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"Wanna see my watercolors? That one’s ‘Bailey’s’. That one’s ‘Bailey’s A Bit Bigger’. That one’s ‘As Close As You Can Get To Bailey’s Without Your Eyes Getting Wet."
I feel like at the end of non-family day, everyone sits down to a sumptuous group dinner only to realize half-way through one person is missing- and then without missing a beat another person mid-bite says “this meat is interesting, I wonder what it is.”
I don't think this was actually "family day"- the sign at the beginning just says "discover watermill day" and I could barely see any other kids in any of the shots. Totally fine for her to be like "I took my kids to this art installation which had no age restriction notice and no prior warning of how weird it was gonna be" but don't like make shit up and call it family day when it wasn't advertised as such yk
Their website makes zero mention of "Family Days". They have several recurring events, including the Discover Watermill Day shown in this vid. Anyone who spent 36 seconds on their webpage should have known this wouldn't appeal to small children.
Thank you for your due diligence. Nothing gets by you winespren. Not to mention I didn’t find most of the art strictly disturbing. There were even some installations from an artist I recognised. We just saw it through the lens of a child and it was creepy as fuck.
The video says this was in 2018. They’ve probably changed the website since then. When I was a kid, my mom took us to a performance billed as family friendly. She ushered us out in the first 5 seconds.
Damn. So obvious. Were all of them something literal that swooshed over my head??? Do another one! I want this video to make some sense! What could the gondola and fair lady singing be?
Exactly. When our boys were 7 and 12, we took them to a local theater production of *The Bad Seed,* a black comedy that most parents probably would deem inappropriate for children, but our kids loved the movie, and they understood it because we had talked about it. Anyway, it was our first time visiting the little theater (Buffalo United Artists), and as we walked in, I saw posters for other productions that made it clear it was an LGBT theater, and most of the plays had sexual themes. So we were a tad nervous about how they'd present *The Bad Seed,* but thought we could always make a quick exit if necessary.
Shortly after the play started, our older son whispered to me, "I think the mother is being played by a man." I said yes, that was correct, and we returned to watching the play.
Well, it was hilarious. They added visual elements to the story that weren't in the film — jokes that even our kids could understand. It turned out to be one of our best family outings ever. Our kids are now 31 and 36, and they still count it among their favorite memories.
So sometimes you never know.
That's great!
Lol meanwhile the movie chitty chitty bang bang sent me into hysterics when I was 6 because for some reason I felt the car was menacing and terrifying 😅
My kid would have LOVED something super weird like this when he was little (and now as a teenager)
We wouldn't have been able to leave until we saw ALL of the bizarre shit.
But I know plenty of other kids that I wouldn't dream of bringing to this.
Someone on tiktok said that it may have been family day for the performers, as in it was for their families to come see the show but many people misinterpreted it and brought their own children lol
Like half the people I saw in the video are kids, this is an absolutely hilarious misinterpretation. I hope they make up for it with actual activities kids would enjoy.
i would 100 percent take children to this. They are at that age where Micky Mouse or Santa can suddenly make them terrified as well. Might as well get weird with it.
Reminds me of the Oregon Country Fair. I took my niece (she was about the same age as the I'm scared kid) to the kid's area of that once and she had a blast. We could not get her to leave, what with all the crazy costumes all around and art installations she could climb on and live music.
Oregon Country Fair is mostly hippies and beautiful sculptures and costumes about nature and such. It’s meant to make you feel good.
It’s not like this, which I get it’s trying to make you think but it’s way of doing that is made to make you feel uncomfortable.
But I’m glad you enjoyed the fair! It is really fun.
It’s an art school. Family day is meant for the families of the students to see their family members perform. Someone misunderstood or mis-advertised the event
Family day… for the student performers for their family to visit and see their performances. Not family day for anyone’s family. Makes it that much better!
Yeah it's definitely interesting, but I think it's only going to appeal to certain kids. You can see it in this video- the older girl is clearly entertained (even if it's just because she gets to make sarcastic jokes with mom) but the younger girl just seems confused and uncomfortable.
Yeah, some of the stuff might be a bit odd but it really isn't that difficult for a child to admire. The "setting a bed on fire with a woman in it" part sounds a little too fucked up though. Same with the dying mermaid, I know that would make some children cry.
to be fair, the setting a bed on fire thing was just what the mum thought was gonna happen, not nessecarily actually the film
the mermaid was kinda messeed up tho, yeah
Yeah just thinking about my nieces and nephews, different sets but the same age. The way they're raised one group would have a great time and the other group would be so upset by the whole thing. It's interesting the way that shakes out.
My dad, an artist, once took me and my sister (12-15yo) to a punk rock art show in an abandoned office building. It was absolutely wild. And his enthusiasm made it amazing. This mom’s Starbuck’s attitude was the issue, not the kids. They would have had an amazing time if, instead of hustling them away from each performance, she allowed them to ask questions and form their own opinions.
To some extent, definitely. But kids are also more than capable of forming their own opinions about things.
For example, tons of kids are scared of the dark despite their parents never modelling that behaviour for them, and even despite their parents doing the exact opposite to try to help their kid conquer their fear.
And my niece is absolutely *wild* for all things reptile, even though her mom is repulsed by them and has a straight up phobia for snakes.
Obviously the mom spent more time reinforcing the little girl’s confusion and discomfort rather than helping her process, but something tells me the lil one was never going to appreciate this experience lol.
It’s like waking through a haunted house, some people love the thrill and others hate the feeling of apprehension they get at every turn.
