Oakland is to Rotterdam what San Francisco is to Amsterdam. While at the 21 Grand performance space last night, in the heart of Oakland, I couldn't help but think that I was back at Wohlfahrt in Rotterdam, with a disparate community of enlightened people all pulling together to make something happen. I also can't help but think that my music becomes a political act in this situation regardless of what sounds I make. Like last night, the event was a fundraiser for Neighborhood Public Radio, a low frequency pirate radio station serving the East Bay. This is a radio station with an agenda, they are out to reclaim the airwaves and introduce a wonderfully anarchic voice into the national consciousness. Lots of Negativland and John Oswald was heard. A blistering deconstructive tirade against KOIT Radio was delivered as well as an interesting discussion about the work of Walter Benjamin. And then we come to my music, with a video presentation by Radim Labuda, conceptual video artist from Prague. The sound and image were taken from a recording of me giving Radim a haircut, we then sculpted it all in realtime for the show.
There was no intentionally political or social message in this performance. And to me this was very refreshing especially after some of my recent forays into the muddy swamp that is politische kunst. But because of the venue, the audience, and the city itself, what we did became an overt political act, everything at this event was processed through a sociopolitical perspective. And this very much reminds me of Rotterdam.
(l to r) Sudhu Tewari, Mark Bartscher, and Lance Grabmiller
On the train ride home, I found myself pining for my days in Tokyo where I could do art that was so unattached to any question of politics, that was as close to an icy removal from geopolitical considerations as anywhere I have seen. Call it denial, blissful ignorance, modesty of opinion, whatever: in Tokyo art can almost just be art. I'm torn though, I really do love the sense of community that exists in Oakland and Rotterdam, arising from a shared sense of outsiderness. Sometimes it's just a little too damn comfortable though.
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