obama and the nearly controversy

something i've been meaning to do is upload the artworks that get done during our performances - i've still got some of mele-katalina's to upload sometime from a few months back. anyway, this is the collaboration between johan and tim at the bald faced stag on thursday, november 6. some vaguely significant event happened the day before which might have had an influence on the work. :)



actually, there's a story with it that i think is worth telling. we were playing our set and got probably about half way through, when we notice in front of the stage that the two bouncers are standing looking towards the artwork. these guys are built, and also happen to be black. then the sound guy approaches them and there's harsh words going back and forward and a little bit of hands on each others' shoulders kind of stuff. i look around at the painting and there's the words 'black is back' and the picture of obama, looking like a puppet. we, of course, can't actually hear what's going on between the bouncers and the sound guy. anyway, it seems to settle down and they head off. when i look at the painting at the end of the show, i notice that johan has added 'hope', 'change is here' and 'cut the bariere' in nice big writing. i could tell those bouncers had obviously freaked him out and he was making sure the message couldn't be misinterpreted! anyway, afterwards, the sound guy told us that the bouncers had been wandering around the audience checking i.d.s, and then started heading for the stage. the sound guy had thought they were coming to check out our i.d.s - mid set! he got a bit upset at that and told them to go away, which is where the 'incident' came from, so johan and tim were probably safe anyway.