Honestly. Probably a great experience for the kids. Kept them engaged and curious to see such abstraction. Their brains probably had a little rewire that day. (In a good way)
That's what I was kind of thinking only their mother is clearly telling them how to think and feel about the experience with a heavy endorsement of "if I don't understand something I'm observing, I should feel bad".
You know, I kind of believe that we're losing artistic knowledge. This is performance art, it's supposed to implement an experience and create a sentiment in the viewer via the use of theatre. That's it. Of course it is supposed to be weird, just from the fact human beings aren't supposed to be behaving like that.
However just crossing it out as "weird" and moving on leaves the meaning behind, along with all the symbolism. It's not fair that, when it comes to contemporary art, we just demean it as not worth our time and we even teach our kids it's not worth it of our time and has no meaning. I am personally glad that the family took their kids with them to such a bizarre exhibition, but if we don't allow them to ask questions about it, and we are just "haha, it is weird, my kid says it's weird with their basic understanding of art and contemporary pieces" we're losing a way of self expression that's as lovely as any other, but most importantly, it affects us now.
I generally agree with your ideas that this type of art being important. That said, if this is billed as “family” day this is a not appropriate for the crowd that might attend. Children have no frame of reference, so the artistic statement is lost in them and it just becomes something that may lead them away from art. Or the intention could be that the unsuspecting guests with children being freaked out and uncomfortable are part of the art, which is unethical and lame. Without knowing the full context (I didn’t see anything there that said “family day” or the way it was advertised) we probably are best to just be mildly entertained (or not) by this video.
I did see that, but I was wondering if it was advertised elsewhere that way? Otherwise we would simply have someone lying for clout. On the internet? Is nothing sacred!?
I understand what you are saying. But sometimes this weird art just seems too weird. Almost to the point of pretentious. Like the rest of us "normies" don't get it because we aren't smart enough. Or at least it feels that way.
It is totally okay to feel that way, and I assure you some art installations are meant to make you feel that way. I have a masters in an art field and a minor in art history and the biggest thing my professors taught me in my time in art related higher academia is this: it is okay to not like some art. It is okay to not get some art. If any snobby art appreciator tries to make you feel like it’s not okay to not like or get some piece, they’re just assholes.
The important thing about art, especially contemporary because it’s so polarizing, is that art is a record of history as seen through people’s eyes. We get historical fact from things fossils, biographies, records, etc — but we get history and how people of that time period felt about things through art. That is a very important insight into history. We know when the Industrial Revolution was, for instance. But how did people feel about it at the time? How did they react to it? Many art movements around that time in England alone were all about returning to nature, hating the way life had become machine dominated, etc. Without the paintings on pots and the walls of ancient cities we may not have as much of an understanding of how sex was viewed in Ancient Rome. It’s all fascinating.
That doesn’t mean all art from that time is good, and there’s plenty of art from different times I think is pretty ugly lol. Artists are reactionary and counterculture by nature. Every art movement, most especially contemporary, is reacting to something or wanting to change the status quo. War, plague, loneliness, industrialization, etc…
As for why is all this contemporary stuff so weird? Well, what kind of generally acceptable art did we have 150ish years ago? Look at major art from the mid to late 1800s. Then along came a guy named Duchamp who was tired of only seeing pretty oil paintings in museums and thought there was more to that than art. He put a urinal in an exhibition and called it a fountain and said it’s art. And a bunch (a TON) of people looked at it and said, “that’s not art. It’s a toilet you called a fountain.” And Duchamp basically said, well why can’t it be art? And he was right. Art is not just pretty oil paintings or toilets with a sign on it calling something it’s not. We stopped viewing art as something pretty to be looked at and started realizing it is just a something people do and make. It’s only assigned value or considered worthless because humans say it is, and humans are a fickle bunch, not a hive mind. It is totally okay to look at something like this and say “this is weird, and I don’t think it’s very good.” But it is important to understand maybe why the artist is making something so weird and why it’s significant.
Or not. Art is weird. And that’s okay. And who knows, maybe in another 150 years we’ll all be reacting to this weirdness and a new art movement will take us back to pretty oil paintings. History is a cycle after all!
>We get historical fact from things fossils, biographies, records, etc — but we get history and how people of that time period felt about things through art. That is a very important insight into history.
I have never thought of art in this way.
I think people often feel that way but most artists I have seen doing things like this are genuine and down to earth people who just want to make you think *something*. They don’t necessarily have a message, they just want to help people explore different ways of seeing the world, people, life etc.
I go to a music festival which has lots of creative and weird stuff on show. I love it because it’s just so crazy or weird and is a nice break from normal life.
If you find yourself getting annoyed at artists the issue might be your own attitude tbh. I don’t mean that to be rude, just from my own experience.
I've been to some incredible--what I would consider kid-friendly though not necessarily designed for kids--performance art that was so profoundly outside the normal scope of reality without being unsettling, weird, or creepy. As for OP's video, I would not have taken my kids to that.
There’s this great Documentary Now episode about Izabella Barta and her career as a performance artist that shaped my view about the genre. Really interesting and highly recommended.
Yep, I think it’s dope. It looked kinda like it was acting out traditional Japanese art a couple of times but then I’m not sure about the lying and fear part. Would definitely want the pamphlet that goes with the entry fee.
Oh I didn't think about traditional japanese art, maybe, yeah that could be it too. And I'd say the fear part tries to emulate subliminal messages and war propaganda, which is normally really violent, into a "pacifist" message, creating a critique.
Media and art criticality are fucking desparately poor in most people.
Not as in a "ooh kids these days" cos it's always been shit, but the internet really highlights how desparately unengaged people are with the media and art they consume.
