Raphael Montañez Ortíz

An associative view of the days, nights and characters that enclosed the life of Arthur Janov, which defines in the conclusion "It's never too late to have a happy childhood". Arthur Janov (1924-2017) was a classic instance of being the right charismatic therapist at the right time - the zeitgeist. Dr. Janov first heard about the embryo to the primal scream through one of his patients when he performed conventional psycho dynamic therapy. It was an absurd theatre performance by Raphael Montañez Ortiz called "Mommy, Daddy" presented in London, 1966. The birth of Primal therapy happened when Arthur Janov's book, "The Primal Scream" was published early 1970.

The concept of ritual-theater has been important since the early sixties in its production. It consists of the staging of violence through real acts that appeal to equally real and live emotions with an audience, that is, the action and the reaction that it provokes in the public happen simultaneously. This art of destruction represented by Raphael Montañez Ortiz is the theatricalization of a daily destruction, which we live in day to day.

1996 / U-Matic / color-b&w / sound / 1S / 12' 00

Raphael Montañez Ortiz tells a story about an elderly Jewish couple that didn't watch television or listen to the radio. Instead they used to talk lovingly to each other for every day of their long marriage. And in a sense there was a glow around them. When the couple were young their daughter died from polio. And so this energy or glow, in a kabbalistic sense, was their guardian angel, their daughter. Therefore...

In the mesmerizing Beach Umbrella, 1985, a shapely woman in a white bathing suit tears across the sand at a panicked clip, pursued by the Technicolor trio of the Three Caballeros. When the woman at last collapses, the cartoon characters descend, seething in a manic swarm over her body, a scene somewhere between a feeding frenzy and a gangbang. Once satisfied, the trio zoom off, allowing the woman time to stand before they begin the chase anew.

One of Ortiz’s final computer-laser-videos, marking a significant point in his career as an interdisciplinary artist and pioneer of the Destructivism movement.—Yesenia Perez

Raphael Montañez Ortíz distorts the famous line from Gregory Peck's performance in the 1956 adaptation of Moby Dick using digital equipment to create a destructionist viewing experience.

In his film work from the early 1980s, the artist used an Apple computer hooked up to a laser disc player. He scratched the laser disc, creating a stammering image, and a disconnection between time and space.