TMO LIVE! may have come from the desert. Imagine it. The wind blows his hair. The sun is his spotlight. Stages all around on rocks and wide-open spaces for his songs to expand. The barriers of advanced societies are momentarily absent! There is freedom for exploration, danger, and extraordinary experience. He can walk for miles, climb to heights, experience extreme temperatures and watch countless stars twinkle at night.
The phenomenal construction of such a sublime environment is what mankind has tried to comprehend, and imitate, for ages. Such imitations are found in ancient drawings, classic narratives, and scenic reconstructions in cinema and amusement parks.
[Back to the desert.]
The heat melts sand into sparkles that seduce: the mirage! The mirage that, despite its illusory state, becomes the host of sincere excitement, desire, even hope. Why not pretend? Why not transcend? Overcome? For a moment, at least. The psychological fascination with the unknown or unknowable manifests intense contemplation; Are we the only advanced living things in the universe? How can Beyoncé look, sound, and move perfectly, effortlessly? The attention generated by such questions is overwhelming and powerful.
TMO LIVE! cannot be a mirage!
DAVID BOWIE cannot be an alien!
MADONNA is not the holy virgin!
How does one become both a pillar of culture and a nomad of society? One must be stable, the other is transitory. This contradiction is intrinsic, essential. We know these “ones” well: the icon, martyr, diva, revolutionary, genius, terrorist…
[Feel free to expand this list as you picture yourself walking through a desert landscape, or strutting across a stage in an empty arena.]
These warriors, let’s call them, attempt to transcend the seemingly stable aspects of their societies, challenging the status quo by embodying something “other”. These choreographed tactics strive to astound like the sublime but are rooted in the “Man’s Man’s Man’s World”, so their seams and stitches are apparent. We as viewers/consumers become complacent- simultaneously aware of and fascinated by the façade. Like the mirage: this causes the political intentions of the artist to slip in and out of focus. The task is finding ways of consistently highlighting the inseparability of the form and content, therefore reinforcing the critical positioning of the performer.
[The transparent constructions of divas found on YouTube inspire with their revealing examples: Beyoncé learning choreography for “Why Don’t You Love Me?” or singing “1+1” backstage at American Idol.]
Of course, these Pop culture icons are trapped within the great golden pyramid of Capitalism, their politics often compromised by the strong hand of the Management. But we can learn from their abilities to publicly identify issues and subsequently unite individuals by observing the immaterial elements of the spectacle (song, story, gesture, affect). These tactics have been corrupted by those at the top of the pyramid and must be reclaimed by those from what we refer to as the margins or, in relation to the pyramid, the foundations.
TMO LIVE! utilizes these situations as landmarks from which to navigate his symbolic, nomadic journey out of the desert and into the city, or out of the city and into the desert!…? Candide’s garden is where the two meet; Voltaire’s satire draws attention to the demandingly careful balance between mankind and his nature.
[Blackout.]
Earthquakes occur in deserts and cities. The stable plane becomes liquid land! Rocks shift, cracks appear, tops become bottoms and things that were once tall may now be buried deep below the surface. A new surface. Emerging. Something else to walk across, explore, and comprehend.
