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From the Sea & Rainbow Food
by Geoffrey Hendricks and Robert Watts
From the Sea
Onboard the ship Skjelskør, which for the occasion had been re-named FLUXSKIB GEORGE MACIUNAS, Eric Andersen greeted the audience. Leaving Roskilde Harbour, Andersen elaborated on the purpose of the trip: only the captain knew where they were headed, but within 30 minutes the ship would reach its destination and Geoffrey Hendricks would do a performance. On the way there, Flux food by Robert Watts was served in the gallery below, and Philip Corner performed small events on the deck.
After arriving at the Risø peninsula, Geoffrey Hendricks began his performance. The performance consisted of a number of ritualised actions which saw Geoffrey Hendricks cleansed by means of sea water, sand, coloured chalk powders and blue spray paint and then dressed in branches and flowers. While Eric Andersen and Robert Watts assisted Geoffrey Hendricks, Philip Corner again engaged in events, slowly sawing a chair in two. This proved to be rather difficult and surprisingly noisy; however Philip Corner eventually succeeded.
Wrapped in branches and smeared in colours, Geoffrey Hendricks returned to the ship where he was tied to the mast. Sailing back to Roskilde Harbour, the ship was bathed in a low afternoon sun and a full moon had appeared on the sky. As Geoffrey Hendricks disembarked the ship, the audience applauded and he walked back to the city centre, still dressed as nature’s son.
Rainbow food
A Fluxus meal was served in the little dining room of the ship Skjelskør. The meal was served in three sittings. All passengers were handed black, white or red cards which decided the colour of the food they were served.
Towards the end of the trip, a pastry replica of the boat was served as dessert.
1985
”…Hendricks also did a fantastic performance on a small island in the middle of Roskilde Fjord. He was – just as Ben Vautier predicted during the press conference – not wearing any clothes but very slowly was “dressed” in mud, twigs, flowers and leaves thus arriving at the shore as a piece of nature or like a figure from Niels Klim.”
Torben Weirup. “Da avantgarden kom til Korsbæk” in Kunstavisen p. 12 – 13, 1985
1985
“SATURDAY we are leaving on a boat from Skœlskør harbor [the boat was called Skœlskør, and was leaving from Roskilde harbor). We will experience Geoffrey Hedrick’s performance about the four elements. During the performance we will be served colorful Fluxus food. Once at Risø I asked Christian Have to comment on the séance where the naked Hendricks, dressed in all the splendor of natures flowers, returned home tied to the ships mast, and while the children are yelling: He doesn’t have any clothes on, he doesn’t have any clothes on, Hendricks is leisurely walking through town heading towards the gallery.”
-Arild Batzer: Art makes me sad – from radio reporters’ dairy.
1985
”Hendricks […] has a more crazed and radical sense of symbol.”
- Henry Martin, Art News / September 1985
1985
7PM GEOFFREY HENDRICKS
A boat trip from the harbour was organized. Garry was seperated from us and was only let onto the boat at the very last minute, crying his eyes out. A Fluxus meal was served in the little dining room underway in three sittings. Cards, black, white and red, were handed out to all the passengers, which entitled them to a plate of food in those colours, Emmett and I both received a white one, Garry’s was black. Geoff gave me his camera and asked me to take photographs for him throughout the trip, especially when we reached the wharf way out at the end of the bay where he was to perform. He did his usual ablutions, covered himself in earth and blue paint and then had bunches of flowers and leafy twigs tied to his naked body with strips of cloth, a kind of rites of Spring. Hundreds of cameras were clicking constantly from the decks of the “Fluxskib George Macuinas.”
Finally Geoff was tied to the mast of the boat and he travelled home in the glorious sunshine and strong wind like a viking martyr, as a full moon rose over the homeward path and black smoke billowed from the funnel. Near port we were served pieces of a huge cake in the shape of the boat itself.
- Ann Noël in her diary, June 1985
1985
“… To get to Geoffrey Hendrick´s ritual albutions in the chilly waters in the Baltic Sea, after wich he transformed himself into a tree, one took a boat trip across Roskilde Fjord and was served an all-black, all-red, all-white, or rainbow-colored lunch, with a pastry replica of the boat itself for dessert.”
- Henry Martin, “Festival of Fantastics” in “EAR Magazin of New Music”, p. 16. New York, November/December 1985.
June 28th, 2008
Discovering the ship Skjelskør – København - the piece comes into focus, it is the perfect boat for the trip. With pictures of the old King and Queen in the dining area, it has the feeling of an earlier time. The journey is the performance. I meet the Captain, Niels Borserup, and am shown around the ship. It will hold up to 100 passengers and 24 may eat at one time. We must serve Flux food. The hold could be used for supplies, but also as an entrance, and the fore cabin has two bunks. There is a toilet and small washbasin that could be for a flux-event. The upper deck is open. The lower deck is covered. It has a whistle, boiler room and coal fired engine. There is the captain and a crew of two. It has no galley/kitchen so all the food must be prepared before. We must plan different meals and different servings. Should there be one seating each way, or can we have two so that everyone has a chance to try some Flux food?
- Geoffrey Hendricks, On Festival of Fantastics, June 2008
April 6th, 2009
That’s me sitting on the wooden chair and sawing it in half—one of Geoff’s signature gestures. The two halves are to be tied together afterward, but in reversed order. Noone could sit on it then, so that makes it art. Geoff left to me to do the tying, with, as i remember, flexible branches and it was not very easy. Nor very successful.. I saw what a real artist can do with vines and knots in the gallery next day, where Geoff had redone all my work.