Stripped is a performance art show by Janet Kuypers live in Chicago. This 06/07/05 show contained a series of her poems (all political in nature) with artwork displayed to coincide with her readings, to portray her own artwork as well.
The artwork display in this show is different from her other pieces of art normally displayed for her performance art shows, because on the left of images are the title of the writing the image pertains to, and there is also a larger white space below the title to the left of the image. This is because for a change of pace, Janet Kuypers decided to actually sit directly in the projected image area for her show, This mean that she was really well-lit (by the projector, she even had to wear sunglasses for the show because of the light shining on her), and she was right next to her artwork as it was presented during her show. This film is of live video recorded from that performance.
This is the poem that was used in her show: -- Outsourcing the American Dream we've been doing pretty well over the years and I've seen you strutting around showing off all your peacock feathers feeling like you're the big man on campus and you know, it had to feel pretty good I know what it
was like, I'd hold parties & I'd change from one fancy dress to another& I'd be the center of attention
I remember my novel release party, my sister came, and I know she likes Red Rose wine, and I was standing in the kitchen chatting it up when I saw her approaching so I turned to the fridge to get the wine and as soon as she got to me I tilted the bottle toward her glass and just started pouring & she said, hey, I was coming to get some
wine & I said I know, and I just kept grinning& talking to others & having a splendid time
yeah, I know the feeling, like you own the world, you'd be dressed up wearing a red robe & a hat & it looked like you should
be saying "where are all of my bitches?"
or when you'd take your black convertible out, top down, as you'd be dressed in your fancy suit, ready to hold open your car door, just like you'd hope the man who owns the world would. You'd show up to parties in the tuxedo you own, you'd give flowers to a girl you were smitten with just after y
ou've met her to woo her you'd go jet-setting throughout Europe, visiting China — you're the one on top, aren't you? well, you always have been, you're the man with the plan, you're the one who lives life to the fullest, you show the world how arrogant you are with your past successes but Houst
on, there's a problem, you might not want to believe it, but since we've been resting on your laurels all this time, since our fat uncles have been sitting on the couch, burping with their cans of beer, watching the football games while someone else has been doing all the cooking and cleaning for t
hem, well, while we've all been feeling cocky, thinking about how great we are, other countries have been training their students in our schools, and because we've been busy basking in our glory we've outsourced all the work we're too lazy to do & we've trained everyone else
to beat us at our own game
(oh, I forgot to mention, we were so busy celebrating our military and business accomplishments that we gave up on training ourselves to stay ahead) well, while we've gotten lazy and taken a break for a while, everyone else has started excelling past us, so we buy our Japanese technology and driv
e our German cars, drink our French water when we're not drinking our French wine, and we get as far away from the United States as we possibly can when we want to take a vacation well, I'm waiting for someone to realize it, maybe having the economy fall out from underneath our overzealous desire
to get rich quick didn't allow us to see but we've always been the giant, we were first to fly an airplane, the first to land on the moon, we're in front in the world with medicines and health care hmmm, speaking of healthcare, most people can't afford it now, because we've researched the Hell ou
t of the diseases we choose to kill ourselves with, I mean, stats say us North Americans have the highest rates of cancer verses the world, our kids are fat, we work so many more hours but still can't keep ahead, and at this point we can't afford the fruits of our labor any longer do we bring it
upon ourselves when we want to get rich quick by suing doctors, forcing them to charge higher prices, driving up the cost for everyone? we complain that people who are on welfare still on average own two television sets and every teen in America now seems to expect their own free cell phone is it
that our standard of living has risen so dramatically that everyone now expects everything handed to them on a silver platter? do we ask for more without working for more?

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