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The Art Institute administration has been forced to contemplate the risks inherent in its 20-year-role as a vortex of cutting-edge performance art. Students at the Institute, the Academy of Art College, and elsewhere are having conversations about the difference between creating out-there art and merely being an asshole. Labat has been confronted by an often-overlooked aspect of any professor's job -- looking after kids. And Yegge himself is now pondering a question artists of all types face: Is intellectual expression an end worth any means?

The fix the Art Institute finds itself in -- it conceivably stands to be sued into oblivion by a distressed student -- is entirely of its own making. Perhaps to its credit, by placing itself at the vanguard of the academic art world the Institute has also put itself in jeopardy.

While performance as art is still little-noticed outside the art world, it's enjoying a San Francisco-centered renaissance right now, in part thanks to artists coming out of the Institute. For 20 years, the boundaries of performance art -- and certainly performance art produced in an academic setting -- have been stretched at the San Francisco Art Institute. And for better or worse, shit and violence and sex and truly, truly appalling behavior are now prosaic on performance art stages.

Instructor Howard Fried two decades ago founded the New Genres department to bring into the academic fold "lifelike art" that had emerged during the 1960s. At the time, it was the first academic department to recognize artwork that left no physical remnants.

"The reason that department came into existence was because we wanted to redefine the boundaries, not so much in terms of content, but in terms of form, of what was considered by, what was suggested by, the structure of the institution as being art," says Fried, who retired from the Institute 12 years ago. "There was a sculpture department, but there wasn't a department that understood actions to be art, necessarily. At that time there was no school in the country you could go to that had a department that had that kind of activity."

The idea driving these new works, Fried says, began as an extension of the notion implicit in Jackson Pollock's spatter paintings, which, rather than creating a facsimile of something existing in the physical world, evoke in viewers' minds the image of a man pouring cans of paint onto a canvas.

"The act becomes as important as the result. The connection between the act of doing the thing and the thing that results from the act are both seen and have equal weight in the piece," Fried says.

Taken a step further, "When the action is finally free from the object it is producing, the people around it become the potential canvas."

So an artist may stand in the living room and give an erotic reading of a cereal box label, recite a soliloquy about his lot in life, or roll herself in a rug and lie in a museum entrance for hours.

Such pieces were novel, provoked audiences to reflect and ponder, and generally altered the human canvas they were painted on -- but not as much as some artists wished. Within the performance art world evolved a group of artists who wanted not merely to provoke people, but to shock them out of complacency.

So there was public masturbation, people shooting others in the arm on purpose, others hanging themselves by hooks.

HIV-positive artist Ron Athey makes his living lacerating himself onstage. And Art Institute alum Karen Finley made a tour of the national talk show circuit a decade ago after her NEA-funded work angered Republican congressmen. Finley's pieces involve forcing candied yams into her anus, shitting into a bowl and letting another artist eat it, and inviting the audience to lick goo off her naked body.

So Yegge was in good company when he physically humiliated his volunteer. Like his contemporaries, he shocked, angered, disturbed, and otherwise made his audience, participants, and sponsors very uncomfortable.

A success, no?

You wouldn't think so judging from the subsequent behavior of the parties involved. Yegge himself, after demonstrating persecuted-artist bravado during conversations just following the piece, is now contrite.

"Right now, I'm just worried about the student who volunteered," he says.

Labat was quick to change the subject away from Yegge's piece, repeatedly, during a recent conversation over breakfast.

"I find it very unfortunate that this incident is making us meet here, and not the other, truly good work that is being done at the Institute," Labat said.

And the Art Institute administration, which directs one of the most open-minded and self-analytical such institutions in the country, had a flack, rather than a dean as requested, return a call from SF Weekly.

"We'll send you a statement by e-mail," said the Institute's Patti Quill, who didn't send a statement by e-mail.

The administration's reaction is about what one might expect, says Fried, who has thought about such quandaries before.

