Frank James Moore (June 25, 1946 – October 14, 2013) was an American
performance artist
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
,
shaman
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...
,
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
,
essayist
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...
,
painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
,
musician
A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...
and
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
/television personality who experimented in art,
performance,
ritual, and shamanistic teaching since the late 1960s.
Moore was one of the
NEA-funded artists targeted by
Jesse Helms
Jesse Alexander Helms Jr. (October 18, 1921 – July 4, 2008) was an American politician. A leader in the conservative movement, he served as a senator from North Carolina from 1973 to 2003. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ...
and the
GAO
Gao , or Gawgaw/Kawkaw, is a city in Mali and the capital of the Gao Region. The city is located on the River Niger, east-southeast of Timbuktu on the left bank at the junction with the Tilemsi valley.
For much of its history Gao was an impor ...
(General Accounting Office) in the early 1990s for creating art that was labeled "obscene". He was featured in the 1988 cult film ''
Mondo New York
''Mondo New York'' is a 1988 Mondo film directed by Harvey Nikolai Keith. The documentary film was inspired by the 1963 movie '' Mondo Cane''.
Overview
''Mondo New York'' examines the lives and activities of Manhattan performance artists, and fea ...
'', which chronicled the leading performance artists of that period.
Life and career
Moore was born with
cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors. There may be problems with sensa ...
, could not walk or talk, and communicated using a laser-pointer and a board of letters, numbers, and commonly used words. Using his pointer, he wrote books, directed plays, directed, acted in and edited films, and regularly gave poetry readings. Moore played piano, sang in ensemble music jams, and led bands in hard core
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
clubs all along the
West Coast of the United States
The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...
until his death. He also produced, and exhibited across the United States and Canada, a large collection of original oil and digital paintings.
Moore was known for his long (5–48 hours) ritualistic performances with audience participation, nudity, and eroticism. His writings on performance,
art, life, and cultural subversion, and his performance/video archive on Vimeo.com seen by over 32 million people, further influence Moore's legacy.
Moore coined the word "eroplay" to describe physical play between adults released from the linear goals of sex and orgasm. He explored this and similar concepts in performance and ritual as a way for people to connect on a deeper level beyond the social and cultural expectations and limitations.
Frank Moore first came to be known in the 1970s as the creator of the popular
cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...
show, the "Outrageous Beauty Revue". In the 1980s Moore attended the
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...
where he earned his M.F.A. in Performance/Video in 1983. At this school Moore discovered that the work that he had been doing for over a decade was called performance art. In 1992 he was voted Best Performance Artist by the ''
San Francisco Bay Guardian
The ''San Francisco Bay Guardian'' was a free alternative newspaper published weekly in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1966 by Bruce B. Brugmann and his wife, Jean Dibble. The paper was shut down on October 14, 2014. It was relaun ...
''. In the early 1990s Moore was targeted by Senator
Jesse Helms
Jesse Alexander Helms Jr. (October 18, 1921 – July 4, 2008) was an American politician. A leader in the conservative movement, he served as a senator from North Carolina from 1973 to 2003. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ...
.
From 1991 to 1999 Moore published and edited the underground zine .
In addition to his books, ''Cherotic Magic'', ''Art of a Shaman'', ''Chapped Lap'', ''Skin Passion'' and numerous other self-published pieces, Moore was widely published in various art and other periodicals. In artist Pamela Kay Walker's book, ''Moving Over the Edge,'' Moore is one of the artists featured as having "greatly impacted me and many people through their artistic expression and their lives."
Moore's award-winning video works have shown throughout North America, and in 2001 he began producing shows for Berkeley's
public access channel, Berkeley Community Media, Channel 28. His shows continue to play several times each week.
In 2011, Moore launched his online performance and video retrospective on
Vimeo
Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...
. At the same time he created the “Nude Performance Art, Dance and Video: EROART” group on Vimeo featuring videos by eroart artists from across the world. Eroart is a word coined by Frank Moore to describe art that embraces nudity, eroticism, sexuality, physical play, love, the body, passion for life, pleasure, and is distinguished from pornography.
[Moore, Frank]
"Eroart, Not Porn"
from “Frankly Speaking; A Collection of Essays, Writings and Rants”, Inter-Relations, 2014. Pg.81 ISBN 978-1495443381 The word eroart first appears in an essay by Moore written in 1984, “Eroplay in Life and Art”, then in “Eroart” (1984), and later in “Eroart Not Porn” (1986).
Moore's Vimeo account was terminated by
Vimeo
Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...
in August 2019. Starting that same month, all of the videos have been moved to the Frank Moore Archives on the
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
.
Frank Moore's ''Web of All Possibilities'' features a growing archive of his audio, video, visual and written work, as well as the work of other artists. He founded Love Underground Visionary Revolution (LUVeR) in 1999, a webstation combining live streaming and on-demand libraries of audio and video programming,
described by Moore as a "non-corporate, d.i.y., totally uncensored, noncommercial, nonprofit internet-only communal collective with 24-hour 'live' programming (by amazing people) with 'no-limits' content." LUVeR ran until 2012.
In 2006, Moore announced his candidacy for the 2008 election for President of the United States.
He became a qualified
write-in
A write-in candidate is a candidate whose name does not appear on the ballot but seeks election by asking voters to cast a vote for the candidate by physically writing in the person's name on the ballot. Depending on electoral law it may be poss ...
candidate in 25 states. His campaign was responsible for reforming the write-in candidate qualifications and procedures in many states. His platform videos are available on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
.
