“What is a Happening? A game, an adventure, a number of activities engaged in by participants for the sake of playing.” —Artist Alan Kaprow, father of the Happening
Kaprow coined the term “happening” nearly 60 years ago at a picnic at artist George Segal’s farm to describe the participatory interaction of the art pieces going on. It’s the 40th anniversary of the nadir of Punk, and it’s been 35 years since the Pyramid Cocktail Lounge appeared on Avenue A. On March 28th, we celebrate our first year of exhibitions and events at Howl! Happening with a show of Arturo Vega’s Insults paintings.
“The line between art and life should be as fluid as possible,” Kaprow famously declared, and we’re called Howl! Happening: An Arturo Vega Project for a reason. When Howl! and the Arturo Vega Foundation set out to open the new space, we wanted to honor Vega’s memory, his energy, his humor, his heart, his innovations—and the style and talent of artists from the LES neighborhood he called home.
Happenings blur the line between life and art, everyday moment and performance. For the artist everything is possible, every choice can be answered in a multitude of ways. There is a collective generosity in surprises. Rather than passive observers, audiences become participants in the spontaneous, unplanned, sometimes unruly, and always engaging game at Howl! Happening.
• Like when Paula Now’s wig flew off into the chandelier during her explosive dance on the bar at the Pyramid Cocktail Lounge opening
• Like the topless bunny at Scooter’s show
• Like Jerry Stahl’s sidesplitting account of being a OG dad
• Like Lydia Lunch’s explosive and haunting anti-war speech from Conspiracy of Women
• Like Tim Clifford’s marathon reading of Charles Reznikoff’s underappreciated masterpieces of American modernist poetry, Testimony: The United States (1895-1915), and A Recitative (1934-1979), an elegy for the daily brutality of American life
• Like February’s Full Moon Show outside Howl! when young BOBBIE the performer was late, his sound equipment failed, and the crowd on the sidewalk sang “Moon River” for him so he could do his act
• Like the time Victor Bockris jumped around the gallery during the Marcia Resnick panel screaming, “Nonononono, that’s not how it was!”—provoking and cajoling the panelists and audience into a spontaneous standing ovation
• Like the personal reminiscences of Legs McNeil about “Artie” that close our show and the first year of provocative events
• Like catalogs for every show with texts by such influential writers, curators, and cultural figures as Dan Cameron, Michelle Grabner, Anthony Haden-Guest, Carlo McCormick, Thurston Moore, Michael Musto, Robert Nickas, Nicole Rudnick, Sandra Hale Schulman, Chris Stein, Ai Weiwei, and James Wolcott.
• Like experiencing “fly-on-the-wall” happy accidents, overheard snippets of conversation, and live action on the street and in the gallery on Howl’s live homepage
• Like the nearly 50 juicy events and exhibitions and combinations that shine a light on art and social history radiating from the LES and beyond
• Like the relevance of the messages about living an authentic life today based on a lineage of reciprocity, participation, creativity and love.
So while “happening” might conjure up the laid back “What’s happening, baby?” of Austin Powers, for those old enough to remember the Supremes’ first hit in ‘67 or the ad with a woman floating in outer space and the legend, “I dreamt I was in a happening in my Maidenform brassiere,” it’s about being a laboratory for the free play of ideas and emotions—braless, unfettered, uncensored and unafraid.
Susan Martin is the Creative Consultant for Howl! Happening.
