Class Fool
Paul McCarthy
1976
For once the audience looked away. In this thirty minute video we see McCarthy in the nude, smeared in what seems like Ketchup. He then proceeds to stomp on a very slippery floor, falling at times all while holding a doll between his legs.
Out of all the artists I could have chosen, McCarthy meant the most to me. Something about his art has so much feeling, something words can’t define. For a full thirty minutes I could not do anything but watch him, even in the low-quality video I saw everything. I watched how the audience didn’t want anything to do with him, occasionally looking away. It is only when he fell right in front of their faces that they helped him up. I wanted to know everything, the significance of the sauce, the dolls, the reason for why he is nude, the drag-like appearance, the classroom, everything.
This is my interpretation of it. Sauce is usually used to make things… better. Adding flavor but still recognizing what it was. Sometimes people can’t eat things plain, they need sauce. My friends need ketchup for their fries, Barbeque sauce for their meat, Salad dressing, etc. I thought by McCarthy smearing ketchup on him, he became more confident. When he was smearing ketchup on his chest he began breathing heavily and moving, almost like having gained confidence from the sauce. By the end of the video he was covered from head to toe with sauce, the sauce resembling something scary.
It was humiliating. Something about it seemed embarrassing, not only for him but anyone watching. I could see this in the audience, maybe I’m wrong but some didn’t look at him, some seemed disturbed. The setting was a classroom. I felt as though…McCarthy was everything a teacher didn’t care about. That one student that needed help, was having trouble, quiet, and awkward. The audience resembled the teacher perfectly. He stomps and slides around, smeared in confidence, and when he falls none of them help, some don’t even look, just staring straight ahead. It is only when he falls right in front of them that they try to help him up, doing their “job”. At one point he started to puke and a few giggles were circling the room. I didn’t understand what was so funny, and at one point thought maybe I’m taking this video too seriously, maybe it’s just a silly parody. I only thought that because of how other people were acting and realized that I’m taking this video seriously because that’s how I feel about it.
I had trouble identifying what I thought of the dolls. Dolls aren’t real, they look like pretty little kids, but they aren’t. Some artists do things for the shock value, but something about this video didn’t scream PRETENTIOUS GARBAGE to me. So why would he insert dolls into his rectum, or hold them between his legs? What part do dolls have in all this? Do they symbolize the other children in the class? Was it meant to be erotic? Maybe we need to stop thinking about things the way we see them. Could his rectum/between his legs symbolize something else? Children like dolls because they’re playmates that won’t say no to them. What do I think of when I look at the human body and the area between the legs…I think of birth (whether male or female), the sexual connection, vulnerability, something pure, something real. I think the reason he did this was because he is recreating himself. He’s already smeared himself with what he feels is confidence, so why stop there? Why not create your own friends, friends you can be real to, and friends that know your every weakness. He adds dolls, more friends. This is probably far off from what the artist was trying to say, but he made something he didn’t know was just for me. I don’t know why but I really related to it in some abstract way. Well…something real that turned abstract in the process anyways, but I began at abstract and still need to dig further into my own childhood to see where it came from.
Males usually want to emit masculinity but McCarthy…did the opposite. He embarrassed himself, he threw away everything we thought of as masculine and kept what it was. Male, female, who cares? We’re all human. I don’t know why he did this.
I didn’t know why the audience reacted the way they did. I can never express anything with words. I just felt that everything about this was just too real for me, nobody clapped, and nobody showed interest. What was so “real” to me was how we react to things, everything has to be safe for us, we think we’re so important, but what we really are (to me) is that human being embarrassing himself in the video, a class fool.
The classroom was dark, giving a feeling of the unknown, something that hasn’t been brought too much attention. It’s a regular classroom. McCarthy was in a drag-like appearance. Dramatic appearance got more attention, the way he looked was confusing…eventually not caring whether this human was male or female. The ketchup resembled blood, it was not bright red but it was a dark, almost brooding colour. This colour went great with the dark dull classroom (maybe it’s just the low-quality video).
He was The Human Form. He wasn’t a Greek sculpture, muscular and well proportioned. He was average-looking, appearing lanky at times, but well fed at others (maybe to do with light and movement). When he fell or was on the ground his body seemed to resemble someone that needs help but isn’t crying out for it.
There was no real contrast, everything blended together but there was a line drawn, outlining everything (If that made any sense…). There was great attention to him though; all you can focus on is this character moving around. Although there wasn’t much light, he was the brightest thing there.
There was a little aisle (desks parted) and the “stage” (Front of classroom) which created what I thought was balance. The floor was smeared in ketchup which made it incredibly slippery. The video was too fuzzy to make out any lighting/distinction of colours.
The person recording this was not in a very good place. When the camera zoomed in, it was hard to see what he was doing, or what it was. The sounds were harsh. The sounds were good though; quiet which made the littlest things loud. Something about the ketchup…I could almost smell it. I could feel the texture of it, factory-blended, the stench of it being mixed with the air.
I felt that the theme was feeling and personal experiences. The dark classroom gives almost a laid-back unknown feeling. Emotions were everywhere, the audience’s reactions (disturbance, indifference, embarrassment) and the performer’s (confidence, pain, real, humiliation). At one point people laughed, so this video can relate differently to everyone.
We don’t know what the work is about yet. I have given a full description at the beginning of what I thought. I think the work was created to act as a tinted window. You understand you’re looking into something, but what? You make your own connections. You are art. I think this artist understands the pain and frustration in life which makes him more likely to understand happiness. He is probably a normal person.
“…psychosexual events intended to fly in the face of social convention, testing the emotional limits of both artist and viewer. An example of this is his 1976 piece Class Fool, where McCarthy threw himself around a ketchup spattered classroom at the University of California, San Diego until dazed and injured. He then vomited several times and inserted a Barbie doll into his rectum. The piece ended when the audience could no longer stand to watch his performance.”
I also found out that McCarthy was dyslexic and feared institutions, which is probably why the setting was a classroom. In an interview he said
'No. My relationship to institutions was. I had a real fear of institutions. I had a learning disability, I was dyslexic, I had complete fear of schools. In the 70s, I did a piece called Class Fool and it was really important to me that it took place in a classroom.'
I couldn’t find the real meaning of what this video was about. Maybe McCarthy doesn’t want anyone to know the meaning. I decided that when it comes to art, maybe we don’t need all the answers, maybe we just need to like it, and that’s all that matters.
Bibliography
Ubu Web (video used)
Publisher: Kenneth Goldsmith, Class Fool (1976), Ubu Web.
Guardian.co.uk-The Observer (McCarthy Interview)
Lynn Barber, Power and the Glory, The Observer, Sunday 11 May 2003
Flashcard Machine (Photo used)
Title: ARTH-102-1 Contemporary Art, Created: 05/11/2008 22:54:37
And I Am Not Lying (quote)
D. Billy, Paul McCarthy: Flush Twice and Light A Giant Match, August 12 2008.
