Meat Joy

"Meat Joy" is a performance piece by Carolee Schneemann. It was first performed at the First Festival of Expression at the American Center in Paris. When viewing this piece one can tell that it is a "celebration" of flesh and material. The materials used were fish, chickens, sausages, wet paint, transparent plastic, rope brushes and scraps of paper. Film is the main documentation. Still photographs could have been used to document this event but it wouldn't have the same effect as if you saw it in person or in a film. This type of media functions well for the documentation of "Meat Joy". It functions so well that maybe it doesn't even matter if it was viewed by a live audience or not.
It doesn't appear to have any scheduled occurrences, its all pretty chaotic and random. However, performances don't have to always be intricately planned. It all depends on the statement the artist is trying to express. If the artist feels that they need chaos in order to make an audience understand what they are doing then that is okay. It is an act because it only occurred a couple of times (twice?). It is not an everyday thing, you don't see people dancing or rolling around in meat products normally. If we saw the acts like "Meat Joy" frequently it probably wouldn't get the same message across.
This piece isn't necessarily a favorite, but I consider it far more entertaining than Bruce Nauman's "Stamping in the Studio". However, there are many different things that are more entertaining than that. We can't like everything.