Joey Skaggs
2:00 pm – 4:30 pm, October 28, 2018: “Trump’s Kool-Aid Tasting”, a mobile art event with The Center for Contemporary Political Art (CCPART) at 916 G Street NW, Washington DC
Celebrate delusional thinking! Departing from The Center for Contemporary Political Art (CCPART), the artist and a band of Trump look-alikes will take Joey Skaggs’ new mobile Trump Kool-Aid Stand to the streets, bringing the opportunity to taste Trump’s Kool-Aid to the people. Everyone is invited to participate.
Trump’s Kool-Aid Tasting is a faux Pro-Trump parade, illustrating and satirizing what Trump represents to the American people. The performance aims to counter voter apathy and motivate people to turn out for the 2018 mid-term election.
Participants can print a Trump mask here or pick one up from Joey Skaggs at the event. Signs will also be available.
5:00 – 7:00 pm: Art of the Prank movie screening and Q&A with Joey Skaggs at CCPART
Art of the Prank, the 85-minute feature documentary by Andrea Marini, is the first and only documentary chronicling the unique journey of Joey Skaggs, a pioneering American artist and activist who created his own form of guerrilla marketing using the media as his medium. Since the 1960s he has made searing and often hilarious social commentary.
In this critically-acclaimed and award-winning film, Marini interweaves fascinating archival footage with a singularly unforgettable moment when Skaggs attempts to pull off the most demanding art prank of his career. More information about the film is available at https://artoftheprank-themovie.com.
What the critics say about Art of the Prank:
“If you don’t know who Joey Skaggs is, know this: he is a f*cking national treasure! One of the best pranksters in history, Skaggs has consistently exposed the chronic gullibility of the American news media. We see him provide comical and sometimes biting commentary on our society in Art of the Prank, all carried out with deadpan precision.” -FANDOR
“Told with a mischievous glee, the artfulness of this film mirrors its content” – DEADLINE
“Skaggs is both an artist and a professional prankster. As this documentary follows his escapades, it offers a simultaneously funny and very alarming look at the propaganda and disinformation fed to the unsuspecting public every day by the mainstream media. Skaggs’ work is as relevant today–if not more so–as it was when he launched his artistic hoaxes 50 years ago. Audiences are inspired to question the very core of their beliefs.” -NEW JERSEY STAGE
“Art of the Prank is both entertaining as well as very, very enlightening. Joey Skaggs is an intriguing and relatable individual. He wants to make changes in the world, and can do that through the way he knows best.” -AB FILM REVIEW
Joey Skaggs BIO
Joey Skaggs is a painter, sculptor and social activist. Beginning in the Sixties, with his iconoclastic and controversial performance art protests, Skaggs realized he could use art to challenge the status quo. Appalled at the cultural hypocrisy he saw around him, especially how it was blindly supported and propagated by the media, he began to satirize social issues with public performances that were elaborately contrived media hoaxes. For each one, he portrayed a fabricated character frequently adopting a pseudonym. He incorporated guerrilla tactics, traditional advertising, public relations techniques and social media to promote the staged performances. The mass media, not recognizing the many clues to his identity, became an unwitting collaborator, reporting his satires as news. Few media outlets over the last five decades have not fallen for one or another of his hoaxes. He has been covered in newspapers, magazines, and on radio and television around the world, in some cases many times as different people.