Knick Knacks – reflections by Sandy Moore
Linda Mussmann’s recent scripts and Claudia Bruce’s performances of them increasingly address being on the receiving end of language. That’s language servile to the media, and a media servile to the economic/identity machine. Who, or what is that faceless economic/identity machine servile to? That one is harder to answer, while we are being relentlessly verbally pummeled.
Mussmann wrote this piece in 2019 but, as all of us, was caught short by COVID 19. So the piece hasn’t been performed
until now.
Five people are assembled on a spare stage, standing in front of tall lectern tables, each with one bottle of coca cola – Claudia Bruce, Dave King, Wendy Spielmann, Anthony Zanetta, and the musician Paula Vitolo.
In turns, and in rounds, they read from a script of short sentences. Songs and musical riffscogwheel through. Early on, mention of that orange monster pops up like a jack in the box, as he does, everywhere, all the time. And more than any of the other subjects (mentioned in common with mashed potatoes) including Karl Marx, Walt Whitman, Gertrude Stein, Dick Cheney, Virginia Woolf, Joan of Arc, the hideous orange monster forces himself on us as NUMBER ONE IN THE CENTER OF OUR ATTENTION FIELD! This clown is accompanied by unfunny abstractions which require Hannah Arendt’s philosophical explanations about lying. These explanations fly by, equally-weighted with discussions of pie-making.
The performance cites the calendar date repeatedly. These dates variably advancetoward the end of 2019. What we NOW know is that in late 2019 we were all, globally slammed by huge wave(s) of Covid.
Well, whew! Glad that’s over! Let sleeping dogs lie.
One of the readers goes on to say “Fear is real, we have it and it has us. “ Comey is described as
anxious that Trump will try to kiss him over dinner.” Hmmm.
But denial is so much more relaxing than working through anxiety.
The maelstrom of language here is not the usual contract each of us has long had with words. Language pretends to be the funny clown, but this is not a fair game in which we also get to serve and play. It’s so much more fun for the clown and his pals if we are passive – even paralyzed recipients. Acedia has worked wonders on intellectuals since COVID! But wait – this text was written “before” COVID. Language – via relentless media assaults – does not start in our throats, it takes aim at us from without, after opportunistically sucking in our consumer profiles (aka “identities” ) and taking advantage of our willing servility to the super-fun net. That’s not stated directly in this pieced, but is implicit in the frenetic parade of subjects that takes place in Knick Knacks.
Anyone in the habit of lying frequently has the characteristic of mendacity. Maybe that’s enough syllables to throw MAGA off the scent. Did MAGA exist yet in 2019? Actually, Ronald Reagan came up with that term.
Cursing occurs occasionally in this play. I had never noticed that in any previous Mussmann/Bruce works. Hmmm. Apt.
The play offers insights—e.g.“not all stories go sideways. Some are vertical, some run deep”
So some Gertrude Stein, a mainstay for Mussman. Hot Diggity is then sung.
These quips and lines are equally weighted phenomena: the 10 commandments, endless yoga classes, adderall for breakfast, fentanyl for sleep, and unanswered questions – were the children in Flint Michigan going to be alright? Wondering which of us could set themselves on fire like Joan of Arc, Thich Quang Duc (and others). The minds of many characters are included in the parade—General Grant, Euripedes, Kafka, Marx, Tolstoy and his selfless wife Sonia. Napoleon. And etc.
The play then admonishes us to Run, Run! Why? Pornography has become a national pastime. Run, Run! Coca-cola is at risk of closing its factories! That equally weighted with pornography. Run Run! As the performance closes we are reminded that we have been on this road before. Again, Hmmm. Hmmm.
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Time & Space Limited is an activist / not-for-profit arts organization serving the City of Hudson and the Hudson River Valley Region. Its mission is to educate, enliven, and expand the artistic and intellectual quality of life in the community. Knick Knacks was presented August 3 and 4 2024 at Time Space Limited in Hudson NY, and will be presented again on August 30 as part of the Hudson Eye Festival.
https://timeandspace.org/about
About the writer: Sandy Moore is an artist who lives in Hudson NY. She recently returned to filmmaking after a long pause to practice medicine. In 2024 she completed a film about the nature of sleep, based primarily on observing her visual field as she ventures into sleep. She also writes about artists, especially those whose works draw us into enchantment, and those who create ephemeral artworks such as performances and transitory installations.
Claudia Bruce singing KnickKnacks
Linda Mussman, author of Knick Knacks