Living life

This evening we listened to a talk by AlfeeTee's best friend of old, Stephen Holman. Stephen is a performance artist, painter, animator and director and this was a retrospective talk about his 30 years work thus far, mostly in the U.S. which he left England for in 1984, the same year I met AlfeeTee.

It was fascinating to hear someone we know so well tell their own story (or a version of it) on stage to an audience. It was amazing to see glimpses of everything he's done over those 30 years and also intriguing to learn more about the underground art and performance art scenes of New York, California and Japan - all of which Stephen has been a part of at one time or another.

We've been his friends throughout these 30 years but while AlfeeTee used to do performances with him (so did I once!), we've followed most of what he's done at a significant distance (of several thousand miles); so it was great to get closer to it all this evening; to see a rich life distilled into a one hour talk.

I was secretly worried before we went that it would be difficult to listen to someone we know so well and who has done so much, without reflecting negatively on my own lack of achievements in life. But you know what, we can't all be extraordinary and the fact is that he has worked incredibly hard, has put himself on the line many times, has developed deep and genuine fascinations for the obscure, has great talents for generating ideas, has cultivated great relationships with fellow performers over a very long time and paints beautifully. Among other things.

So he deserves to have this moment in the spotlight and far from being depressing it was a real privilege to be there, to hear him weave this intricate and rich tapestry of stories that included everything from giant paper mâché babies and toilet seat guitars to Steve Buscemi and Pee Wee's Playhouse.

Actually I think he's becoming an archivist. He's a collector of ideas, records, books, memorabilia and toys and I think his collections could be quite important subculture records. I predict that his fascinations with curious subjects ranging from English magical literature to Christian ventriloquist music, Mr Blobby collectibles and NYC performance fly posters circa 1984 (and these are just a handful of his areas of interest) will become an important legacy and could be the stuff of an obscure museum (or several) sometime in the future.

But it's a long time before the museum needs to be built; he's got a lot more years and fascinations to explore before he gets to that twilight world. The World he occupies now is far too bright and interesting.