"And then there's Gaga..."

I remember the days when I used to think Lady Gaga was nothing more than a series of intriguing costumes, crafty lyrics and twisted hand gestures. I was so naïve.
Much like other unbelievable artists before her time, the persona of Lady Gaga is crafted and controlled, with the purpose of challenging society’s collective thought. This process is not new.
The avant-garde movement urged artists to break away from the status quo in Europe as early as the 1900s. In New York, the same movement helped construct the classic downtown rebellions of the 1960s and the 1970s.
Located on the third floor of Bobst Library at New York University, the Fales Library & Special Collections chronicles the history of the city’s radical and defiant inhabitants that created their own life style by being avant-garde. By appointment, the collection is open to research by all NYU students, faculty and staff, as well as scholars of other institutions. It boasts over 200,000 volumes of rare books in English and American literature, particularly after the mid 18th century until the present. The Downtown Collection in particular documents the artists, musicians and movements from 1975 to the early 1990s that contributed to the development of the punk character.
“We have the best collection of punk rock anywhere,” said Director of the Fales Library, Marvin Taylor. “And we should.”
The collection is home to many treasures, such as Patti Smith’s personal journal, a copy of the first issue of “PUNK Magazine” and rare footage of a hilarious interview between John Sex, a performance artist, and a clueless television reporter. Sex uses the interview as a sort of performance piece, sitting with a coy smile and outrageous, one-foot-high, bleach-blonde hair.
During the interview, Sex creates a colorful and absolutely fabricated story about the origin of his last name. He insistently claims it is a derivative of the Irish surname, Sexton. The poor reporter tries to laugh, but doesn’t quite get that the joke is on him.
This particular interview evokes images of Lady Gaga and her own outrageous hair pieces. When she stands on the red-carpet next to correspondents and other celebrities, she looks outlandish and out of place. Much like Sex’s interview years before, Gaga is poking fun at the seriousness of these events and testing their limits.
It’s as if she is asking, “Could I cover my face and body in raw meat and sit amidst glamorous designer suits and dresses?” According to the 2010 Video Music Awards – where she showed up in a meat-dress with a matching meat-purse – yes, Lady Gaga can.
But even the meat-dress was more than a test of cultural acceptance. It was a protest of the social norms.
Fales also displays this sort of protest in its latest exhibit, "A Sanctuary for the Arts," which runs until Jan. 7, 2011. This exhibit is dedicated to the artists that performed at Judson Memorial Church from 1954 to 1977. The artists used their bodies to demonstrate the possibility of new types of movements and sounds that could represent their fast-changing society.
One of the pieces in the exhibit is a video recording of “Meat Joy,” a live performance that was conceptualized by Carolle Schneemann. In the video, the performers moved and twisted their bodies while rubbing themselves and each other with dead fish and chicken. Although the effect is shocking, the performers were ultimately questioning the concept of traditional dance rules and the perception of the male and female form.
The link between Lady Gaga and other artists is important because it shows that there is an artistic process behind her actions. Since the beginning of the avant-garde movement, artists like herself have developed their characters and shaped culture.
This narrative, from the French symbolists, to the members of the Judson Memorial Church, to punks, to now, is what the Fales collection illustrates. It provides context and historical background for the new and upcoming artists and their own innovative techniques. Lady Gaga is currently shaping and refining her techniques, with her red-carpet masterpieces and bizarrely disturbing music videos.
“She wrenches the camera and turns it back on herself,” Taylor said of Lady Gaga’s unique contribution to the art world. There are all different types of artists out there, not many that are particularly impressive or comparable to the artists that are responsible for the majority of the Fales collection, Taylor explains. “And then there’s Gaga.”