Freak. Dicionray.com defines this word as a person who has withdrawn from normal, rational behavior and activities to pursue one interest or obsession. The photographic works in the exhibition “The Show Must Go On” explores what it means to be a modern day “freak”, a performer, a re-invented carnie—those belonging to a subculture of individuals who possess physical and behavioral abnormalities and generally drives society to ignore, shun, avoid, fear and, marginalize. This series is one part of an on going body of work that strives to push the taboo into the forefront of artistic discussion. My goal is to allow people the opportunity to be intrigued, visually absorbed, and engaged in dialogue on those subjects that are typically prohibited in daily conversation. Inspired by a performer who is a “self-proclaimed carnie”, this series explores the many things that performers do to be successful in their chosen profession or passion. Focusing on areas such as practice, passing of tradition, interaction with audience as well as other performers, and finally the performance, this series shows a behind the scenes of what being a contemporary sideshow performer really is.
The “freaks” of yester-year performed in sideshows as a means to attain employment because of an inability to do so outside of the sideshow environment. They enjoyed it because it gave them a way to make their own money-usually very good pay. Many of the freaks in the traditional sideshows were individuals with deformities and in the 1960s and 1970s many well-intentioned disabilities groups complained about political correctness that eventually resulted in the sideshows of yester-year being disbanded and the performers out of work.
The reinvented caries of today have a completely different dilemma than those of the past. Since Western culture still attempts to be very sensitive to deformities, the contemporary sideshow performers have developed talents. The talents these performers posses can be as simple as tossing a few balls around, to as difficult as sword swallowing. The performers in contemporary times have to compete with modern forms of entertainment, such as television and Internet. Jugglers must compete with television selling a “magic ball” that can glide over the body and look as if it is floating, aka, the Fusigi. People do not understand that this is a type of juggling called contact juggling and it requires many years of practice to perfect it which causes the art of contact juggling to be viewed as less than it actually is. Sideshows have moved from profiting from onlookers’ disbelief to modern day performers attempting to compete with modern forms of entertainment. Contemporary sideshow performers focus on the human aspect in entertainment; they are live and they often interact with onlookers and pass their knowledge onto others who desire to carry on these talents. This creates a “gypsy family”-or group of performers which practice together and teach one another.
Past sideshow performers did not know much about their deformities and would often have patrons of the circus gawk at them because they appeared different. Similarly, contemporary sideshow performers cause onlookers to gawk and stare, but not usually because of their appearance, but more what they are doing. The contemporary sideshow performers dedicate years to perfecting their talents and learning their bodies. They slowly push themselves to go further and to learn more. This is achieved through practice. This part of the ongoing series focuses on the practice space and the human aspect of the entire performance. Since practice is when the performers strips themselves of their performance “alter ego”, it is the perfect area to emphasize the human element of the performers and take a peak into another area of the performers which is often over looked and not emphasized. During the practice time, performers interact with one another and learn and perfect stunts, tricks, and acts. Each group, or family, has their hierarchy; for example, each group has their “mother and/ or father” figure which get everything. These figures can be seen teaching new talents, encouraging the others, and running the business side of everything.
