Public spectacle events in the East Village blurred performance, news, and bystander participation

Evidence

As reported by the Sunday News, the diminutive artist, dressed all in red (leotard, boots, cowgirl hat) and festooned with round white decals, appeared with a confederate, the Japanese painter Minol Araki, and began applying red dots to the torsos of male volunteers. Hippie onlookers joined in, while, according to Howard Smith, “Kusama, who was busy finding the reporters probably missed some of what was really happening.” Smith ended his Scenes item by noting “a lady sitting on a bench, off to the side, unaware of a public celebration, gave into a private urge and removed her slacks and underpants … A cop stood about ten feet away, paralyzed with embarrassment.” — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1066

Categorization

• XREF: The bystander-as-unwitting-performer echoes the turf-wars frame: the scene recruits ordinary life around it into its own drama. — connects to: Well-planned protest spectacles can dictate front-page coverage — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 369