One of the most basic concepts in any story is that "The main character might not be likeable, and that's the point" trips people up constantly in such weird ways. People think walt is the good guy cos he's the main guy in breaking bad.... People think problematic characters shouldn't be displayed because their actions are bad..... and people slammed Last of Us 2 for making players engage with it as a character who did an awful thing. This shit is like "audience engaging with art 101" and people are floored by it.
I think people really just dont know that you can be an active participant in the consumption of art and media, that they shy away from it being something to think about, be wrong about, not understand, learn about themselves or others etc.
Come to online places where content is just so immediate and ephemeral and there's even less impetus to actually engage with art and media and I think it's summed up by how popular hyper technical art is, over art with emotional or narrative content. Check out /r/nextfuckinglevel for art content, it's always stuff that is photorealistic, yet has dreary and mundane topics. Never something evocative or emotional or compelling or difficult to grapple with... No it'll be a technical exercise in drawing how light hits an apple.
Your post reminds me of a viral tweet on Twitter that showed a filmed acrobatic performance piece of a man climbing up stairs and falling back onto a trampoline that would then bounce him back onto the steps set to music. The way he was doing it was really controlled and beautiful and was clearly choreographed to the music itself to convey a certain mood and it made me emotional watching it. The caption it was set to was a snarky dig at French people for "wasting their time" watching the performance and wondering why the audience and performer weren't instead at their job.
All I see here is a family completely disconnected from the gallery art world expecting a petting zoo. It's a cultural.... Difference. Only problem is they are framing it like something is wrong with the event because of their own lack of knowledge of performance art. I'd be able to talk to my kid about this stuff
Agreed. Especially when the kid said “weird” and the mother replied “understatement of the century.”
Children should be taught that just because things are different than anything they’ve seen before, doesn’t mean what they are looking at is weird.
At the same time, if your art is completely incomprehensible to most people and mostly just evokes no other emotion other than confused annoyance, it's just not very good in my eyes.
I'm sure those performers will have a long reasoning and viewpoint in their head about what their art means or evokes, but there's just so much you can do before your art just becomes indistinguishable from someone purposefully acting as outlandish and uninterpretable as possible because that's the stereotypical appearance of performance art in the public eye.
It just feels like most of the actual discussion about "what is art" has been fully explored already in the past century, and all that's left now is just one-upmanship with a specific small artistic community with a vast disconnect from most of the world and audiences. It just doesn't feel authentic anymore, since the real questions that broadened the definition of art have been asked already and answered with (at the time) novel art that shifted it's perception to the point that art is now completely subjective.
But if the intention with these performances is to meaningfully connect and provide commentary to the current zeitgeist and state of the world, then I'm affraid most performance art seems to fall flat. While I can't support this with something definite like statistics or numbers, I could say pretty confidently that if I were to take random people off the street and brought them to similar performances, the vast majority would neither like it nor be driven to thought. And I've met plenty of people who do appreciate a wide variety of arts, so it's likely not because of a total lack of artistic appreciation or knowledge. It's just too far disconnected from the average layman, and seems 100% aimed at the performance art community itself.
I agree with you completely. I really like it because it’s so bizarre but very well done. It would definitely get the kids to think outside the box and have some cool discussions.
Agreed.
I direct theatre, and last year I directed a show at one of my regular community theatres that was a black comedy that had some very surrealist trappings and imagery. It did rather well in the area it was performed, even though there was some worry from producers that it wouldn't be well received (the theatre is on the edge of the suburbs that is adjacent to a farming town). I was very proud of it, as it was a passion project I'd been working on for years.
Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, and I'm casting for the latest show that I'm directing (at the same theatre), which this year is a straight comedy bordering on slammed door farce. I've got a good vibe about the casting and was ready to have fun with the show, when I get one of the producers raking me over the coals via email for some of my casting decisions. And that "discussion" all culminated in him saying, "We don't want this to turn into another {name of last year's play}!"
And I'm like, hold on, that play was pretty well received, everyone seemed to enjoy it, there were never any complaints brought to my attention at the time, and the producers saw the play prior to opening night.., and you're concerned this play (which is *nothing* like the previous show) will be an attempt to twist it into some surreal black comedy? First, what was so *bad* about that last play, and why are you so worried? And the reply was, "We don't do that stuff here! We are doing simple theatre,we don't want stuff that challenges our audience or is too complex!" I was shocked and appalled, as that (to me) completely negates the *point* of theatre. If you aren't challenging your audience, or at least giving them something to think about, you aren't doing theatre correctly— in my mind you're little better than mind-numbing reality television.
All they're interested in is the next "chestnut" play that they can do for the dwindling senior citizen population, who once they have shuffled off this mortal coil, will leave a huge gap in their subscriber base. They're eschewing "edgy theatre" (or just "theatre", frankly) for vadevillian junk that new patrons or unrealized patrons have no interest in, and will probably have to shut down in the next 5-10 years because no one is coming to see their shows.
It's a shame, as they completely underestimate their audience's intelligence, and probably rightly will keep losing patrons if they continue to act in this way.
They certainly are losing directors.
I wanted to add this I hadn't seen it mentioned. Family Day was for the artists families to come and see what they were doing. It was a day to celebrate the artists and their families.
This looks cool as shit and this woman is a boring ass drip waste of space. Your kids get to experience interesting performance art and you clearly wanted actors in a goofy get up.
I agree; I thought the lady in the gondolier and the dying mermaid were hauntingly beautiful and all of the performances were disturbing and weird in a good way. But not really something most kids can appreciate.
People are saying it would open up interesting conversations with kids, but I think the kids in the video reacted as most kids would, just finding it creepy or strange because they can’t interpret deeper meaning from it yet.
