ABOUT

A solo performance. Music by Monteverdi, Mozart, Gershwin, Ponchielli. Text by John Kelly. With Kuka, the South African Flying Pig Dog Length: 12 minutes. First performance 1993 at The Pyramid Club, NY, 1983.

The soundtrack of this work is a verbal narration in which Kelly speaks in a heavy Italian accent the imperious voice of the painter Leonardo da Vinci, musing on the creative process. The live action has Kelly emerging dressed as the subject of the portrait, Ginerva Di Benci, aka The Mona Lisa, morphing into the snarling nasal sounds of his rebellious subject, who ultimately becomes frozen and trapped in the picture frame of historic adoration and scrutiny. This work both brings to life and debunks the notion of a ‘masterpiece’.