"The term 'avant-garde' is defined as something that's pushing limits," Fried says. "It's ironic because when you start doing that, you're always in the same position, which is, people who are interested in operating in that space are going to redefine the space. The institution's never going to be comfortable with that."

It's the same dilemma dividing the ideal from the practical that institutions and individuals face all the time.

Fried says it exists in something as basic as the founding fabric of America. "The theory behind the Second Amendment is that it was put there to make it possible to overthrow the controlling structure of the country. Have a revolution once in a while. It was thought that that's a healthy thing to be in the fabric of the Constitution," says Fried, who notes that he's not debating gun control, rather pointing out the scary nature of violent revolutions.

"But everybody's always trying to stop it because it's dangerous," he says, before moving back to the subject of hosting avant-garde art in academic institutions. "This question about whether or not you should push the edges where you can't really define the edges is an important one. If you don't do that, it becomes reactionary and stupid. If you do do that, there's the danger that it will go out of control."

Indeed.

Write Your Comment show comments (54)

  1. What a freak. Just more proof that liberalism is a mental disorder.

    Comment by scot — April 17, 2008 @ 12:11PM

  2. "Like I'll poop into her butt-hole. And then she'll poop it back... into my butt... hole. And then we'll just keep doing it back and forth. With the same poop. Forever."

    Comment by pete — April 17, 2008 @ 12:35PM

  3. What's the piece called? The Aristocrats?

    Comment by the sieve — April 17, 2008 @ 12:37PM

  4. That's not art. That's just some sicko getting his rocks off at the expense of someone else and in public to boot.

    Comment by C.J. — April 17, 2008 @ 12:40PM

  5. This NUTJOB is nothing more than a depraved SICKO!!

    Anytime someone commits an act like THIS in the name of "art", you can pretty much chalk it up to that person looking for any excuse they can find to get away with engaging is sick, immoral, depraved behaviour without being punished!

    Comment by barry — April 17, 2008 @ 12:46PM

  6. Pathetic - these people belong in mental institutions.

    Comment by ian twolan — April 17, 2008 @ 12:47PM

  7. This clap trap has no more reference to art than the poor guy that pumps out septic systems.

    I'm College Educated, not very religous, and fairly tolerant of things, even those I don't understand or agree with.

    But this so called artist's, "art" indicates to me that he ought to be in a mental hospital.

    As for his "professor" and the University, how they could bastardize their mission and responsibilities to this extent is beyond imagination. If ever there was a real life example of the King having no clothes, this is it.

    I don't usually wish ill on anyone, but it would not break my heart if the next big trembler in CA, wiped this so called University off the face of the Earth. Earth Day would be appropriate timing, eliminating a source of gross pollution of the environment.

    TBPollock

    Comment by TBPollock — April 17, 2008 @ 12:56PM

  8. I've been looking for the reason Muslims "hate our freedom." I will look no more.

    Comment by Chad — April 17, 2008 @ 12:56PM

  9. This guy is full of crap - literally. What a waste of life, this "art" does not provoke thought or conversation, just shock and disgust.

    Comment by M — April 17, 2008 @ 12:58PM

  10. This guy is full of crap - literally. What a waste of life, this "art" does not provoke thought or conversation, just shock and disgust.

    Comment by M — April 17, 2008 @ 12:58PM

  11. Look you sick freaks, call it art if you want I could not care less.
    But do that garbage in the privacy of your own sick classroom (SF) and don’t use my money to pay for it.

    Comment by PTs — April 17, 2008 @ 12:58PM

  12. I've lived in Northern California and the Bay Area most of my life. SF use to be the center of future culture. Where you go to see and feel new and beautiful things. Even when HIV first became a household word and so many died there, it was still a place a wonder and new experiences. Now it’s become (literally) the butt hole of the state. I never imagined that SF would pass LA in the “make the rest of us look bad” category.
    And this university is ground zero for it. Not education but indoctrination. The only reason the faculty is even commenting on it is because they never thought anyone would bitch. Anything goes in SF ya know

    Comment by PTs — April 17, 2008 @ 01:08PM

  13. What to comment on that is nothing but pure stupidity. How many idiots are there in San Francisco? And how good these con men are at trying to make disgusting behavior more and more acceptable. Places like this, masquerading as an institution of higher education, should never have been allowed to exist in the first place.