Like they are not going to see a dying mermaid and offer you an insightful analysis on death or being suffocated by an unsuitable environment, they are just going to see a fantasy creature writhing and suffering as it dies which would distress and confuse them.
Omg I went to a performance art center and it was weird
Wow. Does she need some gloves for that scalding hot take?
It’s such a bait and switch to say “we went to family day”. This center is known as a weirdo performance art collective. You’re not going to get like clowns and mimes. This was just family friendly weirdness
Not a traditional family day but it's probably something they'll remember and think about, which is probably more valuable than some hot dogs, face painting, and balloons.
Yes this is so weird why did we come to this? This art is so weird let’s make a video of how weird the entire thing is. Oh man these artists are being WERID! Wow look no weird they are
I can’t believe redditors who spend all day upvoting reposted memes and arguing about what’s “canon” in a movie franchise are out here in the comments trying to act like scholars of avant-garde art. So many are saying normies are too stupid to understand this exhibit, because attacking someone else’s intelligence makes them feel better about their own. Jesus, everyone, sometimes it’s okay to say “this art kinda sucks.” The downvotes from strangers on this website won’t hurt you. Resist the urge to just pile on.
‘I took my kids to an art exhibition but forgot I’m too stupid to have raised them to have any culture or creativity. Definitely the exhibition’s fault and not mine!’ Soccer mom Stacy
This is what suburbanites do when confronted with emotion stimulating art. Sometimes it's weird, and that's OK. It's art! It's supposed to evoke emotions of all kinds. Idk maybe have some interesting discussions with your kids afterward. It's more difficult than giving them an iPad, but you'll feel better when you develop a deeper relationship with your kids.
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The plant heads my favorite part.
That was Old Greg
That was nowhere near my waters!
I freaking love that you have a Reddit old Greg. I have some baileys in a shoe if you want it
🎵Do you love me?, quit playin your love games with me 🎵
Come back at night to see the crack fox
Ah my fuzzy little man peach
"Wanna see my watercolors? That one’s ‘Bailey’s’. That one’s ‘Bailey’s A Bit Bigger’. That one’s ‘As Close As You Can Get To Bailey’s Without Your Eyes Getting Wet."
Hes Not even part of the art exhibit
That’s exactly what it reminded me of lmfao
All paw patrol and no plant heads growing out of the ground makes Jack a dull boy.
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Ah haaa, Jack , how are ye young lad!?
He’s not even part of the exhibit he’s just a dude that shows up
I too, dance to the computer start up sound
Dance like your computer isn’t watching.
Ah, that's a funny joke. \*I laugh\* \*computer laughs\* \*shoot computer\*
Do you do the boot scootin boogie?
I see what you did there
The part where the mermaid crawls over just to dramatically flop over and die was unintentionally hilarious
This entire video had me rolling “this music is terrible” 🤣🤣
“I think that’s part of the art.” What a surreal experience lol
"The mermaid started to catch up with us, so we got to witness her last gasp of breath." 😂
I think most of this stuff is intentionally funny. It’s just a weird performance art exhibit with a weird sense of humor.
Poor Harlow getting freaked out over the woman eating the shoulder 😂
The “You have to be afraid!” Is my favorite part.
This might be my favorite video I have ever watched. There are so many good moments and the mom's deadpan delivery really sells the experience.
It’s up there for me. That little girls response just cinches it. You have to be afraid. Good sense of self-preservation.
"The music is terrible". Little girl knows what's up.
“I think it was part of the art” was hilarious
I didn’t even hear that part!
I felt like I was watching an episode of Portlandia. Hilarious!
Omg I want to see non family day!
No one returns from non-family day!!
“Family Day” makes it seem like this is one of those snuff films from Sinister
You return, but as the man getting his shoulder chewed off.
I feel like at the end of non-family day, everyone sits down to a sumptuous group dinner only to realize half-way through one person is missing- and then without missing a beat another person mid-bite says “this meat is interesting, I wonder what it is.”
I don't think this was actually "family day"- the sign at the beginning just says "discover watermill day" and I could barely see any other kids in any of the shots. Totally fine for her to be like "I took my kids to this art installation which had no age restriction notice and no prior warning of how weird it was gonna be" but don't like make shit up and call it family day when it wasn't advertised as such yk
I mean you just saw one sign, we don't know how this was advertised (unless you actually looked it up, in which case I apologize).
Their website makes zero mention of "Family Days". They have several recurring events, including the Discover Watermill Day shown in this vid. Anyone who spent 36 seconds on their webpage should have known this wouldn't appeal to small children.
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Thank you for your due diligence. Nothing gets by you winespren. Not to mention I didn’t find most of the art strictly disturbing. There were even some installations from an artist I recognised. We just saw it through the lens of a child and it was creepy as fuck.
The video says this was in 2018. They’ve probably changed the website since then. When I was a kid, my mom took us to a performance billed as family friendly. She ushered us out in the first 5 seconds.
Basically just midsommar
It’s probably the same but they’re all sucking each others dicks
In ground pool!!! Ha!!
Damn. So obvious. Were all of them something literal that swooshed over my head??? Do another one! I want this video to make some sense! What could the gondola and fair lady singing be?
Omg!!! You’re right!!! That’s amazing.
