This video came out a couple days ago, but FBvian JonnyDallas just pointed me to it today. For those who can’t watch such stuff at work, here’s how JonnyDallas describes the video for Erykah Badu’s “Window Seat”:
I didn’t really get it until the end. She’s walking around Dealy Plaza. The video starts with a voice over of radio news coverage of JFK as his motorcade enters Dealy Plaza. Then we have Badu walking around removing articles of clothing, with a word written on her back, ‘evolving’. At the end we hear a gunshot (interestingly only one) and the now fully nude Badu falls to the ground in basically the same spot JFK was shot, and we see a word/non-word written on the ground, ‘groupthink’. I think these words are meant to be sort of bleeding out of her head. We then hear Badu doing a voice over reciting a statement about individuals and evolution as the camera pans around. We see the X marks the spot in front of the book depository, Reunion Tower, the Old Red Courthouse (notice the truck that strikes me as very Dallas. Multi-colored extra panels and ground effects and stuff), and then we suddenly see Badu approaching the camera wearing a wig with a bunch of beads in it as the voice over is saying something about loving ones self. I think the voice over might be taken from something, but I don’t know what exactly. A book or essay or something.
My favorite part of the video is watching people’s reaction to Badu. And it raises this question: where are all the pictures they took of Badu walking around Dealey Plaza naked? She shot this on St. Patrick’s Day. I’m not the best at talking to the internet, but I can’t see photos posted anywhere. In any case, it’ll be interesting to see how her hometown reacts to this video. I don’t expect it will go well for her.
27 comments
we need more performance art in this town…what a breath of fresh air that video was. i do not know Badu, nor do i ever write on blogs, but that piece was brilliant. we are at a tipping point in dallas for wonderful art such as Badu’s piece…
Erykah’s been talking about the video on twitter. http://twitter.com/fatbellybella
And she posted a link to a video by Matt and Kim In Badu’s words: “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJkymylTNU4 i was inspired by this contagious act of freedom and artistic expression.”
There was some interesting stuff about the shoot itself as well: “they were yelling , THIS IS A PUBLIC PLACE : YOU OUGHTA BE ASHAMED : PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON : DAMN GIRL! etc…”
Be warned though, she’s re-tweeted every comment sent to her, so it fills up your feed really fast.
I’ve watched the video a few more times over the weekend…I really didn’t like it at first, but its grown on me. Now I just slightly dislike it. I don’t really anticipate much trouble for Badu. Even if someone does get up in arms about her walking around naked in public, controversy sells records.
See, a D editor gets naked out of state, and suddenly it’s a crime. Erykah Badu does it, and it’s performance art.
Take that, world.
Badonkadonk.
Or I guess maybe in this case it’s Badukadonk.
I’ll say she has a brilliant piece, all right.
[/typical american beer-swilling jackass]
The DMN has now posted a story citing city officials, who say she broke the law by not getting the proper permits.
Predictably, someone’s already called her a thug in the comments.
Dear DGirl,
I love you. You are my soul mate. Or at the very least, you stole my line.
Signed,
Chris Squared
Does anyone think this was a hoax?
Kind of surprised that word didn’t spread about this sooner… and as Tim said earlier, where’s all the cellphone pics & video? This is the Youtube age!
Someone just pointed me to this.
http://madeupmemories.tumblr.com/post/480134091/erykah-badu-when-filming-this
Badu’s tweets the day she shot the video in question.
Actually, may I insert a reality check from this longtime fan of Erukah Badu. Also a fan of bold creativity since I was raised by artists & in or around the arts all my life.
What no one seems willing to say is that this may be all WE salute as artists. But it was also an incredibly selfish act since she did that in front of many families with children. Who, on top of everything else, were there (probably vacationing spring break w/family) to see the spot where a president was murdered who may well have been their personal hero. (Imagine, for instance, the reaction if a nameless man did that on the balcony of the Memphis motel where Martin Luther King was shot to death …in front of visiting families w/children. A pilgrimage by mourners who recognize that as sacred history turf.)
These people who happened to be there were our guests in Dallas & more importantly, many were parents who should have some say in the matter when it comes to exposing their children to a totally nude stranger…a woman disrobing then being ’shot’ and dying in the street in front of their kids.
Would I have minded had I have been there? Absolutely not. I once lived in a nude commune so it’s nada for me. But we should look at what we do in the context of others if we are to be honorable citizen participants, civil role models. Responsible artisans. Empathetic to alternative realities.
I have no children but that does no preclude me seeing it through their eyes. Even Badu tweeted that she hoped the kids ‘weren’t traumatized’. Well, what the hell…..a nude woman dying in the street is a tough thing to explain to kids by pilgrim parent families.
We’ve been busy with a deadline for the “print product,” so I haven’t been able today to dedicate the time and energy to Erykah’s badus that the subject requires.
I’m ambivalent. On the one hand, I say kudos to Badu for throwing down a stunt that has people talking. There was a level of difficulty here that demands respect. And I don’t buy the whole “What about the children?” outrage. I’ve got a 4-year-old and an 11-year-old. A woman takes her clothes off and lies down in the street in front of them, they’re going to laugh, not be traumatized. I’m not sure I could explain it to them, but a lot of stuff that happens in life is tough to explain. It should also be noted that no one called police (according to Channel 8’s 10 o’clock newscast). Doesn’t sound like people were that put off. So good on Badu.
On the other hand, the quotes from Badu gathered by the DMN and played on Channel 8 tonight were all about how she was facing her own fears about physical state of her body, etc., etc. I get that. Sure. But what does that have to do with JFK’s assassination? So I don’t get the meaning behind the public place she picked. If her point was that we shouldn’t be ashamed of our bodies, then she could have done her stunt on Greenville Avenue, during the parade. If her point had something to do with JFK’s assassination, then I wish she (or someone else) would explain it to me. Because I don’t get it.