    Comment by Adrian — April 17, 2008 @ 01:10PM

  14. Sodom, Gamorrah and San Fransisco. I'm still pissed off at Nostradamos. California was supposed to fall into the sea years ago, wtf?

    Comment by Joe — April 17, 2008 @ 01:11PM

  15. Where is Sam Kinison when we need him. This crap is off the charts. Oh, I live in hell, I live in hell!

    Comment by Sam — April 17, 2008 @ 01:12PM

  16. THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN OVER 8 YEARS AGO. THIS IS OLD NEWS. BEEN THERE; DONE THAT. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

    Comment by chingy — April 17, 2008 @ 01:15PM

  17. No wonder the professor and the school are running away from this garbage - it's indefensible.
    At least they still have sense enough to be ashamed of it, even if they won't say why.

    I would say Yegge was acting like a sick monkey, but sick monkeys can't imagine things that disgusting!

    Exhibiting your sickness and perversion is not art. And, "getting someone to think" is not the point of art. People create art in order to enlarge the human spirit, by describing the glory and pathos of the human condition. If that's not your goal and driving force, then you are not an artist, you're just a sick, self-centered show-off. A head-trip like this is the result of soulless, empty living.

    The writer is obviously caught up in it, too; otherwise how can you describe this kind of sickness as a 'success'?

    Comment by Fred — April 17, 2008 @ 01:16PM

  18. Where can I see the video ?

    Comment by Dan — April 17, 2008 @ 01:19PM

  19. Everyone involved is a total a-hole, even the reporter of this piece. Everyone else who just wasted their time reading this is now dumber because of it. The whole thing is an accurate representation of life in S.F.

    Comment by the Dude — April 17, 2008 @ 01:23PM

  20. Utterly decadent. San Francisco, you are destroying yourselves. The supreme Architect of the universe has established a moral code. You are in violation, and will be found wanting.

    Comment by Jim — April 17, 2008 @ 01:26PM

  21. San Francisco Values is all I can say. Only in SF would something so vile to the rest of normal society go on. Although you keep electing Nancy Pelosi, what can we expect??

    Comment by American — April 17, 2008 @ 01:31PM

  22. This story is some kind of sick April fools joke right? I mean the world isnt getting this sick is it? God help SF.

    Comment by tom — April 17, 2008 @ 01:32PM

  23. And so now the Art Institute may get sued into oblivion? It would hope so...But then again, the "victim's" mother is a judge? We know how out of touch Bay Area judges are.There will probably be a huge donation on behalf of the 9th Circuit Court to this place of "Higher Education". Too bad./ Liberalism is truly a mental disorder.

    Comment by Greg in Oregon — April 17, 2008 @ 01:34PM

  24. This is all about the First Amendment. Let's not follow the gov't down the path of censorship. After all, censorship is becoming America's favorite past-time. The US gov't (and their corporate friends), already detain protesters, ban books like "America Deceived" from Amazon and shut down Ron Paul. Free Speech forever.
    Last link (before Google Books caves to pressure and drops the title):
    http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?&isbn=0-595-38523-0

    Comment by Jack D — April 17, 2008 @ 01:38PM

  25. What a freaking waste of space this barrel of monkey spunk is. That's great. I think I will take a shit on the Mona Lisa and call it art and then cum on some passer byer's face and call it art. His parents must be so proud. They don't call it San Franfreako for nothing and man am I glad I left that shit hole. What a jerk off

    Comment by Chris — April 17, 2008 @ 01:41PM

  26. What a freaking waste of space this barrel of monkey spunk is. That's great. I think I will take a shit on the Mona Lisa and call it art and then cum on some passer byer's face and call it art. His parents must be so proud. They don't call it San Franfreako for nothing and man am I glad I left that shit hole. What a jerk off. Remember folks, just because you can, doesn't mean should

    Comment by Chris — April 17, 2008 @ 01:42PM

  27. You sick pigs in San Francisco should be rounded up and shot. What the hell is the matter with these idiots?! Good job raising thiese kids Mom and Dad.

