Meat Joy

1964 (re-edited 2010), 10:33 min, color, sound, 16 mm film on video

Writes Schneemann: "Meat Joy is an erotic rite — excessive, indulgent, a celebration of flesh as material: raw fish, chicken, sausages, wet paint, transparent plastic, ropes, brushes, paper scrap. Its propulsion is towards the ecstatic — shifting and turning among tenderness, wildness, precision, abandon; qualities that could at any moment be sensual, comic, joyous, repellent. Physical equivalences are enacted as a psychic imagistic stream, in which the layered elements mesh and gain intensity by the energy complement of the audience. The original performances became notorious and introduced a vision of the 'sacred erotic.' This video was converted from original film footage of three 1964 performances of Meat Joy at its first staged performance at the Festival de la Libre Expression, Paris, Dennison Hall, London, and Judson Church, New York City."

This film was preserved through the Avant-Garde Masters program funded by The Film Foundation and administered by the National Film Preservation Foundation.

Original 1964 16mm film by Pierre Dominique Gaisseau. 2008 Edit by Carolee Schneemann and Trevor Shimizu. From Meat Joy Judson Church: Produced and Directed by CS. 1964 Sound Collage: CS and James Tenney. 2008 Sound Collage: CS and Trevor Shimizu. With Thanks: Paris Production - Jean Jean-Jacques Lebel, Festival de la Libre Expression. New York Production - Reverend Al Carmine, Judson Church. 1969 Edit: Bob Giorgio. 2008 Edit: Electronic Arts Intermix.