| SRL (Survival Research Laboratories)
[1977-]
American Performance Artists |
|
Mark Pauline |
|
WWW Links High Tech is the Art in San Francisco Beyond the Realm of Humans: An Interview with Mark Pauline |
Major Works: |
From alt.culture:
Survival Research Laboratory Named by founding member Mark Pauline (b. 1954) after an advertisement in Soldier of Fortune magazine, SRL builds monstrous machines that are set upon each other in loud, threatening outdoor spectacles, Employing a critical sensitivity for image manipulation and advertising, Pauline began his media hacking career defacing Bay Area billboards. SRL launched its first performance, "Machine Sex,' in 1979. Subsequent performances included "Extremely Cruel Practices: A Series of Event; Designed to Instruct Those Interested in Policies That Correct or Punish" and 1989's "Illusions of Shameless Abundance Degenerating Into an Uninterrupted Sequence of Hostile Encounters." "I make weapons to tell stories about weapons,' Pauline said in 1992. "SRL shows are a satire of technology, an absurd parody of the military-industrial complex." A 1992 performance to mark the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's ground-breaking featured a flame-throwing cannon, sonic boom gun, giant metallic pincers, and a mortar-like contraption that spat molten metal. |