    Comment by Mike — April 17, 2008 @ 01:42PM

  28. What's the big deal? Everyone knows liberals suck and are full of shit.

    Comment by Rusty — April 17, 2008 @ 01:42PM

  29. Is it any shock that the overall tone of this article is defensive of this horrific act which is in permitted in an a place of "Higher" learning supported by tax dollars?

    Our country's morality is plunging off a cliff! How can long we tolerate this type of insanity?

    It is time for common sense and human respect to once again be the norm rather than the exception in our universities.

    Comment by David Lee — April 17, 2008 @ 01:56PM

  30. This has to be the most disgusting thing I've ever heard of, yet for some reason I'm not in the least bit suprised that this happened in San Francisco. Has anyone stopped to ask whether or not the victim is under suicide watch?

    Comment by Dave — April 17, 2008 @ 02:03PM

  31. You do realise that a work of art like this is SUPPOSED to induce the kind of visceral knee jerk reaction you have all just expressed? The shocking thing about this article is that it's written in the RIGHT tone.

    Comment by Adam Whyte — April 17, 2008 @ 02:12PM

  32. It is not hard to believe that this actually qualified as perfomance art in San Francisco. Your city has the unenviable reputation of being the gay sh*th*le of the Left Coast. So it does not seem unusual that a gay sex act involving feces would occupy the San Francisco press's philosophical agenda.

    Comment by Patrick C. — April 17, 2008 @ 02:35PM

  33. There is so much depravity in the world. Some people become angry because conservatives reject the gay agenda, but why would anyone want to embrace anything that brings MORE deviance to our culture? Liberals, this is what you are arguing for...

    Comment by Nathan — April 17, 2008 @ 02:44PM

  34. I think Yegge should run for President.

    Comment by Stan — April 17, 2008 @ 02:49PM

  35. Wrong - if the consent form had said possible death - and he walked up a chopped his head off would it have been Art. Twisted people will take advantage that is what the liberal mind is driven to do - taking advatange of others for thier own sake and thier right to anything they desire trumps the collective orders right to protection from them.

    The idea that the school debated this at a board levell stuns me - if thier child had been the volunteer there would not have been any debate.

    Comment by Charlie — April 17, 2008 @ 02:54PM

  36. This isn't art.

    Comment by TC — April 17, 2008 @ 02:57PM

  37. Sick puppies all of them, if you want to be a performance artist learn to act or play an instrument.

    Comment by Ron — April 17, 2008 @ 03:02PM

  38. A student shits on someone over and over, performs oral sex and ties them up in front of a class and he thinks it's art???? This is sure one sick pervert!!! He has no respect for his body or anyone's body. He's sick!

    Comment by Mary Ann — April 17, 2008 @ 03:14PM

  39. I live in Clearwater Fl.In 1977 the California weird crazies invaded our beautiful place in the sun. The aliens that landed are called The Church of Scientology. When I read this vile story, This made the mind numbed robots of L.Ron Hubbard look almost "normal by comparison". When Osama bin Laden said that he despises the freedoms of the Western Culture. This is what he sees. The debauchery of bizarre sex performed in public,and done in the name of art. Disgusting and Perverse.

    Comment by Frank N. Beyer — April 17, 2008 @ 03:31PM

  40. The only good thing about Islam and the jailing of homosexuals. I hope no pel grants or stafford loan fund education at this school. If so that reason engough to never pay taxes again.

    Comment by cowboy bob — April 17, 2008 @ 04:24PM

  41. Wow ... wouldn't it be a shame if that idiot had to find a real job someday?

    Comment by DRH — April 17, 2008 @ 07:14PM

  42. I don't understand, is this some sort of weird satire article? I refuse to believe that this could go on in America, even in San Francisco... if I accepted this as a reality that I live in I would be a suicide risk. If it's true I hope that these obscene "artists" are placed in a mental asylum so that they can get the care that they clearly need. It's behavior I would not even expect from a schizophrenic in prison.

