Blog Posts
Now you can customize a framable Donald J. Trump Presidential Pardon for anyone you’d like. Get them before it’s too late!
Norman Savage was a poet, author, friend and long-time co-conspirator. In addition to participating in performance pieces, he also doubled as me, even though we didn’t look or sound at all alike, on numerous occasions.
He was always game for some sly fun.
Here’s a brief journey through some of our hijinks together.
In 1986, Norman played the part of a diet commando in my Fat Squad hoax, where you could take out a contract on yourself and commandos would keep you on your diet.
In 1988, when Entertainment Tonight asked me to appear for a story promising the inside scoop on great hoaxes and hoaxers—how the news media falls for their stories, what to watch out for, and how not to be fooled—I sent Norman to appear as me. 
In 1990, Norman played a “Hair Today, Ltd” scalp donor in a photo taken for Mark Dery’s article “The Merry Pranksters and the Art of the Hoax” in The New York Times.
(more…)
Exit through the grift shop…
Imagining the Trump Presidential Lie-brary
by Sarah Rose Sharp
Hyperallergic.com
November 13, 2020
The digital rendering, made by an anonymous New York-based architect, is complete with a COVID memorial, jail cells, and disinformation.
With Donald Trump’s failure to win reelection officially confirmed (aside from in the minds of all but the criminally delusional, including Trump himself), it is time for DJT to start thinking about his legacy. Fortunately, the Donald J. Trump Library is already up and running, presenting a comprehensive overview of a man who defied every expectation about him, including those that foresaw him somehow being able to be a competent or dignified President of the United States.
The library, designed by an anonymous New York-based architect, has something to highlight all parts of DJT’s run in the Oval Office! There’s a COVID Memorial that gives visitors a quiet place to reflect on all the people who have died from the disease, promoted by disinformation campaigns, the oppositional-defiant disorder of his voting block, and of course, mistrust of science. Read the rest of this article here.
Russian technology has come a long way…
“They say that Russia is a technically backward country, there are no roads, robotics do not develop, rockets do not fly, and mail goes too long. It’s a bullshit.”
A scene in Sacha Baron Cohen’s news movie “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” exposes Rudy Giuliani, ex-Mayor of New York and Donald Trump’s personal attorney, in a compromising position. He makes a play for a sexy young journalist who is interviewing him and gets caught on film appearing to put his hand down his pants. Rudy says he was just tucking in his shirt.
You decide. Watch the footage of the scene here:
And here’s Sacha Baron Cohen’s response in character as Borat defending Rudy.
Read more at The Guardian: Rudy Giuliani faces questions after compromising scene in new Borat film
Here’s a creative prescription for managing your medical bills.
Oversized hospital bill paintings sold to pay off medical debts, by Oscar Holland, CNN, October 5, 2020
An art collective has come up with a novel way of paying off three people’s medical debt: turning their hospital bills into huge paintings and selling them to collectors for thousands of dollars.
The paintings were sold for the same amount owed on each bill, with the money used to pay off the applicants’ medical debts. Credit: MSCHF
New York-based MSCHF, which is known for its irreverent art projects, identified Americans with sizable medical debt, including one with a bill for over $47,000. The group then hand-painted the invoices on 6-foot-tall canvases and sold them on the art market for precisely the amount owed.
Beyond settling these individuals’ debts with the money generated, the artists aim to make a wider commentary about the US health care system. Over 137 million people in the United States reported medical financial hardship, a 2019 study found.
The world of social activism has lost another warrior.
I had the pleasure of meeting James Randi, a magician and great debunker of fake psychics and other charlatans, in 1986 when we both appeared on The Afternoon Show, a San Francisco TV talk show on KPIX. We both performed magic tricks. He removed the male host’s watch from his wrist. I removed the female host’s panties. (Having prepared ahead of time to appear on the show along with him, I had hidden a pair of female panties in my pocket and pulled them out to top Randi’s magic trick.) Riotous laughter ensued.
He later was the narrator of an Arts & Entertainment documentary called Scams, Schemes and Scoundrels which covered numerous dead scoundrels and me. You can watch the clip here.
Check out Indecline’s new film in Rolling Stone. h/t Dino
From: Indecline Debuts ‘The Art of Protest’ Documentary, Rolling Stone
In activist-artist collective Indecline’s new documentary, protest art is shown as not only relevant, but necessary for change
When Indecline started work on their documentary The Art of Protest in late 2018, they wanted to tell the history of resistance art. Over the previous two years — since they broke onto the national consciousness with their naked-Trump, guerilla-art instillation The Emperor Has No Balls, the activist-artist collective has staged numerous pieces of public art in protest of the Trump presidency. To tell the story, they reached out to Colin Day (director of Saving Banksy) and started shopping around the idea to streaming services. But as the pandemic unfolded, and the Black Lives Matter movement reignited across the streets of the nation, their mission changed. As a representative for Indecline puts it: “What was once set up to be a deep dive into the history of resistance art, soon became a ‘call to action.’”
