Minimax Waterfall, 1991, performance, neighborhood Severní terasa in Ústí nad Labem
In 1991, during the main TV news program, I sprayed a foam Minimax fire extinguisher out of the window. The residents of the opposite housing estate building, who looked out attracted by the noise of the Minimax, could see a foam waterfall falling down from the fourteenth floor.
Extension cord with wooden circle, feather bulb and bread. This is a prop from the performance Minimax Waterfall, which took place in a prefabricated apartment in the North Terrace district of Ústí nad Labem. The distinctive factor of the performance was a mixture of organic and inorganic substances such as Vaseline, nivea, paint, shaving foam, cotton buds, feathers, cranberries, etc., with which the author’s body, how else than naked at that time, was gradually covered. The atmosphere in the apartment was stuffy and the smell of Vaseline so strong that the performer was forced to open the window and end the whole scene with a spontaneous act – Černický sprayed a foam minimax out of the window during the main TV news. The residents of the opposite block of flats, attracted by the noise of the minimax, saw a waterfall falling from the 14th floor of the building. Here, too, the clash and struggle of the information (figuratively technological) and foam (figuratively natural) flows is important. The object in the performance functioned as a ritual instrument, a kind of shamanic drum. A bulb in the form of a figure lit up during the ritual, came to life as a homunculus and, by inserting it into a hollowed-out bread stove, activated the life functions of this strange yeast creature.
A prop, Náplast (1992), which the artist used for one of his performances in a prefabricated apartment. On a piece of self-adhesive cloth stuck to the body with the image is a plane drawn in pen. At the top of the patch there are strings sewn on, which gradually pull the drawing off the body during the performance. The patch is stuck on the back where the humanoid wings grow. After the tape is torn off, the image resembles a tattoo. Its theme is again the flight of the Wright brothers. The drawing is actually a special type of active illustration, commenting on the course of the legendary event. The work thus proves that the artist was interested in other modes of the documentary genre and in appropriating or imbuing events with a particular body.
