Episode 14 of the LET ME BE FRANK web documentary series, “Playing With Reality” explores Frank Moore’s 48-hour performance processes, “back to the core of the ritual work”. During the same period as the Outrageous Beauty Revue, in the late 1970s, Frank started creating 48-hour pieces, altered realities centered around one person, “the pilgrim”, who signed up to obtain a list of life goals.
“Playing With Reality” takes us into the backstage of Moore’s work, describing how he was able to create a liminal performance state, melting normal reality with dream reality for the pilgrim, an “awake dream where all things were possible”.
The reading is by Kenneth Atchley, American composer, noise, drone and video artist, and member of the S.F. Bay Area electronic music community. Music by Kenneth Atchley, Stephen Emanuel and Vinnie Santino.
“Playing With Reality” features film footage and photos from the 48-hour processes themselves, as well as Frank singing “I Am Woman” at L.A.C.E. in Los Angeles in 1992.
The episode also features “48-hour Process”, the 7th installment of “How To Handle An Anthropologist”, a recurring animated feature in the Let Me Be Frank series, from the new book by the same name.
Let Me Be Frank is a video series based on the life and art of shaman, performance artist, writer, poet, painter, rock singer, director, TV show host, teacher and bon vivant, Frank Moore.
The series is partly a biography, but also a presentation of Frank's philosophy on life and on art. Twenty-plus episodes have been planned based on Frank’s book, Art of a Shaman, which was originally delivered as a lecture at New York University in 1990 as part of the conference “New Pathways in Performance”. Each episode will feature readings by people who played an important part in Frank’s life, either as friends, lovers, students, artistic collaborators or supporters of his art.
Let Me Be Frank presents Frank's exploration of performance and art as being a magical way to effect change in the world ... performance as an art of melting action, of ritualistic shamanistic doings/playings. Using Frank’s career and life as a "baseline", it explores this dynamic playing within the context of reality shaping.
The series is available on Frank’s website at http://frankadelic.com and on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/channels/letmebefrank .