Michael Portnoy
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Michael Portnoy is an American multimedia artist, choreographer, musician and actor. He calls himself a "Director of Behavior".
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[edit] Performance artist
Portnoy was born in Washington, D.C. and studied comparative literature and creative writing at Vassar College and theater at the National Theater Institute. After moving to New York City, he formed several short lived experimental theater groups and then began concentrating on solo performance. His early performance works, such as Gymnastics and Schizophrenia, and 5teen3sy: Kicking Games of Lip, were antic and unpredictable, and characterized by dense language play, song and movement fragments and rapid transformations of character. In the mid 90's, Portnoy started to perform in venues associated with the new "Alternative Comedy" scene, in the company of comedians such as Sarah Silverman, Upright Citizens Brigade, Marc Maron and Louis C.K. His wild, raw theatrical performances, which occasionally interrupted and challenged other comedians on stage, prompted Time Out NY to describe him as "the bad boy of comedy",[citation needed] and The New York Post to dub him "the next Andy Kaufman".[citation needed] Simultaneously, Portnoy started working as a dancer for New York choreographer Koosil-Ja Hwang, and as an actor in commercials, music videos and short films. He also sang and performed his own operatic, electro-progressive-rock music as XAR, and in the band The Liquid Tapedeck.
[edit] Soy Bomb
For Bob Dylan's performance of "Love Sick" at the 1998 Grammy Awards, Portnoy was hired by the Grammys to stand in the background with other dancers and bob his head to the music to "give Bob a good vibe." Instead, halfway through the performance, Portnoy ripped off his shirt, ran up next to Dylan, and started dancing and contorting spastically with the words "Soy Bomb" written boldly in black across his chest. Dylan glanced alarmedly at Portnoy, but carried on playing. Portnoy continued to dance for about 40 seconds, making odd grimaces, his eyes often closed as if in a trance, until security realized he wasn't part of the show and escorted him off-stage.
When questioned by reporters, Portnoy said "Soy... represents dense nutritional life. Bomb is, obviously, an explosive destructive force. So, soy bomb is what I think art should be: dense, transformational, explosive life" according to E! and that "he meant Soy Bomb as a 'spontaneous explosion of the self' to re-invigorate the currently bland music scene that exists."[citation needed] He has also said that the phrase is a combination of Spanish and English, meaning "the bomb of 'I am'" The Grammy Awards chose not to press charges against Portnoy for the act, but did decline to pay Portnoy's $200 fee for the dancing gig.
Many found the incident both strange and amusing, and the event was soon parodied on comedy television shows. It was the subject of skits on Saturday Night Live, where he was portrayed by Will Ferrell, and on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. In 2004, the band Strawman featured the track "Soy Bomb" on their album "American Idle" in reference to the incident. One year later, the band Eels featured the track "Whatever Happened to Soy Bomb" on the double-disc album Blinking Lights and Other Revelations.
[edit] Portnoy: 1999-present
Portnoy expanded his practice to include choreography, video, installation, sculpture and relational works, which he describes as "strangergames". Portnoy's long-standing investigation of social exchange, and the rules of communication and play, is currently conducted through a series of 'abstract gambling' tables and related sculptures, drawing on gambling's roots in ritual and divination.
He has presented work in museums, art galleries, theaters and music halls internationally, including: The 2nd Moscow Biennial, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Art Unlimited Basel, SculptureCenter, The Kitchen, Kunsthalle Basel, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Gallery, Deitch Gallery, White Box, ACE Gallery, Andrew Kreps Gallery, Roulette, Kling & Bang (Reykjavík), Foksal Gallery Foundation (Warsaw), Kaaitheater (Brussels), Migros Museum (Zurich), Le Comfort Moderne (Poitiers, France) and The National Review of Live Art (Glasgow).