Moore also hosted his regular internet show, ''Frank Moore's Shaman's Den''. Moore describes it as a show that "will arouse, inspire, move, threaten you, not with sound bites, but with a two-hour (usually longer) feast of live streaming video. You might get an in-studio concert of bands from around the world...or poetry reading...or an in-depth conversation about politics, art, music, and LIFE with extremely dangerous people! But then you may see beautiful women naked dancing erotically. You never know, because you are in ''The Shaman's Den'' with Frank Moore." Video and audio archives of all of these ''Shaman's Den'' shows are available online.
Frank Moore died of pneumonia on October 14, 2013. He performed regularly in the San Francisco Bay Area up until his death.
Influence and legacy
Performance artist
Annie Sprinkle
Annie M. Sprinkle (born Ellen F. Steinberg on July 23, 1954) is an American certified sexologist, performance artist, former sex worker, and advocate for sex work and health care. Citing: Sprinkle has worked as a prostitute, sex educator, femi ...
considers Moore one of her teachers, and Moore performed with a host of performance and underground punk figures since the 1970s. including Barbara Smith, Linda Sibio,
The Feederz
The Feederz are a punk rock band, originally from Arizona. They are known for their controversial song "Jesus" (aka "Jesus Entering from the Rear"), which was featured on Alternative Tentacles' infamous ''Let Them Eat Jellybeans'' compilation, ...
, and
Dirk Dirksen Dirk Dirksen (August 25, 1937 – November 20, 2006) was a music promoter and emcee of the San Francisco punk rock clubs Mabuhay Gardens and On Broadway in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Dirksen was nicknamed the "Pope of Punk."
Dirksen was born i ...
- The Pope of Punk.
Frank Moore's life and art are now being documented in a web video series called ''Let Me Be Frank''.
As of September 2017, Frank Moore's work is now being archived at the
Bancroft Library
The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...
at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
. The collection is titled “Frank Moore papers, approximately 1970-2013.”
In April 2018, the
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA, formerly abbreviated as BAM/PFA) are a combined art museum, repertory movie theater, and archive associated with the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Rinder was Director from ...
(BAMPFA) accepted two of Frank's oil paintings into their permanent collection: ''Mariah'' (1977), and ''Patti Smith'' (1979).
In 2019, a collection of Frank Moore's work was archived at the Performistanbul Live Art Research Space in Istanbul, Turkey.
As of November 2022, a documentary film about Frank Moore by Keith Wilson is currently in production and is expected to premiere in 2024.
References
Further reading
*Ensminger, David ''Left of the Dial''. PM Press, 2013. pgs. 86, 87
*''Cupido'' magazine, 5/2010 KR79, pgs. 21-25
*''Letterhead'', Volume 2, an anthology. pg. 94
*Art Papers, ''Contemporary Art in the South East Magazine'', Vol. 13, #6, New York City, June 1989
*Montano, Linda ''Performance Artists Talking in the Eighties''. University of California Press, 2000. pg. 105
*Sprinkle, Annie "Hardcore from the Heart: The Pleasures, Profits and Politics of Sex in Performance (Critical Performances)". ''Bloomsbury Academic'', 2006. pgs. 4, 124
*Goldfarb, Alice ''Art Lessons: Learning From The Rise And Fall Of Public Arts Funding''. Basic Books, 1996. pg. 214
*Kick, Russ ''Psychotropedia: A Guide to Publications on the Periphery''. Critical Vision, 2002. pgs. 247, 248, 554
*Brent, Bill (editor) ''The Black Book: The Guide for the Erotic Explorer''. Black Books, 1995 and 1996 4th edition.
*Kay, Kerwin (editor) ''Male Lust: Pleasure, Power, and Transformation''. Routledge, 2000.
*Kaplan, Rachel/Hennessy, Keith (editors) ''More Out Than In: Notes on sex, art & community''. Abundant Fuck Publications, 1995.
*Owens, Tuppy ''The Safer Sex Maniac's Address Book''. Just for Fun, 1989.
*Owens, Tuppy ''Safer Planet Sex: The Handbook''. A K Pr Distribution, 1994.
*Owens, Tuppy ''The Sex Maniac's Bible''. Tuppy Owens, London, 1990.
*Owens, Tuppy ''The Safer Sex Maniac's Diary, 20th Anniversary Edition''. Cand Haven Ltd., 1993.
*Brown, Steven ''Movie Stars and Sensuous Scars: Essays on the Journey from Disability Shame to Disability Pride''. iUniverse, Inc., 2003. pgs. 130-133
*Williams, Michael B./Krezman, Carole Jane (editors) ''Beneath The Surface, Creative Expressions of Augmented Communicators'', ISAAC Series, Volume 2 PointOne Graphics Inc., 2000.
*Block, Dr. Susan ''The Bonobo Way: The Evolution of Peace Through Pleasure''. Gardner & Daughters Publishers, 2014. Table of Contents, and pgs. 109, 137, 172, 196, 220-221
*Curtis, Harriet/Keidan, Lois/Wright, Aaron (editors) ''The Live Art Almanac, Volume 4''. Oberon Books, LTD., 2016. pgs. 344-347
External links
*
Frank Moore's Web Of All PossibilitiesFrank Moore Archives on archive.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Frank (Performance Artist)
1946 births
2013 deaths
American performance artists
20th-century American painters
American male painters
21st-century American painters
American male poets
Artists from Columbus, Ohio
Artists from San Francisco
Candidates in the 2008 United States presidential election
21st-century American politicians
California Independents
Deaths from pneumonia in California
American male essayists
20th-century American poets
20th-century American essayists
Artists with disabilities
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American male artists