Mole-Balls was set up during Artscape ‘10 on the Charles Bridge as part of the Midway exhibit. Just like last year’s Human-Foosball, but this time, we present Mole-Balls. After 3 days of intense performance, Mike and I have both agree that we should go back to school and get an engineering degree. (Spinning the Cylinder by raw human power is insane!). Below are 2 videos that summarizes what went on. They are both shot beautifully and edited skillfully by our friend Nat Fowler.
Russell Decampo of the Wind-Up Space asked me to do something at his space back in December, 09. At the time i was tied up with the Whack-A-Mole project. But I thought that this could be an opportunity to do something i have never done before, and it could be nice. A wall filled with madness, that i was just going to dump whatever comes to my mind on to it. I want to thank my friends for giving me encouragements and support. A couple of people who joined me through out the process of making this show happen, Russell Decampo for providing a chance and a space, Lisa Krause and Eamon Espey for bringing me watermelons, Michael Benevento for providing reassurance to my confidence and rides to Home Depot, John Bohl for transportation and installation, Katie Rose for her ultra kindness, Bettina Yung for her dinners, Emily Burtner for her wonderful humor, Maude Kasperzak for her painting skills, Joanna Kopczyk for spending lots of time hanging out, Miranda Pfeiffer for good advises, Matt Lohry for liking my dinners and always a cheery attitude, and Krysten Watson to be there sticking up for me from the beginning until the very end, she provided very helpful advises and assistance. The show is up from August 11th - September 11th, at The Wind-Up Space, 12 West North Avenue, in Baltimore City, Maryland, US of A.
Mike and I decided to make a Whack-a-mole + Balls + People + Wheels + Pizza + Glow in the dark, interactive sculpture. We went back to Tacos to gather up ideas, our friends to help us, and most importantly half priced margaritas (on Mondays only). At the time, all ideas seemed a bit doubtful, blue prints were sketchy, production schedule non-existent. My confidence was shaky, and I questioned our ways of engineering and game concept. But along the way, Michael helped me to firmly pin down our vision, and lifted this concept to become a reality. This project would not have happened anywhere other than Baltimore. Our friends’ unconditional support and everlasting love out poured and fed this dream from a theory to a fact, and thus became a representation of its soul and spirit.
Mole-Balls is an interactive sculpture game built around the concept of Whack-A-Mole. Two teams. One team attacks by throwing rocks, knifes or grenades at the other team, the Moles. The moles, are represented by human beings from the other team wearing a mole-face bicycle helmet. The moles job is none other than to stick their heads through an array of painted boards with holes cut out of them, and hold still, so the other team could inflict mortal damage. At the end of each round, rocks, knifes, grenades, bullets or any sort of object would be collected from the faces of the moles, and counted as scores. Then the teams change position, as the moles become the whacker, and vice versa. At the end of each game, the score tells which team is the true Anti-Christ.
I would like to mention some thank yous. Lisa Krause who busted her ass and helped us crunch out our mole-face bicycle helmets. Eamon Espey who painted a mother & child cut out board that glowed in orange mimicking a “I love you, so I have to smack the shit out of you” true parental love. Katherine St. Paul Hill who painted a legit ’sup’ party blue bear with an anti-gravity slice of space pizza . Katie Rose who painted this beautiful big elephant and who brought cakes to us every night, and those cakes sometimes would be our dinner, when she isn’t looking, Michael, John and I fought like lions of the Safari. Russell Hite who painted a roman soldier who just woke up still in his boxers riding a cat through the alley of mustached volcanoes. Elena Johnston who painted the Princess of Ireland in her bikini scuba diving in her own fish tank. Jordan Kasey who painted the infamous Phorusrhacidae, a.k.a. Terror Bird of the Cenozoic era, 60 million years ago. Jeff Mcgrath who painted John Lennon during his ‘Fat-Elvis’ period singing “Help!”. Sean Honey who painted the new American Gothic. Jeff and Sean also were the master of ceremonies and the voices of this project, awsome. Gary Kachadourian who wheat pasted a tree onto a wall and cut a hole. Jordan Bernier who skated into one of the panels and is permanently in a position where he just successfully landed a 20160 McTwist. Lou Joseph who painted the scene down at the Gulf with vivid realism that illustrated a heart breaking disaster. Kieran Gillen who painted his time served on the U-Boat, Red October, while conducting deep ocean exploration to find some new york fried chicken, 2 piece and a small fries, $1.29. John Boh who painted Prince of Whales in a cardboard box, and illustrated the Universe that he saw during the Cassini’s Mission to Saturn. Martin Kasey who is the sound of this project, many people have since then asked me if we were selling CDs of the sound track. Monique Crabb who photographed photography, dang, and they are Beautiful. Emanuel Nickalaidis and Andrew Shenker who both video documented this project. Risa Ono, and Melanie Lester who built the harnesses, although we didn’t end up using them, but we would always remember that Safety must be First! Annie Gray who spent her entire beautiful 65 degree bright sunshine with light breeze Saturday morning and afternoon hanging out with me in the cold cellar plunging ahead on the painting. Bettina Yung and Maude Kasperzak who during the hard times of their semester finals, they generously spare free time to come and drank beer with us, and off-course pushed this project 2 steps faster towards the finishing deadline. Joana Kopczyk and Dorthy Kopczyk sacrificed their weekend and hung out with us, bringing two pairs of listening ears and positive life attitude. Miranda Pfeiffer who contributed tremendous amount of energy and effort to boost our morale at times where the joints of our hands and lower back hurts, she is that magic tiger balm, a display of pure magic. Krysten Watson who showcased her relentless support through an unmatched patience, it was very lifting. Ashley Garcia who showed up to help us push the spinning device for free, my god, and it was just so good to see you and we should watch Ice Age 3 Dawn of the Dinosaurs again when its out on DVD, you bring the DVD, I bring the beer. Megan Chin who cheer-leaded an explosion of bliss just squirted onto everybody. Michelle Porucznik who during her semester finals, skipped class, didn’t pay bills, didn’t eat dinner, didn’t go to the bathroom, didn’t sleep, didn’t call her boyfriend, forgot to put gas into her car, was there hanging out with us, helping us paint and velcroing the balls. Mitchell Goodrich and Kreustyn who shared a large pepperoni pizza and a 10 piece chicken box with us. Mike Schekter who lent us the space to create this piece and has always been so supportive to the arts in Baltimore. Stev and Wheatie who came and made us laugh. Russel Decampio who is a great friend and gave me the last drop of water he had while we were crossing the Gobi desert. Thank you all.
(video shot by Monique Crabb.)
(video shot by Monique Crabb.)
(video uploaded by YouTube user grahamiscool.)
(video shot by Emanuel Nickalaidis, edited by me.)
All photographs copy right belongs to Monique Crabb and Michael Benevento.
