Fastwürms (CAN)

Krummi Krunkar brings together a relational performance, TARO-TAT, and a video presentation, WITCH vs. NINJA.

WITCH vs. NINJA is an original Fastwürms HD video production shot on location in Venice and Scarlet Hill, Ontario. It was first exhibited at the Art Gallery of York University in Toronto, September 26 to December 9, 2007, then at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver, January 25 to March 24, 2008, and now at the Plug In ICI in Winnipeg, September 14 to November 20, 2008.

WITCH vs. NINJA is a radical, no-budget artist cinema project, drawing from the low-budget lineage of Fist of Unicorn, directed by Tong Dik (Hong Kong, 1972), and the classic independent kung fu films of director Robert Tai, Shaolin vs. Ninja, (Taiwan, 1983), and Mafia vs. Ninja (Taiwan, 1984).

The disconnected editing, absurdist plots, and out-of-phase and abstract English dubbing makes these underground kung fu classics the postmodern paradigm of the conceptual shift from matrixed acting to non-matrixed performing embraced as a key conceptual strategy in the early years of artist performance and video art. WITCH vs. NINJA features non-matrixed martial arts inaction and the collision of ‘Beshiki-me’ ninja feminism with the occult relational aesthetics and black-collar labour negotiations of the Witch Nation: “workers of the night, unite!”

TARO-TAT is a new relational performance that combines tarot card readings with temporary magic marker tattoo drawings. In collaboration with a Reykjavík ‘Hrafn’ artist, FASTWÜRMS will provide paired readings from tarot decks and/or a temporary tattoo drawing on the skin of public participants. TARO-TAT will be performed in a provisional room installation of handmade crocheted craft blankets with custom fabric covers on the card tables and displays of posters and printed banners on the walls.

The intimate and personal interaction between performer and public in TARO-TAT is paired with the mediated spectacle of WITCH vs. NINJA to make Krummi Krunkar a unique aesthetic experience.