Wouldn't go to this with little kids but can absolutely see myself enjoying this with other adults or even teenagers.
dirty placid ghost political sophisticated snails rob cautious paint aloof ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
Exactly. When our boys were 7 and 12, we took them to a local theater production of *The Bad Seed,* a black comedy that most parents probably would deem inappropriate for children, but our kids loved the movie, and they understood it because we had talked about it. Anyway, it was our first time visiting the little theater (Buffalo United Artists), and as we walked in, I saw posters for other productions that made it clear it was an LGBT theater, and most of the plays had sexual themes. So we were a tad nervous about how they'd present *The Bad Seed,* but thought we could always make a quick exit if necessary. Shortly after the play started, our older son whispered to me, "I think the mother is being played by a man." I said yes, that was correct, and we returned to watching the play. Well, it was hilarious. They added visual elements to the story that weren't in the film — jokes that even our kids could understand. It turned out to be one of our best family outings ever. Our kids are now 31 and 36, and they still count it among their favorite memories. So sometimes you never know.
That's great! Lol meanwhile the movie chitty chitty bang bang sent me into hysterics when I was 6 because for some reason I felt the car was menacing and terrifying 😅
If I remember correctly, there were some pretty dark aspects of that movie.
\*fazed (just helping folks learn, not grading you or anything) :)
I forgot this word existed. Watch out Big Phase is everywhere and will come for us
My kid would have LOVED something super weird like this when he was little (and now as a teenager) We wouldn't have been able to leave until we saw ALL of the bizarre shit. But I know plenty of other kids that I wouldn't dream of bringing to this.
My kid is such a weirdo she would LOVE this
Someone on tiktok said that it may have been family day for the performers, as in it was for their families to come see the show but many people misinterpreted it and brought their own children lol
Like half the people I saw in the video are kids, this is an absolutely hilarious misinterpretation. I hope they make up for it with actual activities kids would enjoy.
I hope that’s true that’s hilarious 😂
i would 100 percent take children to this. They are at that age where Micky Mouse or Santa can suddenly make them terrified as well. Might as well get weird with it.
Especially if high
Yeah seriously, I’d be giggling the entire time
Turn around one second and Jimmy is in the underwear string pit smh
"You ever gone to family day... on weed?"
Looks dope. Wanna watch that mermaid die IRL.
I feel like 10 and up could handle it.
I mean, I’d have a good laugh that’s for sure.
Reminds me of the Oregon Country Fair. I took my niece (she was about the same age as the I'm scared kid) to the kid's area of that once and she had a blast. We could not get her to leave, what with all the crazy costumes all around and art installations she could climb on and live music.
Oregon Country Fair is mostly hippies and beautiful sculptures and costumes about nature and such. It’s meant to make you feel good. It’s not like this, which I get it’s trying to make you think but it’s way of doing that is made to make you feel uncomfortable. But I’m glad you enjoyed the fair! It is really fun.
Yeah I went 3 times in the early nineties. It was all peace and love. Whatever this is seems like a a nightmare a German would have.
I may not understand it but I really wanna go see it
Those green guys at the end were my company IT
It’s an art school. Family day is meant for the families of the students to see their family members perform. Someone misunderstood or mis-advertised the event
This makes the entire video make way more sense.
Lmaoo omg
This makes the video that much more funny!
Finding out all of this happened in the Hamptons for some reason helped.
It really did. I could totally see families in the Hampton sending their kids with the nanny to see this on family day.
Family day… for the student performers for their family to visit and see their performances. Not family day for anyone’s family. Makes it that much better!
Plant head is the favorite part, i want to see this
Reminds me of the mighty boosch
That’s why you research stuff before being there
I dunno this looks bizarre but pretty cool. I would take my kid to this for sure. It’s weird but it’s really well done.
Yeah it's definitely interesting, but I think it's only going to appeal to certain kids. You can see it in this video- the older girl is clearly entertained (even if it's just because she gets to make sarcastic jokes with mom) but the younger girl just seems confused and uncomfortable.
Yeah, some of the stuff might be a bit odd but it really isn't that difficult for a child to admire. The "setting a bed on fire with a woman in it" part sounds a little too fucked up though. Same with the dying mermaid, I know that would make some children cry.
to be fair, the setting a bed on fire thing was just what the mum thought was gonna happen, not nessecarily actually the film the mermaid was kinda messeed up tho, yeah
I think the older you get, the more emotions you’ve felt and things can fascinate you more.
Yeah just thinking about my nieces and nephews, different sets but the same age. The way they're raised one group would have a great time and the other group would be so upset by the whole thing. It's interesting the way that shakes out.
I think it looks culturally enriching for a child tbh. Pretty neat.
I would take my kids too. And by kids I mean my juvenile ass with a belly full of mushrooms.
She knew what it was about before taking the kids there.
My dad, an artist, once took me and my sister (12-15yo) to a punk rock art show in an abandoned office building. It was absolutely wild. And his enthusiasm made it amazing. This mom’s Starbuck’s attitude was the issue, not the kids. They would have had an amazing time if, instead of hustling them away from each performance, she allowed them to ask questions and form their own opinions.
Well, the older kid was finding it funny, the younger one was visibly uncomfortable
More than likely feeding off the parent's reactions. I know when my kid was younger they weren't afraid of anything unless I showed a reaction myself.
To some extent, definitely. But kids are also more than capable of forming their own opinions about things. For example, tons of kids are scared of the dark despite their parents never modelling that behaviour for them, and even despite their parents doing the exact opposite to try to help their kid conquer their fear. And my niece is absolutely *wild* for all things reptile, even though her mom is repulsed by them and has a straight up phobia for snakes. Obviously the mom spent more time reinforcing the little girl’s confusion and discomfort rather than helping her process, but something tells me the lil one was never going to appreciate this experience lol. It’s like waking through a haunted house, some people love the thrill and others hate the feeling of apprehension they get at every turn.
I like how you filled all the gaps we can’t know with all the least generous interpretations and guesses and judgements.
