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May 21, 1998: Action #1. A man in navy-blue coveralls, heavy boots and black gloves, his shaven head and face painted bright yellow, sits giving a silent sign of benediction at the semi-demolished, abandoned building at Southwest 9th Avenue and Taylor Street. The chaos of architectural rubble contrasts with Yellowman's still, contemplative posture, until he is non-confrontationally removed by the police (after all, he is trespassing). June 4: Action #2. The Pearl District is crowded with First Thursday gallerygoers. Yellowman sits motionless for three hours, his eyes covered with gauze and his hands resting peacefully in his lap, on a copper-covered pedestal back-dropped by a steel garage door. His head is cocked, and his ear rests on the mouthpiece of an extraordinarily long horn, the bell of which rests on the ground next to some rocks, which seem to defy all impossibilities and whisper to him. June 28: Yellowmanwalk. Laden with objects, Yellowman walks with a crutch from Forest Park to Mount Tabor. At the end of the journey, he rejuvenates himself by sucking water from tubes attached by a string to a poplar tree. Late July/early August: A yet-to-be determined Yellowman action. A few days before Yellowmanwalk, Yellowman, a.k.a. Joseph Biel, spoke to Willamette Week. WW: Is it general knowledge that the man behind the yellow "mask" is Joseph Biel? Joseph Biel: Not necessarily, but I'm perfectly happy to talk with people about it. And it's important to view Yellowman as one element in a larger artistic pursuit, rather than as a mysterious, comic-book-type character. I really enjoy being painted, experiencing the process and the change, much like I enjoy the process of other types of art-making. Yellowman has evolved through the process of creating installations over the years. Can you trace that evolution? The very beginning was three years ago, when Richard [Kraft] and I did an impromptu "action" in Berlin. We discussed it on occasion between then and this past winter, when Terri Hopkins scheduled us to exhibit at the Marylhurst College Art Gym in February 1999. We're toying with the idea of incorporating some sort of performance into that installation, which will probably be related to alchemy, just as Yellowman is. I'm also interested in making a break from the gallery scene, remaining involved but doing other things, like Yellowman. How do you see Yellowman as relating to alchemy? Both are linked to the idea of spiritual and physical transformation. Did you choose the color yellow to reference gold and, one step further, alchemy? I intentionally did not choose gold because of all of its associations. I like yellow's suggestion of the sun and of sulfur, a nonmetallic element which can be poisonous. It's also eye catching; people notice it. And because it's so bright, almost fluorescent, there's no reference to a particular race. Then how do you want Yellowman to be interpreted? There's no one way to interpret him. In fact, I question the value of interpretation. When you put something out there, that's what people want to do, but sometimes I question the value of it. Everyone will experience Yellowman in a different way. Those that walk all the way from Forest Park to Mount Tabor will have an experience that's very different from someone who chooses to walk a half mile, or to just watch for a few minutes. I think Yellowman is related to dreams, though, and those feelings that dreams instigate that you can't express in words. But other types of art do that, too. Why have you, a painter and installation artist, chosen to experiment with performance? I even question labeling this a performance. Why does everything need to be labeled? Christian Boltanski said something like, "When you don't have an edge between art and life, you can say more." Otherwise art is a relic, which interests me, too, but that's not what Yellowman is about. I think of this as a sort of tableau or installation, rather than as a performance per se. I want to make an image of myself. It's almost like I become a painting or an object and I think about future "actions" in those terms. John Cage and Joseph Beuys are two artists I admire. Yellowman has a lot in common with some of Joseph Beuys' work, except that I'm not as concerned with transforming society as Beuys was. He also worked with the idea of wounds and ambiguous suggestions of healing, which interest me to the extent that a wound might permit feeling more fully. I think there are strong associations between Yellowman and the Fisher King, the wounded leader of the Arthurian legend. Labels aside, do you feel that you have a different type of interaction with Yellowman's audience than you do with the audience of your object-based installations? Yes. And this is probably because the "action" is not in an art space. Yellowman is as closely affiliated with homeless people as he is with a gallery or even with art, in the sense that there's a fine line between madness and artistic inspiration. He appeals to the senses rather than the intellect. I like the idea that the audience may not know that Yellowman is in part about alchemy, but still feel the concept of transformation. Richard's and my installations are defined by the architectural space within which they exist. Yellowman is free of such constraints. I turn myself into an object and I see this object, this Yellowman, in its entirety beforehand. Whereas with my installations, I see only components of them and then they evolve. |
