Think of it as a Canadian translation of Nailin' Palin: the scandalous "Twelve Trials of Jason Chimera" is a set of commemorative hockey cards by artists Gregory Betts and Prize Budget for Boys (PBFB) released in advance of their gallery show at the Niagara Artist's Centre in October 2009, and New York's Printed Matter in December 2009. Available for free download, the Twelve Trials are part hockey legend, part satire, part romp through the annals of heroism, hedonism, and the pursuit of mythical puck bunnies.
The Tarot-like hockey cards predicted the fate of the Columbus Blue Jackets' season, in which they made the NHL playoffs for the first time in their history. The Canadian artists turn the typical underdog story into an epic murder mystery featuring a love triangle with the Republican sex goddess Sarah Palin and the Stanley Cup. The long rumoured affair that fathered fair Palin's illegitimate love child is here revealed to be between the Governess and the hero of the play, Jason Chimera.
The world's most famous hockey mom is but one of the conquests for the Columbus Blue Jackets in their imaginary season where the action is as fast as the women. The twelve "trials" cast today's sports stars as the epic heroes of ancient Greek poetry: Jason Chimera's team turns into the Argonauts of yore, whose pursuit of military conquest becomes the quest for the Stanley Cup.
Like the Greek beast the Chimera, which is composed of a lion, goat, and snake, the tale combines disparate elements into one story: Jason and the Argonauts, the Twelve Trials of Hercules, contemporary hockey, and, yes, presidential politics (and even the twelve days of Christmas, if you look closely). While the team's Hello Kitty style crest resembles cute contemporary sports logos, the stories amplify the beastly instincts of the mythical monster.
"Actually," said Betts, "the original Argonauts that followed Jason around were hedonistic partiers and womanizers. They were constantly in trouble because of their seductions. It made fulfilling their quest almost impossible."
As in military conquests, so in athletic contests: to the victors go the goils. Other "womanizing" Blue Jacket players that appear in the cards include Rick Nash, Kristian Huselius, and Jared Boll. Dainius Zubrus turns out to be the young love child of Jason Chimera and Sarah Palin. Is this mythology, satire, or a world exclusive?
"It sounds freaky," said Hennessy, "but the cards seemed to be coming true. Hey, like William Burroughs said, all writing and art is magical in origin, the purpose: MAKE IT REAL."
When Betts completed the initial text of the trials in late January, like the ancient oracle at Delphi, he told the future. The subsequent trajectory of the Blue Jackets' season was entirely predicted by the cabalistic cards: Chimera's injury, his return to glory, his part in Rick Nash's historic goal to secure their first playoff spot, and their ultimate defeat at the hands of the Greek Chris Chelios' Red Wings exactly 12 days after the end of the regular season. All prognostications are verifiable via time-stamped Gmail and Yahoogroups archives.
And the Sarah Palin-Jason Chimera love child?
Replies Betts: "Well, that might be one of the more mythological dimensions, but we scored on so many predictions that we won't worry about the few shots that missed the net."
The artists looked to the Renaissance for inspiration, and to Rubens in particular for his ebullient Greek mythological paintings, including ‘Jason Escaping with the Golden Fleece.' Rubens' sensuous colour and surging diagonals explode with dynamic energy; of all the Old Masters, he best portrayed the perfect marriage of force and form, which also best describes the excitement of playoff hockey. The colours of war turn neon, overbright, a glowing illusion of mass spectacle rendered in the fluid style of sports card line drawings.
The fantasy set features imagery not found on any other hockey cards, including fights, illegal slashes, elbows, hits, and moments of defeat for the player depicted.
The cards also echo Piero della Francesca's dazzling battle scenes that feature long stick-like spears receding into new-found perspectives in visual space. In the same way, hockey hypnotizes with its pace and speed, the shock and noise of its intensely beautiful geometry. These hilarious "mock epic" hockey cards are a gift to Americans, and in particular the people of Columbus, of a new perspective on hockey. They teach that there is true mythology in this northern game, but also that there is a northern game in its true mythology.
Download the cards for free today!
See the Twelve Trials of Jason Chimera in October 2009 at the Niagara Artists' Centre exhibition in the Dennis Tourbin Members Gallery, where a limited edition signed and numbered set of cards and prints will be available for sale. The cards will see their American debut at New York's Printed Matter in December 2009.
Neil Hennessy, 646-202-3369, neil@pbfb.ca
Steve Remus, Director
Niagara Artists' Centre
354 St.Paul Street
St. Catharines, ON, Canada
L2R 3N2
Phone (905) 641 0331
Fax (905) 641 4970
email: artists@nac.org
Niagara Artists Company is a not-for-profit, charitably registered, collective formed by and dedicated to serving the working artists and community of Niagara. NAC provides a forum for the development, exhibition and appreciation of contemporary art by providing facilities, equipment, professional expertise and a supportive atmosphere for arts research, advocacy and dissemination.
AA Bronson, Director
Printed Matter
195 10th Ave
New York, NY 10011
phone: 212 925 0325
fax: 212 925 0464
email: aabronson@printedmatter.org
Printed Matter Inc. is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1976 by artists and art workers with the mission to foster the appreciation, dissemination, and understanding of artists' books and other artists' publications.
Gregory Betts is an award-winning Canadian poet and writer. His work, including his books If Language (2005), Haikube (2006), and the forthcoming The Others Raisd in Me (to be released Fall 2009), has been published in seven countries. He curates the Grey Borders Reading Series and co-edit PRECIPICe literary magazine. He lives in St. Catharines, Ontario, where he teaches Avant-Garde and Canadian literature.
The Prize Budget for Boys (PBFB) is a cross-disciplinary arts collective originally convened in Toronto in 2001, but whose members now reside in Toronto, Brooklyn, and Vancouver. Best known for their irreverent videogame/art mashups mixing modern artists with classic arcade games, the original Pac-Mondrian arcade cabinet is housed in the permanent collection of the Museum of the Moving Image. Their first book, The Spectacular Vernacular Revue, was published in the Fall of 2004 by Roof Books (New York), based on a multi-media performance work that toured across Canada and the US from 2001-3. A selection of media that have featured the work of the PBFB includes The New York Times, Glamour, Newsweek, USA Today, Marie Claire, Playboy, ARTnews, MTV, VH1, TimeOut New York, New York Sun, New York Arts Magazine, and NY1 Television.
