Kienholz on Exhibit (1969)

[Music] oh [Music] the [Music] I have my attitude towards pornography and all these things here you would you consider what you've seen so far pornography no not me no how does it affect you it it it this is life to me I mean I see I see people and things and conditions of all of all conditions I don't mean middle class or high class or low class I see men you know as they are yes you know from the cave to rich man you see and I and I'm not afraid of it and this is and people that are afraid of it have they strong opinion to this but the people that are living you know they've been here before you know the spatoon yeah you know I don't see anything but a bunch of junk just throw together and and he calls that art mhm art to me is the Old Masters over here in the first building that is Art mhm but this kind of junk that's just throw together and a bunch of gobby pink throat on it to me it's horrible I think the man's sife H this is how you operate it the red button is to stop and start it the black button is for volume the uh tour begins under the keing Holtz sign here keenholtz is making an effort to humanize the computer he wants to show it as a tool of man rather than a tyrant it has three motors inside it one to rock it when it gets tired one to run the lights and one to make noise it has a bell and if you ask it questions by phone it will answer sometime everything's wired nothing's really people anymore it's just you're not an individual you're part of a machine or a cog or the Navy's way of going to war is to have a machine find the enemy and and a machine shoot down the enemy and you just sit there and watch the [Music] buttons an atom bomb has been exploded and it's almost destroyed Humanity while in another Corner one computer is happily giving birth to another computer and he calls it or the Ram parts we watched fascinated Keen Hol would like each of you to be able to come here and do this to the painting because then you relate to it you become a part of it and you better understand what he is attempting however this is a museum so I must ask you not to touch anything I'll do all the touching for you forbidden frood right [Music] this is KFI Los Angeles and that's what he is saying that what seems to be romantic and lovely in the dark after a few beers with soft music is really not very pretty at all especially when you the audience when you are involved when you look into it and you see yourself reflected in the mirrors in there and that's all he's trying to say and it is another one of his statements to the young people of the world now if you'll move rather quickly past this the guard will close the door well yes now you can go this way [Music] but I don't see what they can see by the thing that's closed I mean they said there a couple in the back seat making [Music] love I think people that have te teenagers have something really to worry about I really do you know what it's like well I don't know in my generation they things were different they were we didn't have automobile to begin with what was it like when you were a teenager oh I don't know there was more [Music] discipline I think the parents used to know more what their children are doing now they're so free these children the way they dress their clothes their hair their oh s girls on the street they had tight pants and then knee down it was all in bir white and bir loose legs isn't that silly [Music] he sort of gets a feeling of loneliness old age death I think it's really sad she keeps her memories in jars she draws on them for her life kind of they're like uh oxygen bottles or plasma things it's all that keeps her going kind of I I I would say that's the word really going she can't move uh physically but I wanted to just take an Axe and just chop it up then I wanted to just take the bird in my hands and just feel [Music] life Dear Jane I can't come down now because Harry needs me here ma says she might make it later keep a stiff upper lip kid [Music] dick eerie tragic sick I get the feeling that he's trying to express the the pain inside from the outside was to give birth to something beautiful and uh the scene doesn't depict it she's actually expelling at this particular Point all her feelings and that uh uh she had and it's a sad feeling actually because this is actually a love at one time a very depressing pressing because he's not here but actually it is not a valid uh picture of of Modern Art or modern society that he has taken certain aberration and by putting them in this position in this context in a in a museum of this kind they have overemphasized and made us think as uh somebody you said this is a picture of our time I don't think it's a picture of our time at all I think it's a picture of a small segment of our society and I think it's unfortunate it's being overemphasized and makes people think that this is our society when I don't think it is at all Mr kenol has Total Recall every piece of furniture in this room the carpeting the draperies the wallpaper and so on are exactly as they were in this particular brothel in Las Vegas in 1943 the records are 1943 hit the magazines on the table are dated 1943 the war was going on at this time and you will see a soldier's jacket hanging on the [Music] wall I don't know why I love you like I do I don't know why but I do I don't know why you Thrill Me Like You Do I don't know why but you do you never seen to want my Romance the only time you hold me is when we're daning I don't know why I love dear sis how are you we are fine except Mama has a dizzy spells yet Papa got the crops in but he says it doesn't look too good this year what with a dry spell and all by the way Papa said to thank you for the $20 as it came in real Handy papa says You must have a real good job to be able to spare that kind of money I have to go back to school this fall I'll be a senior this year and then maybe I can come to the city and get a good job too things are about the same in this place Fulton's Barn blew down and last week the Guth