SCREAMING TO BE FREE FROM THE ICON TREE
In her multimedia piece Screaming to Be Free From the Icon Tree, performance poet Kristin Amondsen seeks to throw off the shackles of modern icons and live a free and unrestrained life. These icons have been painted (by Amondsen and Shelly Aldrich) on an “icon tree,” a sort of doorway at center stage that has five window shades attached to it. The shades are pulled out when needed to reveal paintings of what Amondsen sees as oppressive icons.
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The first is a clown with a Bozo hairdo; the second is a plump little girl with sausage curls and stains on her dress from the ice cream cone she carries. The third is a gun-brandishing soldier with puppet strings attached to him; the fourth is a nude woman sitting with her legs spread, a fetus painted over her womb; and the last is another nude woman, surrounded by flames that seem to come from her body, which is covered with scars and bruises shaped like hands. We also hear bits of sound from The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings, The Flintstones, Gilligan’s Island, and so on–all childhood favorites, except for the Hill/Thomas hearings, which are, I guess, a favorite target for iconoclasts.
Throughout the piece Amondsen has trouble clearly defining her icons. Sometimes the images represent her persona, and at other times they represent the establishment. Sometimes she sympathizes with the feelings they represent, and sometimes she wants to destroy what they represent. The TV sound bites between segments seem flimsy extensions of her icons, as if she means to support her assertion that these are powerful and prevalent.
