Send in the clowns
Three local clowns don their makeup and endure bizarre clown-based art
Kelly Reilly
Jose Acosta, Noel Williams, and Zea Barker
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In the rare instance that the words "clown art" are uttered, it conjures images of the creepy, makeup-caked crying ones usually relegated to velvet canvases. In 1987, multimedia artist Bruce Nauman added breadth to the term with a video installation titled "Clown Torture," one of the standout pieces on display at the Art Institute Of Chicago's new Modern Wing. It depicts a clown in five different scenarios (like a clown throwing a temper tantrum) across six different screens that loop the same hour of footage indefinitely. With the Art Institute’s blessing, Decider sent in three clowns well before operating hours last Friday (because the only thing scarier than watching freaky clowns is watching clowns watching freaky clowns) to study the videos for an hour and get their takes on Nauman’s masterwork.
8:07am: As the group enters, screams of a pained clown yelling “Noooo! Noooo! Noooo!” echo around Nauman's corner. Despite being in complete costume—red nose, red dress, red-and-white stripped socks, and feather-shedding boa—actress Noel Williams offers meekly, Minnie Mouse-style, “I don’t think I want to do this.”
8:11am: Actress Zea Barker enters the “Clown Torture” chamber on tiptoes. In front of her are four video monitors, flashing footage that loops over and over of a clown getting wet, balancing a glass bowl atop a long stick, throwing a tantrum, and repeating a stupid joke. Only two monitors are right side up. The four videos are also projected at intervals on the wall to her right, while the wall to her left shows a clown sitting on a toilet in a public bathroom, reading a magazine. Soundtracks from all six screens smash together in a chaotic chorus, adding to the disorientation.
8:18am: Processing the art that surrounds him, Little Clown Pizza's Jose Acosta attempts to vocalize his feelings. “I think,” Acosta says. Long pause. “I think. I think. I think. I think. I think.” He repeats this phrase for about a minute straight. Has he already cracked?
8:19am: Williams asks Acosta if he thinks this exhibit is for children. “That is for children,” Acosta says, pointing to the image of a clown sitting in a white room, kicking his feet, flailing his arms, and screaming “No” over and over again.
8:21am: “Clown Torture” quickly breaks the tiara-clad Barker's psyche and resolve. “We’re probably deserving of this treatment,” she says.
8:23am: Acosta says that the videos’ repetition is “good for the soul, because you get better by learning. You repeat and repeat and repeat and get good at repeating.”
Barker (referring to the clown in the videos): “I don’t think he is improving.”
Acosta: “He might not be improving, but we are.”
8:27am: Acosta concedes that one of the videos is scary: a close-up on a clown’s face, hair frazzled, face pained, as he barks repeatedly, “Pete and Repeat were sitting on a fence. Pete fell off. Who’s left? Repeat,” getting more frustrated and louder each time. “That face is not good for the kids because it is so angered,” Acosta says.
8:29am: “He seems stuck,” Williams says about the clown on the toilet. “He seems emotionally stuck. And I don’t care to watch anyone going to the bathroom.” Suddenly, a toilet flushes, and the clown in the video acts scared. Acosta starts laughing. Williams asks, “Is this supposed to be funny?” Barker answers, “It’s supposed to be torture.”
8:38am: Acosta admits the reason he’s a clown is “for the money.” “That’s awesome,” Williams says. “I don’t ever get paid.” Acosta hands her and Barker giant fake novelty bills.
8:41am: Acosta absent-mindedly honks a horn in his pocket.
8:46am: “It’s all self-inflicted,” Williams says of the tortured clowns. “I can understand that most people can repeat themselves and put themselves in compromising positions. I think that’s common to the human condition. But this makes me sad. I don’t relate to the clown. It’s sad that he’s doing that to himself. This exhibit as a whole makes me sad because this is what scares people. It makes it hard for me.”
8:48am: Acosta takes another gander at the clown on the toilet and proclaims, “This guy here. He is doing something.” The clown on the toilet begins picking his nose.
8:50am: The “Pete and Repeat” clown is back on the wall. Acosta’s smile is gone. He stares at it, horrified.
8:52am: As the clown on the big screen for the umpteenth time screams “No,” Williams starts screaming back at him. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! You can argue with me all you want, but at the end of the day, there’s a power switch. You’re turned off, and I’m still on!”
8:54am: Barker is awfully quiet, squatting in the middle of the room, staring at the tantrum clown with melancholy eyes.
8:57am: “The girls are more sensitive,” Acosta tells Decider. Williams and Barker overhear him. "Oh! It’s all coming out," yells Williams. "You think girls are more sensitive! You probably don’t believe I can be a clown because I’m a girl!"
Barker: “It is on. Get in your corners. I will be the ref.”
Acosta just stands there looking like a bashful Bugs Bunny, gloved hands folded into one another.
8:59am: Before the clowns start ripping at each other’s red noses, salvation: Credits start rolling on several monitors. The three clowns look stunned, as if they’ve just come out of a coma. The videos start up all over again. Barker screams, “Time to go!”
Kelly Reilly