    Comment by Matthew — April 17, 2008 @ 08:47PM

  43. I'm wondering how this is not criminal. Public exhibition of an obscene sexual act? Public nudity is off limits in most communities, I never imagined public sex wouldn't be.
    I'm also wondering when one of these art students will decide that some child pornography constitutes art. Watch them try and defend their depravity then. I can stomach people calling a sexual act like this art when done on video or in private, but in public? And apparently with a questionable degree of consent from the 'volunteer'?? No WAY.

    Comment by Alan — April 17, 2008 @ 08:56PM

  44. Uh,perhaps I am a prude,but blowing a man in public,shitting in his ass,then having him shit on you is the act of a degenerate or a lunatic?

    Comment by Glenn — April 18, 2008 @ 01:27PM

  45. What I don't get is why didn't the volunteer stop it or try to get away. He must of liked it if he didn't so why is he complaining about it it now. I think this guy is a sick and should be locked up!

    Comment by Melanie — April 18, 2008 @ 01:31PM

  46. The contract the volunteer signed is essentially worthless. There is no consideration given which makes it null to begin with (unless the contract specified some sort of consideration that hasn't been reported). I'm sure he'll land a nice lawsuit as a result of all of this.

    Comment by Daniel — April 18, 2008 @ 01:55PM

  47. So this is art huh? You're going to sit here and tell me that every time my dog takes a shit he becomes an artist for that one fleeting moment in time where someone's sick imagination becomes a stark, stinky reality? Ok, seriously, this guy has got to be one of the worst artists I have ever heard of and probably the worst smelling one of all time. Next time, why don't you just borrow a diaper from the gerber baby after he's had his beef and pea dinner and save us all the trouble. Booooooo! Thumbs down! Go back to coloring books!

    Comment by TC — April 18, 2008 @ 02:09PM

  48. So everytime I take a sh*t and f*ck someone I'm creating art?! Hotdamn, I should cut my ear off and move to the South of France.

    Comment by Cassandra — April 18, 2008 @ 02:10PM

  49. This is was not art. This was scat sex pure and simple. Look it up on the internet.

    Comment by Sean — April 18, 2008 @ 02:22PM

  50. How disgusting! And the Professor just stood there and let it happen? What a bunch of sick freaks. There is such a thing as going to far at American colleges.

    Comment by Kim — April 18, 2008 @ 03:18PM

  51. Two guys, no cup?

    Seriously it proves the old joke: what's the difference between performance art and shit? Nothing.

    Comment by Art — April 19, 2008 @ 09:30AM

  52. This is not art, nor is the other repulsive acts described. When did art become about making a human become a victim of sexual abuse? If the victim was a woman it would have been taken to the courts, and so it should have been with this poor person. Thier is nothing wrong with what to consenting adults do, but signing a document a vague as the one mentioned and then subjecting someone to this; the lecturer should be stopped from teaching young minds and the students - also the ones who watched - should have to answer to the school and the law.

    I can't believe that no one has done this. If this is the American school system for 'ART' then I'd rather stay well away.

    Comment by Sarra — April 19, 2008 @ 10:23AM

  53. Okay, i get it "ART" is what you make of it, coming from an art student THIS ISN'T ART!! This is just a perverted MORON that definitely didn't make art but an ASS of himself!

    Comment by hannah — April 19, 2008 @ 03:48PM

  54. "Instructor Howard Fried two decades ago founded the New Genres department to bring into the academic fold "lifelike art" that had emerged during the 1960s. At the time, it was the first academic department to recognize artwork that left no physical remnants."

    Maybe you need a fact checker. Studio for Interrelated Media at the Massachusetts College of Art, established 1971. Get a clue.

    Comment by optional — April 23, 2008 @ 10:13AM

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