shuting the system down

well i know when i am burned out when ever i put ever thing away and start to break out my Romans
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and about to be done rounding up the stuff for the Classic Tatoo show, going to be smoking a bunch of chicken!
(not my babys of cource)

Its been a while since I started my 54mm plastic and metal ancients war game, like tournament battles with toy soldiers,. I have been playing the game oh since 01, when I started to get on lone here at the house. I think that’s when the house went to the net. Breaking out and playing with little toy soldiers was a past time that’s superseded art way back in the past, next to art comes this ,. These types of games with toy solders, its been the only thing to occupy my mind in the or take my mind off stresses like a day dream of sorts,
The way the game work is simple you have two armies that battle it out on the is 4x8 plywood table here in my studio, and I would stress this is a game with rules and dice, its like role playing with character on both sides, know the characters are people I have known over the years so I have an idea on how they might act in a battle and relate to there troops along with other people in the team. The game is very slow, I like it that way it takes time to work up the drama that make the game exciting , now the dram is me daydreaming about who the guys might act and build there army based on the past battle the dynamics of the last battle, as explained from a various voices I here off the documentaries like A&E crime stories etc , I have about 10 teams total, I consider it a healthy distraction and its also adds a balances other than art,.
I am in the process of cleaning up some of the troops and revising the rules so to speak, they are always involving, .
One of the things this Ancients style war game has always thought me was the capability to play, what does it mean? playing with toys?
I remember quiet clearly when I could not play with toys some where around junior high, I truly loved to play with toy back when I was a kid savored it, I remember after super going to my room and locking the door and say "lets have a battle!" and busting out all my Civil war toys and carrying on for hours, it was serous business back then.
So from time to time it comes back to me and on the side I break out the troops and conduct a battle that’s been going on for years now, this mass tournament of Roman warfare.
one funny note,
I had this person come and do a write up for there school about what kind of art I do and became intrigued about the war game, and started to put the game into the paper, I told them that this is not art, but being from an art school they thought everything and artist does is some act of being arty or performing to a crowd,. they suggested my war game was about the absurdity of the Iraq war and middle east and the Military war Machines etc, I said " no no it has nothing to do with this this isn't art its a game, people play with this stuff for fun!" but I think it fell on deaf ears and only temped them into becoming more interested in it going so far as to video taping me play the game , rolling dices and talking to myself over the dynamics of the battles and the drama of the risks at stake for both sides etc, I get real worked up over a battle, and don't like to be disturbed.
I never saw the end results of the paper they did, but I guess in the art world's persistence to be different playing with toysiders isn't so ordinarly, no "liberal"artist would ever take the time to developed this "hanis act of childlike war monglering" as I had one person put it.
ahh fuck it!
lets have a battle!

Posted by chickengeorge at July 22, 2005 7:55 AM