PARTY PICS!!!!

Happy happy joy Joy! ---->>>

<<<<-----Eager participants

<<<----Soup patrol

<<<----Marie's installations

more by Anthony--->>>

"Balls Out Banquet " @ Diego Rivera Gallery 4/24/06

In the spirit of Bay Area legend, Tom Marioni, three students at SFAI throw a feast to remember. Balls Out Banquet is a group show/art happening constructed by three students at the San Francisco Art Institute: Marie Ely, Joy Cornista and Anthony DeSimone, and a couple of scantily clad helper friends.

Hot! ---->>>

Each artist included his or her own objets d'art. But the attention was focused on participation, aka: free food.

The art event that took place on opening night was an hommage to the famed Bay Area artist Tom Marioni, for whom the highest form of art was drinking a beer with friends.

The group ambitiously proposed a vegetarian meal for their fellow students, friends and family-anyone who arrived early enough to get a numbered plate. The energy was high and there was a lot of enthusiasm for participation (duh). As each visitor entered the gallery they confronted with a mostly-naked man handing them a plate and a barrage of people and flying rubber balls in the gallery. If you were patient, you eventually got to sit down to a quick meal at the lavish dining room table, complete with an elegant fork chandelier by Ely. Each guest was given small portions of a number of vegetarian dishes and then told to make way for the next person in line.

The numbers at the main table moved surprisingly fast which kept people waiting for their turn. The "real art" in the gallery was overlooked, partly due to the feeding frenzy, but also due to the chaotic assortment of work being displayed in the room.

The group left no stone unturned when displaying their pop-y, children-of-the-80's paintings, and installations. The maximalist aesthetic was slightly distracting, but the mountain dew-like buzz paired well with the manic energy of the opening. Not to be missed were a couple of sculpture peices by DeSimone, whose marshmellow filled toilet and mini-plastic baby sculptures happily exploit their ready-made status.