Frank the tank was art
Tim, your children may not have been affected. Nor would I have been, (now or) when I was a kid. Nor would this have upset my children if I had had any. Because neither I nor you nor our extended families would trip over various religious &/or cultural mine fields here. But this is about respect for other people and other people’s children at a public venue. To expand on your points questioning the setting, it’s also about respecting visiting adults as well who might have (imagine!) been at the tourist Mecca Kennedy assassination site because it was to them hallowed ground.
It’s also, as I said, about compounded, glaring double standards. Let me count the ways. If, for instance, I disrobed in a public arena, my life would be wrecked by costly & protracted litigation following my arrest. I’d be ruined. Then, to be fair from the Left of comedy central, imagine if a controversial ‘Conservative’ did this rather than a gutsy bohemian iconoclast. The backlash from the Left would be so turbulent Glenn Hunter would whirl like a Sufi.
Personally, I loved the music, the video & the concept and the artist who conceived and performed it. But that’s beside the point.
I have a lot of respect for her. Great work….
I’m kind of baffled by the blurring of her body parts. If her point was to be brave and show that we aren’t supposed to be ashamed of our bodies, why the blurring? That seems to me to indicate shame and to provide a safety net. So, it was just a hollow stunt, designed to sell records. I’m not impressed.
This is one smart woman. She pulls this “art” stunt when introducing a new CD and she has FREE national publicity. This story is EVERYWHERE this morning. Few people have enough money to buy the publicity she got FREE because the media jumps on crap and makes it gold.
@Rawlins Gilliland. I agree with your construction. The video concept was interesting. It was not particularly effective at delivering any message to me,but it was well done art. It was a selfish,prima donna act consistent with the artist. Not knocking her,just saying this is typical for her. No one else is served by this. And it was disrespectful of others as you point out. Not the worst thing to happen in the world that day,but duplicitous to speak out for human rights for one group while you abuse the rights of others.
It’s pretty “out there” and I’d rather not have my offspring exposed to that but otherwise I just want to know . . . did they get that in one take?
Studies show that a whopping 73% of children who see nipples grow up to have nipples themselves.
P.S. Okay, okay, I know — it wasn’t just nipples it was buttocks too. You win.
“So I don’t get the meaning behind the public place she picked. If her point was that we shouldn’t be ashamed of our bodies, then she could have done her stunt on Greenville Avenue, during the parade. If her point had something to do with JFK’s assassination, then I wish she (or someone else) would explain it to me. Because I don’t get it.”
Did you read Hunter Hauk’s Q&A with Badu in Quick? It’s excellent, she knew/knows what she’s doing on many levels. Reading it and watching the video, I think the act itself and the video documentation of it, is nearing a work of genius. It has an urgent rawness, and she chose to go straight to the center of our collective psyche, the crime scene, and oddly, downtown Dallas’ number one tourist draw.
Badu’s nudity is about catharsis and exposure (like JFK in an open limousine). And the possible consequences of exposure: to be felled in the moment of complete freedom, but also the possibility of resurrection. Which is expressed through the spoken word part and a second image of Badu standing and smiling at the end. (In short, to evolve may mean loosing the baggage; dying to the realities of failure; and re-emerging after being forged in the fires of grit and grace.)
As to the nudity concern, as someone who lives close to a hospital, I see from time to time, psyche patients who peel off their clothes and do all kinds of odd things in public. How do you explain that to children? Or the almost completely nude depiction of women on billboards? Or the happenstance of computer porn? Nudity in art happens (we are all nude underneath it all anyway, kids get that). Badu’s nudity was not that prolonged. Even when she fell, it was in a closed position. I think there is sufficient artistic and conceptual reasons for her to have taken off her clothes (and not to have ask the city for permission to do so).
If people on site–who had come to ponder the grisly memories of a slain president and his wife, dressed in haute couture and covered in blood, frantically scrambling out the back of a convertible in downtown Dallas–are offended by Badu’s au natural expression, they can publicly state it and she can respond. But they may find themselves face to face with the reality that their chosen tourist destination is a crime scene, which is precisely why they want to visit it as opposed to the JFK Library.
One other artistic aspect, the video slightly resembles the Zapruder film. Strangely, it’s a visual influence that is retained in millions of minds of what that day and event looked like.
Jesus, people. Have any of the people who are offended by this ever even walked around downtown? I’ve seen a guy butt naked taking a bath in Pegasus Plaza in the middle of the afternoon, and people defecating on sidewalks isn’t that uncommon.
Drive about two or three blocks south of City Hall and there’s a pretty good chance you’ll see a guy standing around masturbating. I don’t know if you could call it “performance art,” and bleach injections won’t get the image out of your head, but you’ll learn in a hurry that Erykah Badu stripping down for a music video just really isn’t that big of a deal.
Dallasite, I’ve walked around downtown on a regular basis lo these many years, including with a child in tow, and I have never seen a coupla homeless guys standing around masturbating. (Or guy; the way you phrase it makes it sound like a single specific individual you’re giving us directions to go see.)
Nor, sir, have I observed them dumping o’er the lane.
“Nor, sir, have I observed them dumping o’er the lane.”
You aren’t down there as often as you think you are then. Ask any downtown restaurant employee about the homeless and you’ll get a lot more stories about a lot of things worse than Erykah stripping in Dealy.
@Chris Squared – really?! Badukadonk.
Well, I happen to be there right now, and looking out my window, I can assure you that — eeewww!! Dude, gross!
Look! haha!
I work downtown and have never seen that many people at the JFK memorial or where he was shot. I think it was a hoax! Again…where are all the pics.