In 1974 the German Conceptual & Radical Enviormental Artist {many call Shamanistic} Joseph Beuys performs with a live coyote in I LIKE AMERICA AND AMERICA LIKES ME at the Rene' Block Gallery in N.Y.C. May 21 - 25.

I have been inspired by Beuys' work, ACTIONS, & philosophies since studying him in the 1980s. In January 2007 I spent 2 months on a pilgrimage across Ethiopia. I ended my journey in Harar, Ethiopia - where the Legendary French Poet Arthur Rimbaud lived his final decade - as an explorer, a photographer, & an arms trader to Emperor Menelik.

Rimbaud mentions hyenas in his poem Side Show from The Illuminations ... so I was inspired to create artwork around the wild hyenas that scavenge at night on the outskirts of the fabled & walled Muslim city. At first I was making images with my Ethiopian friend Kiefle. I wore an Arthur Rimbaud mask & Kiefle wore  a mask of artist David Wojnarowicz.

Friends ask 'WHY?!' I did it ... I suppose I was feeling a rapport with these beasts - a mutual respect. That & I ENJOY challenging myself ! HHH

As I studied the hyenas & their hair-raising cackling . . . I began to think of Joseph Beuys living in an art gallery with a coyote in 1974 ... I then considered a recent wave of 'Transgressive Artists' who think they're tough & wild because they flagrantly smoke crack & create art about their drug use. Being in Ethiopia thinking of THAT made me LAUGH at HOW DUMB & uninspired those 'EDGY'/ tragic/on the verge of O.D.ing/ 'Transgressive Art' types are & ultimately HOW BORING their art is .  Living out a CLICHE of 'the suffering drug addict' & making art about ;'THE MAN' - anti-Establishment - anti-Corporations - anti-Authority  ~ basicly TALKING TOUGH & CREATING a REBEL IMAGE by photographing or painting or sculpting artwork about a SEX, DRUGS, &  Rock-n-Roll lifestyle. In other words - MAKING ' RADICAL Art ' to sell to Stock Brokers, Advertising Moguls, Corporate Executives etc. .  I haven't discovered WHAT is at the CORE of this type of Art & when I read interviews with some of these artists ~ they can't articulate WHAT their work is about. Art is a form of communication or an action to convey a point of view, thought,  emotion, or expression. What are you saying ? What is the point ? Maybe they are examples of how CONFUSED & LOST people have been in the post 9-11 New York.

I support ANYBODY who helps fund Art. I don't BLAME the Collectors, but question the artists. WHO do they think they are FOOLING ?

I suppose ALL of us artists are implicated with The Establishment simply by 'playing the game' OR selling to The Highest Bidder.

WELL, JOSEPH BEUYS WAS AGAINST ALL THAT . He championed the idea of everybody is an artist . I sought to HONOR Beuys - by doing SOMETHING as FAR OUT as he did .

Seriously - I was THINKING of THAT BULLSHIT while feeding WILD HYENAS rancid meat on a stick ! HHH

THEN I thought of Beuys' Art Action - which was BOLD & WELL THOUGHT OUT - about the Enviorment, American History, & ultimately POWER.

So I was instantly INSPIRED - the way VISIONARY ART can lift yr consciousness. I realised I was feeding another coyote-like animal which is villified. The hyenas were very cautious about approaching to pull the meat. I handed my friend my camera & made him SWEAR he'd GET The Shot !!! SO I SLOWLY put the meat stick in my mouth & the gurgling hyenas' shrill whine gave me goose bumps, but I was NOSE to NOSE with the toughest fighter in the land ! I was calm & it was kinda zen . . . a meeting of the minds.

It was an Action about man & nature ; the wars ; an act of FAITH ; and a personal test of my immersion into a foreign land. In reference to BEUYS, I suddenly realised I was near the Somalia border - where America & Ethiopian Military Forces had just recently EJECTED the Islamisit Government & 'stablized' Mogidishu. The y were invited by Somalia's Coalition Government in exile. It was the most recent battle in the ongoing 'War on Terror'. It seemed an apropriate homage considering the enviorment & political climate.

Later, my sister-in-law who's a zoo keeper at the San Antonio Zoo told me the ' The hyenas coulda RIPPED YOUR FACE OFF in one BITE !' & some friends in London saw a BBC documentary about hyenas, where a hyena beat a lion in a battle. They are strange & mystical creatures who carry a stench of death, because they scavenge. The hyena photos were an action to create an example of the magical & mystical experiences I encountered in my 2 month exploration of Ethiopia and the Holy Pilgrimage sites of ancient Abyssinia.

GO TRY & SMOKE A HYENA instead of CRACK ! ! ! HHH