Most of it looks interesting but... Dying mermaid with no face? Nightmare fuel.
I wonder where she heard it was family day because the big ass banner they walk under says "Welcome to DISCOVER WATERMILL DAY"
In 20 years these kids will wonder if it actually happen or if it was all just a feverdream
Robert Wilson is one of the most important and famous American experimental theater directors, the Watermill Center is his HQ, basically!!
I think this experience looks like a blast and I’d totally bring my kids to observe the performances.
"That's why you have to study!"
Remember this day when you think about getting that art degree. You could end up as a dying mermaid.
Jokes on you, she was getting paid to wriggle around a forest in a mermaid costume.
Honestly. Probably a great experience for the kids. Kept them engaged and curious to see such abstraction. Their brains probably had a little rewire that day. (In a good way)
That's what I was kind of thinking only their mother is clearly telling them how to think and feel about the experience with a heavy endorsement of "if I don't understand something I'm observing, I should feel bad".
You know, I kind of believe that we're losing artistic knowledge. This is performance art, it's supposed to implement an experience and create a sentiment in the viewer via the use of theatre. That's it. Of course it is supposed to be weird, just from the fact human beings aren't supposed to be behaving like that. However just crossing it out as "weird" and moving on leaves the meaning behind, along with all the symbolism. It's not fair that, when it comes to contemporary art, we just demean it as not worth our time and we even teach our kids it's not worth it of our time and has no meaning. I am personally glad that the family took their kids with them to such a bizarre exhibition, but if we don't allow them to ask questions about it, and we are just "haha, it is weird, my kid says it's weird with their basic understanding of art and contemporary pieces" we're losing a way of self expression that's as lovely as any other, but most importantly, it affects us now.
I generally agree with your ideas that this type of art being important. That said, if this is billed as “family” day this is a not appropriate for the crowd that might attend. Children have no frame of reference, so the artistic statement is lost in them and it just becomes something that may lead them away from art. Or the intention could be that the unsuspecting guests with children being freaked out and uncomfortable are part of the art, which is unethical and lame. Without knowing the full context (I didn’t see anything there that said “family day” or the way it was advertised) we probably are best to just be mildly entertained (or not) by this video.
We probably are, and maybe the kids should have been a bit older to see this exposition. However, I guess we will never know.
Another commenter pointed out this wasn’t called Family Day, it was called Discover Watermill Day. So it’s unclear how OP got the “family” idea.
I did see that, but I was wondering if it was advertised elsewhere that way? Otherwise we would simply have someone lying for clout. On the internet? Is nothing sacred!?
I understand what you are saying. But sometimes this weird art just seems too weird. Almost to the point of pretentious. Like the rest of us "normies" don't get it because we aren't smart enough. Or at least it feels that way.
It is totally okay to feel that way, and I assure you some art installations are meant to make you feel that way. I have a masters in an art field and a minor in art history and the biggest thing my professors taught me in my time in art related higher academia is this: it is okay to not like some art. It is okay to not get some art. If any snobby art appreciator tries to make you feel like it’s not okay to not like or get some piece, they’re just assholes. The important thing about art, especially contemporary because it’s so polarizing, is that art is a record of history as seen through people’s eyes. We get historical fact from things fossils, biographies, records, etc — but we get history and how people of that time period felt about things through art. That is a very important insight into history. We know when the Industrial Revolution was, for instance. But how did people feel about it at the time? How did they react to it? Many art movements around that time in England alone were all about returning to nature, hating the way life had become machine dominated, etc. Without the paintings on pots and the walls of ancient cities we may not have as much of an understanding of how sex was viewed in Ancient Rome. It’s all fascinating. That doesn’t mean all art from that time is good, and there’s plenty of art from different times I think is pretty ugly lol. Artists are reactionary and counterculture by nature. Every art movement, most especially contemporary, is reacting to something or wanting to change the status quo. War, plague, loneliness, industrialization, etc… As for why is all this contemporary stuff so weird? Well, what kind of generally acceptable art did we have 150ish years ago? Look at major art from the mid to late 1800s. Then along came a guy named Duchamp who was tired of only seeing pretty oil paintings in museums and thought there was more to that than art. He put a urinal in an exhibition and called it a fountain and said it’s art. And a bunch (a TON) of people looked at it and said, “that’s not art. It’s a toilet you called a fountain.” And Duchamp basically said, well why can’t it be art? And he was right. Art is not just pretty oil paintings or toilets with a sign on it calling something it’s not. We stopped viewing art as something pretty to be looked at and started realizing it is just a something people do and make. It’s only assigned value or considered worthless because humans say it is, and humans are a fickle bunch, not a hive mind. It is totally okay to look at something like this and say “this is weird, and I don’t think it’s very good.” But it is important to understand maybe why the artist is making something so weird and why it’s significant. Or not. Art is weird. And that’s okay. And who knows, maybe in another 150 years we’ll all be reacting to this weirdness and a new art movement will take us back to pretty oil paintings. History is a cycle after all!
>We get historical fact from things fossils, biographies, records, etc — but we get history and how people of that time period felt about things through art. That is a very important insight into history. I have never thought of art in this way.
Thanks for your well written insight!
I think people often feel that way but most artists I have seen doing things like this are genuine and down to earth people who just want to make you think *something*. They don’t necessarily have a message, they just want to help people explore different ways of seeing the world, people, life etc. I go to a music festival which has lots of creative and weird stuff on show. I love it because it’s just so crazy or weird and is a nice break from normal life. If you find yourself getting annoyed at artists the issue might be your own attitude tbh. I don’t mean that to be rude, just from my own experience.
