Must. Destroy. Junk… to vent rage, raise money for art

During Emma Hendrix’s early years at Video Pool, the sound artist formed one side of a heated rivalry with an overpriced office mate that never seemed to get the message.

“Everybody knew how much I disliked the phone system,” says the executive director of the artist-run centre, dedicated since 1983 to technology-based art.

Which meant that Hendrix (who uses they/them pronouns) made sure to dial up the intensity at last year’s inaugural Smasher’s Bash fundraiser, where they got to deliver several crushing blows to the media centre’s freshly retired receivers.

“We also had this printer. You know how printers can be.”

It was apparent that Hendrix wasn’t the only member of the arts community looking to capitalize on the fundraiser’s promise of direct-to-consumer, guilt-free catharsis: nearly $2,000 was raised.

“There’s a lot of bad stuff going on in the world right now, and I think it’s nice to have a healthy outlet that lets you kind of have some fun and let loose a little bit in a way you normally can’t,” Hendrix says.

On Saturday night, in the alley between King and Arthur streets next to Artspace (100 Arthur St.), the non-profit will once again give wannabe smashers the greenlight to get destructive as long as they pay $35 — and don provided personal protective equipment — for the privilege.

Smashers will get the chance to pick items from the Wall of Destruction, including dishes, plates, clocks, shelving units, a water cooler, flat-screen TVs and an innocent faction of unwitting garden gnomes. For $15, “voyeurs” can watch the fracas from the sidelines.

The Smasher’s Bash is a modern-day successor to previous Video Pool fundraisers, including a birthday party for “art” or the Pool Party, wherein the venue would be opened up for a series of non-artistic competitions between artists.

“One of our staff members once challenged (late Cinematheque programmer) Dave Barber to a (simultaneous) knitting and poetry competition,” says Hendrix.

But the “rage room” concept — showy, direct and accessible — seems to resonate with Video Pool’s mandate for community-supported experimentation.

Costs for arts administration, fair wages and production have increased, while traditional governmental funding avenues have generally either decreased or stagnated, which means arts organizations are often pitted against one another in pursuit of increasingly valuable grants.

“It’s definitely a struggle,” says Hendrix.

So Hendrix postulates that the Smasher’s Bash could represent an opportunity for systemic frustrations to come to healthy, collective blows in the Dray Way on Saturday from 8 p.m. to midnight.

“Until you start smashing something, you don’t realize how good it feels,” says Hendrix.

The garden gnome won’t feel a thing.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca