.[1][15] From 1991 to 1999 Frank Moore published and edited the acclaimed underground zine, The Cherotic (r)Evolutionary.[16]

In addition to his books, Cherotic Magic, Art of a Shaman, Chapped Lap,Skin Passion and numerous other self-published pieces, Frank Moore has been widely published in various art and other periodicals. In artist Pamela Kay Walker's book, Moving Over the Edge, Moore is one of the artists featured as having "greatly impacted me and many people through their artistic expression and their lives."[17]

Frank Moore’s award-winning video works have shown throughout the U.S. and Canada, and in 2001 Moore began producing shows for Berkeley’s public access channel, Berkeley Community Media, Channel 28.[18] His shows continue to play several times each week.

In 2011, Frank launched his online performance and video retrospective on Vimeo. At the same time he created the EROART group featuring videos by eroart artists from all over the world.

Frank Moore's Web of All Possibilities features a growing archive of his audio, video, visual and written work, as well as the work of other artists. He founded Love Underground Visionary Revolution (LUVeR) in 1999, a webstation combining live streaming and on-demand libraries of audio and video programming,[16] described by Moore as a "non-corporate, d.i.y., totally uncensored, noncommercial, nonprofit internet-only communal collective with 24-hour 'live' programming (by amazing people) with 'no-limits' content." LUVeR ran until 2012.

In 2006, Moore announced his candidacy for the 2008 election for President of the United States.[19] He became a qualified write-in candidate in 25 states. His campaign was responsible for reforming the write-in candidate qualifications and procedures in many states. His platform videos are available on YouTube.

Moore also hosted his regular internet show, “Frank Moore’s Shaman’s Den”. Moore describes it as a show that “will arouse, inspire, move, threaten you, not with sound bites, but with a two-hour (usually longer) feast of live streaming video. You might get an in-studio concert of bands from around the world...or poetry reading...or an in-depth conversation about politics, art, music, and LIFE with extremely dangerous people! But then you may see beautiful women naked dancing erotically. You never know, because you are in The Shaman’s Den with Frank Moore.” Video and audio archives of all of these Shaman's Den shows are available online.

Frank Moore died of pneumonia on October 14, 2013.[20] Frank Moore performed regularly in the San Francisco Bay Area up until his death. His students and the people influenced by his life/work continue his vision.

Frank Moore’s life and art are now being documented in a web video series called Let Me Be Frank.[21]

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Carr, C. "On Edge: Performance at the End of the Twentieth Century". Wesleyan, 2008. pgs. XXI, 138-140 ISBN 978-0819568885".
  2. ↑ "Williams, Michael B. / Krezman, Carole Jane (editors) "Beneath The Surface, Creative Expressions of Augmented Communicators, ISAAC Series, Volume 2" PointOne Graphics Inc., 2000. ISBN 978-0968418611".
  3. 1 2 "Art Papers Contemporary Art in the South East Magazine, Vol. 13, #6, New York City, June 1989.".
  4. ↑ "Armstrong, RD "On/Off The Beaten Path: The Road Poems" (see 'A Journey Up the Coast'). Lummox Press, 1999. ISBN 978-1929878994".
  5. ↑ "Walker, Pamela Kay "Moving Over the Edge: Artists with Disabilities Take the Leap". Davis, California: Michael Horton Media, 2005. pp. 54–69 ISBN 0-9771505-2-6".
  6. ↑ "Carr, C. "On Edge: Performance at the End of the Twentieth Century". Wesleyan, 2008. pgs. XXI, 138-140 ISBN 978-0819568885".
  7. ↑ "Knox, Kelly W. "IMAGINATION: The Art of Transformation http://techbiotic.com/kwknoxartblog/?p=89". External link in |title= (help)
  8. ↑ "Dubin, S. "Arresting Images: Impolitic Art and Uncivil Actions". Routledge, 1994. pg.149 ISBN 978-0415908931".
  9. ↑ "Dubin, S. "Arresting Images: Impolitic Art and Uncivil Actions". Routledge, 1994. pg.155 ISBN 978-0415908931".
  10. ↑ "Kaplan, Rachel/Hennessy, Keith (editors) "More Out Than In: Notes on sex, art & community". Abundant Fuck Publications, 1995. ISBN 978-1881430513".
  11. ↑ "Brown, Steven "Movie Stars and Sensuous Scars: Essays on the Journey from Disability Shame to Disability Pride". iUniverse, Inc., 2003. pgs. 130-133 ISBN 978-0595288939".
  12. ↑ "Burch, S. "Encyclopedia of American Disability History". Facts on File, 2009. ISBN 978-0816070305".
  13. ↑ "Sprinkle, A. Post-porn modernist: my 25 years as a multimedia whore. Cleis Press, 1998. ISBN 1-57344-039-6".
  14. ↑ "Boulware, Jack / Tudor, Silke "Gimme Something Better: The Profound, Progressive, and Occasionally Pointless History of Bay Area Punk from Dead Kennedys to Green Day". Penguin Books, 2009. pg. 306 ISBN 978-0143113805".
  15. ↑ "TDR: The Drama Review, Volume 49, Number 1 (T 185), Spring 2005. Carr, C. "The Fiery Furnace: Performance in the '80s, War in the '90s". Pgs. 19-28".
  16. 1 2 "Sant, Toni "Franklin Furnace and the Spirit of the Avant-Garde: A History of the Future". Intellect Ltd, 2011. pg. 105 ISBN 978-1841503714".
  17. ↑ "Pamela Kay Walker (2005). Moving Over the Edge: Artists with Disabilities Take the Leap. Davis, California: Michael Horton Media. pp. 54-69. ISBN 0-9771505-2-6.".
  18. ↑ "Burke, Stoney "Weapon: Mouth Adventures in the Free Speech Zone". Regent Press, 2014. pg. 192. ISBN 978-1587902727".
  19. ↑ "Wikinews_interviews_Frank_Moore,_independent_candidate_for_US_President". Wikinews. 1 March 2008.
  20. ↑ "Iconic Bay Area performance artist Frank Moore dies; tribute planned in Oakland - Vince Echavaria, San Francisco Examiner 10/21/13". External link in |title= (help)
  21. ↑ "Trailer for Let Me Be Frank on TrailerAddict.com". External link in |title= (help)

References

External links

Wikinews has related news: Wikinews interviews Frank Moore, independent candidate for US President
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.