Dada, amateurism and the anarchic in British Culture.
Dada, amateurism and the anarchic in British Culture. belongs to the following groups:
DaDa Land and Surrealism *MAX 4 PER DAY*(I’m just banging this one up here for now.. and will hopefully expand on it later)
I was exchanging bubblemails with Muscular Teeth today and we touched on the British tradition of anarchic amateurism and humour… he is a big fan of an anarchic British comedian from the 50-60-70-80’s…called Spike Milligan. (So am I) If my interpretation of Dada is correct, then comedy is really where Dada has manifest itself in British culture.. and has been a huge influence on our contemporary culture.
Milligan fought in the British Army during the Second World War and witnessed first hand the bizarre nature of war. We all know War is bestial and cruel but is also frequently totally bizarre.. in many ways these are the origins of British Dada. I don’t ever really see Milligan described as a Dadaist but for me its in this tradition that he belongs.
His shows were gloriously anarchic and even more gloriously amateurish.. props would collapse and he would start improvising in the most outrageous ways.. Spike utterly changed the course of British culture and TV.. he was the inspiration for Monty Python (if you know about them ?) and much “new wave” British comedy of recent years. In the field of sport I can remember the time when amateurs and professionals played side by side in the same team. It seems incredible these days that anyone could or would forego a pay cheque !
So we in Britain have an established tradition of the glorious even genius amateur over here.. although the slick media seems to be all pervading, every now and then this anarchic amateuristic tradition re-emerges…like a breath of fresh air in a world gone stale on materialism.
Amateurism has generally become something of a dirty word in recent decades.. but for me it still brings back wonderful associations with these great “wild and wacky” figures from comedy and art. They changed the world.. and the world is poorer for their departure from the stage.
You know all this talk about Dadaism has been a real eye opener for me.. I honestly never considered myself to have much in common with this tradition.. but I increasingly realise I love and am interested in most of the same things that inspired them. I love the amateurish in art.. the quirky.. I love nonsensensical work.. works that look like they will fall apart.. I love humour.. and can’t understand why more work isn’t plain daft ! The world seems a very bizarre place to me.. I can’t help but laugh at the antics I see. I can actually remember a time, when “they” were warning us to prepare for a new ice age.. which they reliably informed us was imminent… ice age to global warming within 30 yrs.. and back within the next 30 years ? You know we will all be lucky to survive until we die !
Britain is a stiflingly restricted sort of place these days.. their are petty rules and regs everywhere you turn.. we don’t make anything anymore.. we just create petty rules and talk about what we should be doing.. we are overrun with paperwork and red tape !
I know an artist who can’t sell his work because of these petty regs.. Of course the powerful still do pretty well as they want..
So the anarchic (without a capital A) in our society is mainly a reaction against this stifling overbearing authority. You know you are the verge of another burst of the anarchic into public consciousness, when a banker gets paid his multi million pound bonus when his bank is about to fail.
1stAngel
My brother was in the gulf the first time round. Although in a bad way afterwards (he had to leave the army through the, then, non-existent gulf war syndrome) he told us hilarious stories of some of the things that happened.
Murray Swift
Weird reading your post Andy… 2 weeks ago I finished reading “The Essential Spike Milligan” !
I’ve always been a huge goon fan, I even have ALL their broadcasts on LP which I must convert to CD sometime.
I like the way that “dada” British humor is still being produced in shows like Black Books etc. Strange how no one else seems to be able to write material like that.
OK Andy, what am I reading now?
Andy Mercer replied
Erm..erm.. how to make a million ?
purelydecorative
Wonderful- thanks for reminding me about Spike and Dada and for your musings on it all. I wish we all allowed ourselves to be a bit sillier, and realise how ridiculous we are. British humour is particularly good at making us laugh at ourselves- and when you can laugh at yourself, it seems to just open you up to everything..it’s a kind of acceptance of your smallness in the universe, but ina good way.
nodakami
Funny to hear about ice age, didn’t know that !
Interesting views anyway, but are you really overwhelmed with paperwork in Britain ? From this side of the Channel this is strange to hear, as we’re supposed to be worst than you on that point (so “they” say), and once you document yourself it doesn’t seem such an enormous task (even only selling through RedBubble makes one an artist who needs to declare taxes, so I am on my way to declaring being “professionnal” though feeling truely amateur in the spirit you describe it !).
What is the case of your friend actually ?