Destroy All Monthly
August 2002
Cannibal Flower Group Gallery Event Pulling the Stick Out of Arts Ass Since 2000
By: Vanessa Gonzales

What do pussy prints, jungle juice and mutated zoo animals have in common?
Certainly any prevailing commonality you may draw from this erratic list
will reveal more about your twisted psyche than anyone cares to be
acquainted with. So keep your answers to yourself and I'll just tell you
that all of the aforementioned items are merely a fraction of the noteworthy
attractions that have passed through the walls of the whimsical art
gallery/performance space/dance club known as the Cannibal Flower. With a
mere two-year life span from conception, the Cannibal Flower has already
reached infamous proportions, having produced a well-deserved buzz in the
often impermeable and daunting art-world. What began in a 1000sq. foot
loft, with a hand full of artist and a musical performance, has gradually
evolved into an 80+ artists group show, accompanied by a miscellany of
performances to entertain and shock throughout the night. The diverse
spectrum of performances showcased at the Cannibal Flower include anything
from relatively traditional musical acts, to belly dancing and fire eating,
to various sadistic/masochistic oddities. For one evening per month, a
wayward wonderland is created, where all pretensions are thrown out, all
inhibitions can be pushed aside, and all curiosity can be freely unleashed.

With its capricious youth and distinct character, the Cannibal Flower is far
from an innocuous itch on the art world's collar. On the contrary, it is a
blood-thirsty tick, searching for flesh, designed and operated as a big fuck
you to the stale, pervading galleries that have systematically mechanized
the art world into a bourgeois playground, a bureaucracy characterized by a
drive for profit. From the get go, the Cannibal Flower was cut from an
unorthodox cloth. It was created with the artists in mind, by artists who
were frustrated by the arbitrary obstacles they encountered in their own
careers.

The history of the Cannibal Flower is short yet inspiring, and certainly far
from complete. The perseverance
that has shaped the shows into what they are today is driven not only by a
love for art of all kinds, juxtaposed against a disdain for the conventional
gallery, but also an ambitious ideology refreshingly untainted. In
comparison to the current system, the Cannibal Flower's philosophy is as
romantic and idealistic as Communism. Yet unlike the Soviet Union, the
Cannibal Flower 's method of operation has remained true to blue print, with
unwavering integrity, and uncorrupted ideals. But before further describing
the current state of Cannibal Flower, I will first dish out a little, ultra
abridged history.

First and foremost, this genius production must be credited to the
masterminds that bring this operation from concept to life, and they are, in
alphabetical order L. Croskey, Jean-Paul Garnier, Michele Waterman. With
that said, this story begins with Jean-Paul and L.C., who met at The Soap
Plant, where each worked as a manager. Jean-Paul and L.C., each working in
visual arts as well, also encountered difficulties in trying to break into
galleries that were locked into a particular look. Musical obstacles were
also encountered by Jean-Paul and L.C. who had started an
operatic/electronic/dominatrix project by name of Mind Clinic. Booking
such a performance was quite an endeavor. With difficulty in finding a
place for Mind Clinic to play, and the growing frustration of trying to find
a venue to showcase their visual art, along with an increasing awareness as
to the dubious intentions of galleries, Jean-Paul and L.C. turned to their
friend Kiran Shahani of E Records, who conveniently had a space by the name
of Bullseye Studios near McArthur Park. It was here in August of 2000 that
the seeds of the first Cannibal Flower were sown with a Mind Clinic
Performance and an eight-person show, comprised of various friends.

From this point on, the realization of the Cannibal Flower was well on its
way. Equipped with a valiant, pro-artist philosophy, the Cannibal Flower
struck the gallery world like a coup d' etat. Even people with only
marginal interests in art can go and have a great time by virtue of the
crowd and entertainment alone. The Cannibal Flower is a surreal playground
with an overall nightclub sensibility, where hours of the night escape under
the guise of the enchanting, to the macabre. Since its inception various
organizations have collaborated with Cannibal Flower, most noteworthy of
which has been Boardner's who has become the fixed host of the Art Bar,
second Thursday of every month. Another collaboration in the works is The
Broken Wrist Project. The Cannibal Flower is teaming up with a group of
young illustrators for a group show and book release party.

But the main event to be marking the calendars for is August 17th 2002, when
the Cannibal Flower will be hosting their two-year anniversary celebration
with special guest Dennis Larkins and featured artist Martini Art.
Performing live will be Insecto, and Christopher Wonder with his mesmerizing
magic art, as well as others to be announced. And in light of this landmark celebration, another
floor will also be added this month, exclusively designated for dancing, in
the basement of the venue. Rumor has it; this floor was once a bank, with
lasting proof of enormous vaults that remain antiquated in the walls. This
months festivities will be held at 453 Spring Street.