Friday, November 20, 2020
New York's Own "Pizza Rat" on Making Performance Art Accessible
hyperallergic.com: The internet is squeaking with delight this week at a 23-second-long clip of a figure in a rat costume, complete with a long tail, whiskers, and mousy gray suit, dragging a life-sized pizza slice up the stairs in a New York City subway station. As surreal as it may be, the sight is intimately familiar to urban dwellers who remember video footage of a real rodent carrying an entire cheese slice up the platform steps a few years back. The strangely endearing, ubiquitous New Yorker became lovingly known as “Pizza Rat.”
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I do think it is funny that the New Yorkers in the video are generally unimpressed and disinterested. I also appreciate the quality of the mask and costume. They look very well made and highly detailed. I am also wondering, though about how something gets called “performance art” versus, say, the naked person the artist ran into in Times Square. Maybe there is a difference in intentionality in that particular case. That said, I think that performance art might be an exclusive club. If someone who were not a self-titled performance artist were to do this Pizza Rat gag, it would probably be termed a funny and clever prank and left at that. However, since it was done by a performance artist, a) there is intellectual conversation around it and b) that conversation is about making performance art accessible to the masses. It all seems a little elitist to me.
The sheer indifference of most of the New Yorkers in the multiple videos of Buddy the Rat is absolutely hilarious to me. The fact that in the first one where he is carrying the pizza slice a person simply climbs over the stair railing and carries on with their day gave me a good laugh. Besides a couple people filming or taking pictures of Lyons in his costume and his performance there are few people who spare him more than a glance as they pass by. And while this may not be the point to street performance it sure shows off the normality of it in a city like New York. The fact that people are not phased at all by a rat man carrying a huge slice of pizza up the stairs and wandering around the subway gives testament to the art of street performance in big cities and how simply ingrained in the culture it is.
I had no idea that the star of this viral video was such an accomplished artist! I thought that the person in this video was just up for a wonderful little prank in the subway and didn’t even think that such a great story could be behind it. Performance art or street art pieces like this, maybe sans rat costume and giant pizza, have most likely been around for as long as theatre has been if not longer. I can’t think of a piece of art that is more accessible than something like this. The great thing about this is that its getting so much publicity which will have people asking questions and scrolling through Jonothan’s Instagram, which could encourage more and more people to go out to the streets to perform. I love that artists are finding ways to bring storytelling or small theatre pieces to audiences since audiences still can’t come to the theatre.
It’s so surprising to me that this rat man is an “accomplished dancer, theater artist, and puppeteer,” one whos credits stray pretty far away from New York’s subway lines. I’ve seen these clips online, and I honestly pass them as a lame attempt at humor. I’m not sure if Jonothon Lyons’ rat has made a huge splash with any grand statement with this “performance art,” but I guess it’s very funny to watch a life-sized man rat do weird things in public while people watch in distress.
I’m not a huge fan of politicizing everything, so the comments about the “accessibility” of this “performance art” feels like a very grand stretch, but I guess if it makes people happy to put a political reasoning on a crazy man in a rat suit around New York… you do you!
Well that was… something. I don’t know how I feel about this, but I guess I can say that about of lot of different “performance” art. I think to me the most entertaining part similar to chase was the “character” of the typical New Yorkers who simply were unfazed by what was going on in the world around them. I mean I think that’s something I enjoy in most of my New York experiences in how something so ridiculous or absurd can be going on and New Yorkers simply will not notice or care one bit. That all being said I have to say I don’t quite understand what the piece is trying to get across to me I don’t understand what I am trying to get out of it. I think weirdly enough the execution technically and practically is done rather well but I don’t think the influence and story comes across clearly.
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