Posted on: December 3, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Art Effects: Decade Performance Era & ABC No Rio / $? / 28M / :30 /

I believe that this is the last issue that I have concerning the history of ABC No Rio. This piece reads a little more formally at points than other issues, but don’t let an image of academic papers cloud one’s judgment. There is an extended dialogue between the deities Dionysus and Kali, that frame the discussion that is to come to the post-1983 period of ABC No Rio. After this introductory section, Art Effects moves into a quick bit of poetry before moving into a 1984-like bit of humorous fiction. After these few pieces (which act as spacers between the two major pieces), the history of ABCX No Rio in this period is given. It seems as if the ABC No Rio took on a lot of the art that followed from TV Party, with all sorts of random performers (individuals projectile vomiting, reading poetry while getting an enema) performing at the venue. The zine comes to an end after the government had to tighten its belt in regards to funding the arts, which means that there should be another zine describing theperiod immediately after the events in this issue. Art Effects is laid out in a traditional cut and paste style, where type-written text is laid over sometimes-fitting backdrops. The result is something that seems to provide a more artist framing of the events than simply having text on a white page would have. What I would like to see is a book describing ABC No Rio, culled from the number of zines that were written in the last few years about it.

Rating: 6.5/10

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