A Safe Haven for the Improvisational, the Experimental, and the Indescribable
In a noon interview at Java Joe’s on August 13, 2008, I had the opportunity to discuss the goals and future of High Mayhem (HM) with co-founder, board member, and performing artist Carlos Santistevan. Always aware of its function as a performance space of emerging and experimental artists, I was eager to learn the genesis of the organization and High Mayhem’s artistic philosophy and goals.
Carlos takes a long historical perspective on what High Mayhem is attempting to do. He believes that a major misconception about HM is that it is too outré and not “rooted in the same essence of experimentation of artistic movements of the past.” Noting that jazz, rock and roll, and punk all began in reaction to established norms, Carlos perceives HM “not as an aesthetic but more of an approach to an art that seeks innovation. Whatever form emerges or manifests itself is secondary to the process of making the art. As a result, there’s no label HM falls under. No single event is representative of what HM does or is. Each performance is an individual frame in a movie. People tend to pigeonhole things while we (HM) look to find the nooks and crannies of performance.”
The one event on the calendar that might be an exception to the rule of the individual nature of HM is its annual Fall Festival where the twenty acts in concert may reflect a HM aesthetic. The Festival facilitates the artists’ need for a venue and an audience. Provided with these necessities, artists are forced to “find new forces and inspiration. The bar is raised for the artists who must push their work which results often in stronger art and artists. By producing artists only once a year, the artists’ opportunity becomes more important.” HM, thus, provides a primarily curatorial rather than creative function for the artists as well as invoking an “underground movement” out of which new bands and collaborations occur. In essence, the annual HM Festival is an “artists’ symposium that serves as a catalytic convergence for those involved.”
Besides serving as a curator of the artists’ work, HM provides documentation for the artists that may turn into albums, video releases, or visual documentaries. Carlos argues, “This art deserves documentation. A DVD of the festival performances can be used by artists for further facilitation of their work, especially in terms of international awareness.” In fact, the European press outlets are quite amenable to the experimentation and improvisation that is at the core of HM performances. Carlos posits that “While Santa Fe is an arts mecca, it is aesthetically bound to the Southwest traditions and visual arts. High Mayhem with its more modern and fluid artistic parameters helps expand Santa Fe’s recognition as an arts center by showing what 95% of the galleries in town would never exhibit.”
The essence of High Mayhem is what Carlos defines as ”The Pillars of High Mayhem”: “We allow the moment to be experienced and we do not confine art to traditional, pre-conceived definitions. We are searching for a new musical vocabulary that comes out organically in the improvisational and experimental nature of the work. We document the moment so that the artist in reflection can explore these new definitions and further develop vocabulary more fully.” Not only does HM provide exciting, cutting-edge performances, but it also provides artists with spurs to further creative activity.
I was still curious about how the annual High Mayhem Festival was put together. The answer is rather direct and transparent but still is in keeping with the democratic and artistic nature of the organization itself. All acts are by submission: “We (HM) either find the artists or they find us.” Submissions are by DVDs, CDs, cassette tapes, records, or videos. They also may be entirely conceptual, especially if HM knows the group’s standards or have worked with them in the past. For example, at this year’s festival Nox (O) will build “a technological ant hill.” What will happen? No one knows. Also, the group Persephone will do an improvisational opera based on the character and narrative of its company name. In all instances, HM is looking “to be an avenue of change by providing a conduit (or a highway) to let artists run on, especially for projects of merit that never would have happened unless HM said ‘Go.’”
A committee of High Mayhem artists serves as a selection panel for each Festival, choosing twenty acts out of a typical number of eighty submissions. Each panel member chooses the eighteen best submissions. Usually fifteen are near unanimous choices; it is the final five or six proposals that take up the bulk of the marathon twelve-hour selection process. If an act is chosen, “it is great. All acts are singular and unique.” Equally important as veteran attendees of past HM Festivals know, there is “so much quality that performances fit anywhere in time, based, primarily, on what makes a day have a movement and identity unto itself. Therefore, afternoon shows are not of lesser value than evening ones.”
This year’s HM Festival is taking place in Warehouse 21’s Performance Space #2 as its initial offering. It is an exciting time for all as High Mayhem has offered its technological expertise and muscle to finishing the upstairs space and has provided youth apprenticeships in sound, recording, lighting, and video. In return, by collaborating with a youth organization, HM will have access to a potentially new (and large) audience: “Kids who are primarily exposed to the very limited mainstream media will learn that there is more out there.”
The final point I wanted to clarify about High Mayhem was how this collective of creative and innovative artists actually gets anything done. Carlos was clear about the premise and goals of the organization: “High Mayhem is entirely volunteer; no money is made by anyone, including from the CDs that the organization produces. Members all have a passion for artistic ideas that they want to see manifested.” HM purposefully limits the “number of events we do so artists can pursue their own art and interests. We remove any hierarchy and events happen anarchistically.” The strength of HM, then, is the different artistic strengths of its members and the continual evolution of the organization to work from the cumulative strengths of its members. Personally, I am jazzed by HM’s recent movement into the visual arts, e.g., its showings of Trey Wackman’s metal sculpture, Burning Books poster art, and the Puppet Meat Market, and its collaborations with the College of Santa Fe, Warehouse 21, and the Center for Contemporary Arts.
Carlos Santistevan is an articulate and eloquent spokesperson for High Mayhem: “We want to have people understand that there is more interesting and varied art happening than is generally represented or even know of.” He encourages Santa Feans to “expose yourself to something new if you wish to broaden your horizons” while having an entertaining experience. I can think of no better way to test Carlos’s theory then to attend this year’s High Mayhem Festival at Warehouse 21 (Performance Space #2) on September 19, 20, & 21, 2008.
Performers and Artists
Schedule
High Mayhem
8th Annual Emerging Music and Arts Festival
WHEN:
Friday, September 19 5 pm– 2am
Saturday, September 20 3 pm–2am
Sunday, September 21 3 pm– 1am
WHERE:
Warehouse 21
1614 Paseo de Peralta
Santa Fe, NM
Performance Space #2
TICKETS:
Three Day passes are $30 – $50 sliding scale. Single Day passes are $15. Student Single Day passes are $10
Three day passes are available at the Candyman and here: www.highmayhem.org/store.