Now, the 45-minute film — executive produced and distributed by Zero Cool films and premiering here on Rolling Stone — traces the history of protest art, from the Civil Rights movement through the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. It does so in a way that is equal parts gut-wrenching and exhilarating, illustrating how despite the passage of time, little has changed. To this end, they were careful in their curation of who to talk to: not only did they bring in the heavy hitters most associated with the modern protest-art movement — like Shephard Fairey, Nadya Tolokonnikova, Tom Morello, and Dave Navarro (who also helped to finance the film) — they were careful to incorporate a wider range of voices. Leaders from youth-run 501(c) The Sunrise Movement talk about uniting movements, while the Yes Men discuss bringing absurdity to Capitol Hill. Atlanta’s Ash Nash remembers organizing the “Kaeperbowl” in Atlanta in 2019, spurring artists across the city to paint images of Colin Kaepernick in public places as the Super Bowl rolled into town. Damien Echols, one of the West Memphis Three, speaks to being literally saved from death row by protest art.
At the heart of the film is Indecline’s work over the past four years. Read the rest of this article here.
Whether you’re raising awareness about food waste or trying to keep people from smoking, tons of carrots seem to be the way to do it…
32 tons of carrots dumped on London street for art installation, by Ben Hooper, September 30, 2020
Angry French tobacconists dump tons of carrots on Paris streets, by Robert Myles, July 24 2015
Guerrilla projections highlight workers concerns.
“Open for Exploitation”: Artists Project Messages on Guggenheim Museum Ahead of Reopening, by Hakim Bishara, Hyperallergic.com, September 29, 2020
The artist-activist groups Artists for Workers and the Illuminator organized the projections in solidarity with the Guggenheim’s unionized workers and workers of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
A guerrilla projection on the Guggenheim Museum’s facade, reading “Seeking New Management” (all images from Illuminator)
Yesterday, September 28, the artist-activist groups Artists for Workers (AFW) and the Illuminator descended on the Guggenheim Museum in New York for a series of guerrilla projections on its facade. The action was held in solidarity with the Guggenheim’s unionized workers and workers of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi ahead of the museum’s New York reopening this week (September 30 for members and October 3rd for the general public).
Traffic was scarce on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue when an old white van parked in front of the Guggenheim at 7:40pm last night. The vehicle, retrofitted to raise a large projector through an opening in its roof, belonged to the Illuminator. This is the third time that the group directed its projector at the Guggenheim’s spiral structure: It did it with the group Gulf Ultra Luxury Faction (G.U.L.F.) in 2016 and 2014, and with Visual AIDS in 2015.
Members of the Illuminator setting up their projector in front of the Guggenheim
Meet the man, His Excellency President Kevin Baugh, who runs his own country, the Republic of Molossia, inside the U.S.
h/t Eli Gesner
Click to watch a video on Instagram from @cnn
Alternative animated video about The Republic of Molossia
Bank Robber Prank yields fun for some and felony charge for others. Pretending to rob a bank is a YouTube prank “genre”. These guys had fun…
Bank Robber Prank, September 20, 2019 (Over 10M views on YouTube)
These guys, not so much. Stokes twins BANK ROBBER PRANK (gone wrong), March 30, 2020
And, then…
Twin YouTube Stars Alan and Alex Stokes Charged with Felonies After Staging Bank Robbery Pranks, by Ashley Boucher, People, August 5, 2020
Twin YouTubers have been charged with felony counts after they pretended to be bank robbers for prank videos filmed in California last year.
Alan and Alex Stokes, 23, are each facing a felony count of false imprisonment effected by violence, menace, fraud, or deceit and one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting an emergency, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office announced in a press release Wednesday.
The twins are accused of dressing in all black and wearing ski masks while carrying around duffel bags of cash last October.
According to the DA’s office, Alan and Alex ordered an Uber driver while posing as bank robbers on October 15, beginning the caper around 2:30 p.m. The driver refused to drive them, and a bystander believed they were trying to carjack the Uber driver.
When police arrived, they ordered the Uber driver out of the car at gunpoint, releasing him when they realized he was not involved. Read the whole story here.
“There shall be no golden idols…”
Golden ‘Statues’ Memorializing Donald Trump’s Most Divisive Moments Have Popped Up Around Washington, DC, Courtesy of an Ad Guru, Sarah Cascone, ArtNet News, July 21, 2020
Bryan Buckley hopes to remind voters of just how poorly Trump has handled the challenges of 2020.
Bryan Buckley, Now Go Back to School. Photo courtesy of the Trump Statue Initiative.
Big, shiny, gold statues of Donald Trump sound like they would be right up the president’s alley—but a new art project, titled the “Trump Statue Initiative,” uses the figures to instead memorialize his worst moments of 2020.
Street performers painted head-to-toe in metallic gold paint posed as still as stone atop massive plinths that hailed Trump as the “destroyer of civil rights and liberties.” The trio of “statues” appeared over the weekend in sites across Washington, DC.
Filmmaker Bryan Buckley decided to stage the project in part because of the way public statues have made headlines all summer, with activists outraging Trump with their efforts to remove memorials to Confederate leaders and other problematic historical figures. In response, the president has not only beefed up the law against vandalizing statues, but also issued an executive order to create a “National Garden of American Heroes.”
Bryan Buckley, The Bunker. Photo courtesy of the Trump Statue Initiative.
“I noticed that Trump was obsessed with statues,” Buckley told AdAge. “I felt like the best thing we could do was to create these very honest statues of the legacy he’s living right now, that let the world see exactly who he is.” Read the whole article here.
Founders Sing says, “The worst among us have come together to record a charity single to benefit… themselves!”
Welcome to the Art of the Prank, produced and edited by Joey Skaggs. Here you will find insights, information, news and discussions about art, pranks, hoaxes, culture jamming & reality hacking around the world - past, present and future - mainstream and counter culture. You are invited to contribute to its development. May your journey be filled with more than your expectations.
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