Johanna Went

Johanna Went is a pioneering performance artist who began performing as part of a street theater troupe that traveled America and Europe in the 1970s. Following her years on the road, she settled in L.A. in the late '70s and began transforming her street theater performances into what would become her signature style. Using found props and hand-sewn costumes, she developed a wild stage act that included live musical backing from legendary performers such as Z'ev and KK Barret of the Screamers. Combining a wild, chaotic performing style packed with visual excitement, gallons of blood, streams of multicolored liquids, giant bloody tampons, enormous sewn fabric sculptures, wacky scary costumes and enough Styrofoam and found film stock to fill a room, Johanna packed the clubs. For more than ten years she was known as an innovative performance artist, particularly for the visual richness of her on-stage characters. She was equally renowned for her use of live improvised music that crossed over from jazzy rock grooves and jungle beats to electronic soundscapes and industrial noise. And always, above all the wild, driving music: Johanna's completely stream-of-conscious vocals. The DVD's main attraction is its 80 minutes of live performance footage shot on video tape at clubs and galleries in the Los Angeles area from 1977 through 1987. The eight performances range from an early and very raw solo performance by Johanna Went at a small storefront club to a pair of performances video taped by Academy Award-winning avant garde film director Shirley Clarke. The recordings on the bonus CD reveal a wacky sense of New Wave insanity that reminds us of The Residents if they were a punk band backing Ornette Coleman. It collects for the first time all of Johanna Went's studio recordings written and produced by Johanna and her musical collaborator Mark Wheaton. This includes the complete Hyena LP, first released on Poshboy Records and now remixed and remastered, as well as the songs from their first 45 rpm single originally released on Boyd Rice's Graybeat label.