Johanna Went: An Intern's Perspective
Artist of the Week Series
Daniel Schreiner
At first, I was shocked and rather dismissive about what I saw. Against a multimedia backdrop of ambient synthesizers, psychedelic drum-playing, and colorful, DIY costume-props, a young woman screeched, snarled, and writhed into the microphone. Her sounds were completely incoherent; her bodily movements completely animal. Appalled, I watched as Went spontaneously rolled on the floor, donned various grotesque masks/costumes, and pulled giant, blood-stained tampons out of a huge constructed vagina, hurling them at the bewildered audience.
I was mesmerized in spite of myself by the spectacle and the sheer chaos of Went's performances. As I continued to watch her saw away at numerous dildos attached to her outfit, pour ambiguous liquids over her body and into her mouth, and tear apart various props around her, I began to grasp at some extremely powerful significances. It was vile, disgusting, disturbing, nightmarish, irresistable; it was about disintegration, irrationality, and insanity. It made me feel both morbidly fascinated and vicariously exhilarated, as if I was experiencing a kind of second-hand catharsis--releasing some tremendous source of tension I didn't know I had through my visual participation in Johanna Went's antics.
Went's performances tap into our bare, base, primal, animal selves. Went acts out all of our stifled and subconscious desires to scream, fight, fuck, destroy. The sounds she makes resound with incredible energy and passion, yet the import is lost in translation--what she is trying to communicate is beyond words, unfit for our limited system of language.
One must note the context of her work--1977 to 1987 corresponds directly with the age of Neoconservatism, the Reagan Administration, and the AIDS Epidemic. As such, Went takes on an extreme form of radical, even anarchical rebellion against the many forms of repression and censorship rampant during that era. Her work represents a defiant, unapologetic refusal of decorum, superficiality, and "polite-ness." She tells people to resist cultural homogeneity and anonymity, kicking and screaming if necessary; she affirms the ability to be "weird," "crazy," "other" without shame or stigmatization.
Thus, Johanna Went speaks to me because, like me, she is skeptical of hegemonic, "mainstream" cultural values like conformity, respectability, and sameness. She keeps the possibility for dissidence and individual liberation alive within us, awakening our inherent instinct to fight for life, tooth and nail. She forced me to confront my animalistic self and adapt to the shock of "difference." Her performances are, in effect, a healthy, raw, and necessary "slap" in the face.
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