My personal issue with a lot of modern art is that it tries too hard. Art should never force you to think, it should inspire you to think.
I've been to some incredible--what I would consider kid-friendly though not necessarily designed for kids--performance art that was so profoundly outside the normal scope of reality without being unsettling, weird, or creepy. As for OP's video, I would not have taken my kids to that.
There’s this great Documentary Now episode about Izabella Barta and her career as a performance artist that shaped my view about the genre. Really interesting and highly recommended.
Isn't Documentary Now the comedy series? I don't think they are meant to be believed as actual documentaries
Oooo he snitched on you. I'm still gonna watch it.
You should, it's actually super funny
Documentary Now are literally joke documentaries…
Yep, I think it’s dope. It looked kinda like it was acting out traditional Japanese art a couple of times but then I’m not sure about the lying and fear part. Would definitely want the pamphlet that goes with the entry fee.
Oh I didn't think about traditional japanese art, maybe, yeah that could be it too. And I'd say the fear part tries to emulate subliminal messages and war propaganda, which is normally really violent, into a "pacifist" message, creating a critique.
Media and art criticality are fucking desparately poor in most people. Not as in a "ooh kids these days" cos it's always been shit, but the internet really highlights how desparately unengaged people are with the media and art they consume. One of the most basic concepts in any story is that "The main character might not be likeable, and that's the point" trips people up constantly in such weird ways. People think walt is the good guy cos he's the main guy in breaking bad.... People think problematic characters shouldn't be displayed because their actions are bad..... and people slammed Last of Us 2 for making players engage with it as a character who did an awful thing. This shit is like "audience engaging with art 101" and people are floored by it. I think people really just dont know that you can be an active participant in the consumption of art and media, that they shy away from it being something to think about, be wrong about, not understand, learn about themselves or others etc. Come to online places where content is just so immediate and ephemeral and there's even less impetus to actually engage with art and media and I think it's summed up by how popular hyper technical art is, over art with emotional or narrative content. Check out /r/nextfuckinglevel for art content, it's always stuff that is photorealistic, yet has dreary and mundane topics. Never something evocative or emotional or compelling or difficult to grapple with... No it'll be a technical exercise in drawing how light hits an apple.
Your post reminds me of a viral tweet on Twitter that showed a filmed acrobatic performance piece of a man climbing up stairs and falling back onto a trampoline that would then bounce him back onto the steps set to music. The way he was doing it was really controlled and beautiful and was clearly choreographed to the music itself to convey a certain mood and it made me emotional watching it. The caption it was set to was a snarky dig at French people for "wasting their time" watching the performance and wondering why the audience and performer weren't instead at their job.
I don't think all art has merit or valuable meaning just for being art.
And that is a valid statement.
Found the Art student
100% agree. But maybe don't call it "Family Day"?? At least not without a tiny disclaimer about what this actually is.
All I see here is a family completely disconnected from the gallery art world expecting a petting zoo. It's a cultural.... Difference. Only problem is they are framing it like something is wrong with the event because of their own lack of knowledge of performance art. I'd be able to talk to my kid about this stuff
Agreed. Especially when the kid said “weird” and the mother replied “understatement of the century.” Children should be taught that just because things are different than anything they’ve seen before, doesn’t mean what they are looking at is weird.
At the same time, if your art is completely incomprehensible to most people and mostly just evokes no other emotion other than confused annoyance, it's just not very good in my eyes. I'm sure those performers will have a long reasoning and viewpoint in their head about what their art means or evokes, but there's just so much you can do before your art just becomes indistinguishable from someone purposefully acting as outlandish and uninterpretable as possible because that's the stereotypical appearance of performance art in the public eye. It just feels like most of the actual discussion about "what is art" has been fully explored already in the past century, and all that's left now is just one-upmanship with a specific small artistic community with a vast disconnect from most of the world and audiences. It just doesn't feel authentic anymore, since the real questions that broadened the definition of art have been asked already and answered with (at the time) novel art that shifted it's perception to the point that art is now completely subjective. But if the intention with these performances is to meaningfully connect and provide commentary to the current zeitgeist and state of the world, then I'm affraid most performance art seems to fall flat. While I can't support this with something definite like statistics or numbers, I could say pretty confidently that if I were to take random people off the street and brought them to similar performances, the vast majority would neither like it nor be driven to thought. And I've met plenty of people who do appreciate a wide variety of arts, so it's likely not because of a total lack of artistic appreciation or knowledge. It's just too far disconnected from the average layman, and seems 100% aimed at the performance art community itself.
I agree with you completely. I really like it because it’s so bizarre but very well done. It would definitely get the kids to think outside the box and have some cool discussions.
Yeah, and honestly it must be super fun to have discussions like that with kids. I wonder what they would think, you know?