M's cow had twin Cavs it's all so dry and dull here if only I could be there with you and see all there is to see I got to quit now and help Mama with the chores love till I see you sis PS right soon as we haven't heard from you in quite a [Music] spell the only time you hold is when we're I don't know why I love you like I do [Music] I don't know why but [Music] I I can't you know I can't uh see anything so gruy about this you mean about a house of prostitution no well if they were so good how come there aren't more of them I mean you know all around and I mean when you start you know I just can't see bringing one into a museum they said all this is is a house of prostitution and uh it's pretty disgusting really when you when you when you look at it I mean for my morals they AR it doesn't mean anything to either no it's a sewing machine that goes up and down that's all that thing I think I think it tends to to tell everything that exactly is going on that the real thin sham of um Society tries to over overplay and it kind of underplays this but this is exactly what's going on in everybody's mind that's a come they're all here looking at it and craning their necks to see it because they didn't think anybody else would ever try to do it no they don't think that nobody else is actually has the same feelings that they do walking into this house is just like walking into a doen house I walked into same junky dresser same same everything I mean everything is just the way it's supposed to be and the constant noise it's a living picture the rumed rug tell me is this rug supposed to be rumed is it supposed to be rum I don't know oh she's working wait a minute let me look at [Music] it yeah what does that mean do I'd say it's symbolic wouldn't you that's basic yeah what about that squirrel the squirrel I can't I can't uh oh [Music] the squirrel getting in that that's too much that is too much and and the yellow rose under your chin to see if you like butter isn't that too much oh man he's got a very this one is intrigues me he seem like there's no hope the broom and the towel yeah yeah those instruments of servitude band around waste that biding any relationships oh he he's got a treadmill under it this is getting nowhere fast the picture above the hakai Jenny shows the beauty of woman impressionable young boy gets this first picture which is so contrary to what he finds in reality you see when this is the first indication you have of what it is to go with a Woman Wonder we have so much homosexuality when you live on the other side you live in a sheltered world you don't usually have these things thrown in your face and unfortunately people should have more of this thrown in their faces so that they can realize that everything is in country clubs and beautiful pictures and flowers in the garden it was interesting but well I've never been inside one of those places so I don't know how you know what kind of a satire it is but I like the picture of General MacArthur in there thought that was good well he's so outstand such an outstanding person and then his big pictures right there in the middle of that well I don't prostitute house and I just thought that was a real good contrast to upstanding American morals and probably the place where every serviceman um would go go when he had a chance I just thought it was a real good contrast I guess I kind of like to stay in my own Rosy Glow I don't know I I don't want to be experienced to things like that I've never really been um surrounded I haven't ever come in contact with things like that my I've always been protected in my own little middle class world I think it's a comment on The Human Condition uh he's he's picturing as it exists today but it's common to all mankind uh because it sits down in Tableau form for us and then for future Generations uh what our ills and unhappiness were so plus some of the humor that's attended on the age it it shows the seia side of of of our modern society both and the Machine Society mhm it doesn't show as as far as I'm concerned at least does not bring to me the the noble aspects of Society but rather the the cruder aspects the mechanical the junky the ephemeral and if someone looks at it and says it's junk then possibly for that person he's gotten across all that he can you know we can't really see above our own level who we can look down below it no I I don't feel that it that this exhibit is junk at all uh I feel the artist has felt something and defined it in no other way that any contemporary has ever explored and for this I respect and admire him but I also see his art as well what art is really about you know he's really depicting what he's singing that song you know it's not junk or pornography or sacrilegious or any of that that is what man is constantly doing is always telling himself and others around him what it's all about how he sees it so that he feels more secure in his position because he's not quite sure of it himself and he's got to talk and create and do things to convince himself and he convinces others while he's doing what's it hit in your life you feel I should here what is he against is he against grandmothers you get that impression no oh I I can't quite figure it out myself showing it's the uh is the man living is the doctor living the doctor what is well the artist living yeah I guess he is is it him is it one of no huh is it one of you uh who one of you no are they related oh no no oh yes in a sense so are you it's nice fun yes I know what to mean now we're all born under one God we're all in the same boat together yes uhhuh if you want something to play with go and find yourself baby my is too expensive and I'm not a little boy if you are serious don't play with my heart it makes me Furious but if you want me to love you then a baby I win girl you know I will tell it like it is don't be ashamed let your cons be your gu no down inside of me I believe you love me oh get your foolish PR tell it like it is I'm nothing to play with go and find yourself but tell it like it is