Return of Shaved Head

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

By Aaron Wallis

Jackson Hole, Wyoming - Having a particularly uneventful day in Jackson Hole, I tried to liven things up with spicy food and illegal drugs.

For breakfast Teton Thai leftovers, lunch was No. five spicy Red Curry from Bon Appe Thai, and Thai Me Up’s Volcano Rice was on the dinner menu.

I also had a few aperitifs including a bottle of codeine cough syrup, a reasonable amount of ecstasy and a few absinthes. I was sitting in the parking lot of the abandoned Western Motel watching the flock of ravens strew the contents of Jay Varley’s dumpster across the street with unusual vigor. I was under a good amount of intestinal distress as I took a toke off my peace pipe and suddenly with a jarring clang, time and space began to vibrate uncontrollably. A rift in the sky opened above The Center for the Arts, and Shaved Head appeared to me.

For those of our loyal readers who may have missed last year’s “Convo with Shaved Head,” let me provide a brief synopsis.

Shaved Head exists only in spirit form, cursed to wander the Earth after the massacre of his tribe by the U.S. Cavalry. In the afterlife Shaved Head has pursued a career as a performance artist. In his recent work, Shaved Head directed a flock of ravens to defecate on The Center for the Arts in patterns reminiscent of the Abstract Expressionist work of Jackson Pollock.

After exchanging pleasantries, I asked Shaved Head what had become of his bird doo painting on the side of The Center for the Arts. He replied, “Great White Father in the Center was angry at Shaved Head. Many Mexicans came with hydraulic lifts and pressure washers to destroy the artwork of Shaved Head. They scrubbed siding for many moons till all trace of the ravens’ painting was gone.”

As I listened to the raucous crows and crawwks of the ravens, their language seemed riddled with distress and woe. I asked Shaved Head what the ravens were saying. He replied, “After great white father had painting erased, he then mounted roofing spikes on top of The Center for the Arts. That land between Cache and Glenwood was the sacred home of the ravens for many centuries before the coming of the white man. Now they cannot even land above the graves of their ancestors for fear of impalement on the roof spikes. All the Snake River Brewery dumpster leftovers in the world cannot ease the pain felt by the ravens at being separated from their ancestors.”

I asked Shaved Head if perhaps the ravens might give installation or perhaps video art a try. Shaved Head asked me if I had ever tried to operate a camcorder or Final Cut Pro without opposable thumbs, and I got his point. So what’s next for Shaved Head and his ravens? Shaved Head said he has been guaranteed a spot in the 2011 Whitney Biennial though he added, “The white man has made many empty promises to my people.” JHW



PERMALINK:
Return of Shaved Head | Planet JH News Article: Arts Beat

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