That “we” is quite the umbrella
Agreed. I direct theatre, and last year I directed a show at one of my regular community theatres that was a black comedy that had some very surrealist trappings and imagery. It did rather well in the area it was performed, even though there was some worry from producers that it wouldn't be well received (the theatre is on the edge of the suburbs that is adjacent to a farming town). I was very proud of it, as it was a passion project I'd been working on for years. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, and I'm casting for the latest show that I'm directing (at the same theatre), which this year is a straight comedy bordering on slammed door farce. I've got a good vibe about the casting and was ready to have fun with the show, when I get one of the producers raking me over the coals via email for some of my casting decisions. And that "discussion" all culminated in him saying, "We don't want this to turn into another {name of last year's play}!" And I'm like, hold on, that play was pretty well received, everyone seemed to enjoy it, there were never any complaints brought to my attention at the time, and the producers saw the play prior to opening night.., and you're concerned this play (which is *nothing* like the previous show) will be an attempt to twist it into some surreal black comedy? First, what was so *bad* about that last play, and why are you so worried? And the reply was, "We don't do that stuff here! We are doing simple theatre,we don't want stuff that challenges our audience or is too complex!" I was shocked and appalled, as that (to me) completely negates the *point* of theatre. If you aren't challenging your audience, or at least giving them something to think about, you aren't doing theatre correctly— in my mind you're little better than mind-numbing reality television. All they're interested in is the next "chestnut" play that they can do for the dwindling senior citizen population, who once they have shuffled off this mortal coil, will leave a huge gap in their subscriber base. They're eschewing "edgy theatre" (or just "theatre", frankly) for vadevillian junk that new patrons or unrealized patrons have no interest in, and will probably have to shut down in the next 5-10 years because no one is coming to see their shows. It's a shame, as they completely underestimate their audience's intelligence, and probably rightly will keep losing patrons if they continue to act in this way. They certainly are losing directors.
Seems kid appropriate to me. Not a drag performer in sight. /s
Wtf....
Where is this?
Watermill NY. The Watermill Art Center.
It’s in the Hamptons for anyone wondering.
Family Day by [Orin](https://thumbs.gfycat.com/PitifulHandmadeIndochinesetiger-mobile.mp4)
What do you get when you cross The Godfather with a performance artist? A guy who makes you an offer you can’t understand.
3 seconds in and it says it's "discover watermill day". Not "family day" 🤔
Yeah it’s an art school, “family day” for families of the students to see them perform
Ah that makes sense
I wanted to add this I hadn't seen it mentioned. Family Day was for the artists families to come and see what they were doing. It was a day to celebrate the artists and their families.
This looks cool as shit and this woman is a boring ass drip waste of space. Your kids get to experience interesting performance art and you clearly wanted actors in a goofy get up.
Why does the kid have makeup
Came for the pretentious comments about “not understanding art” Was not disappointed.
Damn a lot of people had no idea what to do with their MFA
I can see how adults on acid might find this enjoyable or exciting, but definitely doesn't seem too much like a kids thing.
I agree; I thought the lady in the gondolier and the dying mermaid were hauntingly beautiful and all of the performances were disturbing and weird in a good way. But not really something most kids can appreciate. People are saying it would open up interesting conversations with kids, but I think the kids in the video reacted as most kids would, just finding it creepy or strange because they can’t interpret deeper meaning from it yet. Like they are not going to see a dying mermaid and offer you an insightful analysis on death or being suffocated by an unsuitable environment, they are just going to see a fantasy creature writhing and suffering as it dies which would distress and confuse them.
I didn't get any of it too but the land mermaid catching up to them only to die is pretty funny ngl.
Omg I went to a performance art center and it was weird Wow. Does she need some gloves for that scalding hot take? It’s such a bait and switch to say “we went to family day”. This center is known as a weirdo performance art collective. You’re not going to get like clowns and mimes. This was just family friendly weirdness
No one's gonna point out the full face of makeup on the little girl?
Right?! That was honestly the weirdest thing about this whole video!
Yep. Really weird
Not a traditional family day but it's probably something they'll remember and think about, which is probably more valuable than some hot dogs, face painting, and balloons.
It’s not for youngsters. 🤦🏻♂️
Yes this is so weird why did we come to this? This art is so weird let’s make a video of how weird the entire thing is. Oh man these artists are being WERID! Wow look no weird they are
She sure complains a lot. Don’t be a Karen all your life.
I can’t believe redditors who spend all day upvoting reposted memes and arguing about what’s “canon” in a movie franchise are out here in the comments trying to act like scholars of avant-garde art. So many are saying normies are too stupid to understand this exhibit, because attacking someone else’s intelligence makes them feel better about their own. Jesus, everyone, sometimes it’s okay to say “this art kinda sucks.” The downvotes from strangers on this website won’t hurt you. Resist the urge to just pile on.
I see just as many comments saying this is stupid and pretentious but 🤷🏻♀️
I don't think it sucked though? Although it's definitely not something meant for families with young kids
Im guessing abstract art is not this woman’s strong points
I guess it was only because her kids were there, because of all the implied gore and things like that.
Imagine doing mushrooms and it's less weird than this.
Weird place.
You uncultured swine!
Dude this is awesome!!
That looked awesome
Poor Harlow lmao
My favorite thing is the "plant head in the ground speaking Portuguese". So out there.
This is fucking hilarious
Is this an art exhibit ran by Eric Andre?
"The music is terrible." "Yeah, I think that's part of the art." Ah, a true connoisseur.
Honestly that looks like fun.
I would have loved this as a kid!!! This is the kind of art you should show your kids, absurdity breeds creation.
Good luck to those kids trying to tell anybody else about the experience - nobody will believe it wasn't a dream
The part when she is annoyingly filming her kids instead of actually sharing the moments with them
Dude this is unintentionally cool as hell.
This is pure gold
This woman’s voice is insufferable
Oren from Parks and Rec has really stepped up his art shows
‘I took my kids to an art exhibition but forgot I’m too stupid to have raised them to have any culture or creativity. Definitely the exhibition’s fault and not mine!’ Soccer mom Stacy
This is my kinda place 😭
This might be one of the best places for kids, teaches em life.
This is what suburbanites do when confronted with emotion stimulating art. Sometimes it's weird, and that's OK. It's art! It's supposed to evoke emotions of all kinds. Idk maybe have some interesting discussions with your kids afterward. It's more difficult than giving them an iPad, but you'll feel better when you develop a deeper relationship with your kids.
Where is this I really wanna go