Push It

Untitled (Sisyphean Task), 2009

by Divya Murthy

While Devin the Dude performed on the main stage at Summerfest, Frank Olson, Johnny DiBlasi and Matt Keller were attracting a significant audience toiling away in the sweltering heat. While festival-goers tuned in, turned on and dropped out, at the top of the hill Olson and Keller endlessly repeated a performance piece referencing the unyielding absurdity of an endless chore.

Set under the shade of a tree and surrounded by teeming crowds, Untitled (Sisyphean Task), attracted onlookers, cheerleaders and catcalls. While one performer unsuccessfully attempted to move an old heavy television with broken wheels up a 12-foot ramp, another made lackadaisical loops around the structure. In case there was not enough emphasis on cyclical behavior, Keller and Olson both painted purple Os on their back; their sweat washed the paint down in rivulets. As they continually exerted themselves, jocks in polos and hippie girls in flowery dresses looked on, their minds spinning with circular humdrum. A video looped on the television, playing video of CDs spinning in the players, scenes from action films and screensaver-ish self-generating computer images.

Was it really necessary to be so didactic and push so many literal ideas of circular logic at a redundant pace? Considering the references to Sisyphus (who endured a never ending, ineffective act), a durational performance art piece (that lasted at least two hours), and the overcrowded venue (a park teeming with hipsters looking for music not art), I would probably say yes. As Sisyphean Task endured at Summerfest its audience filtered in and out; their quickly recognizable visual markers made the performance accessible to any person passing through, pausing in wonder or finishing their beer before leaving to see a band play on the main stage. DiBlasi and Olson made a courageous effort at creating a lengthy time-based piece, with a fair concept and delivery for the brutal temperatures during the heavily trafficked festival. Performance art still seems to be one of those largely under-represented mediums in a contemporary art world that accommodates the obsession with ownership of images. Durational pieces are rarely utilized in fine arts venues, especially in Houston. Sisyphean Task, tweaked with a bit more subtlety, would blossom in an art space where it is one of the main events. I believe many art lovers, who didn’t want to go to Summerfest, would appreciate its earnest bluntness.