Opening Reception: May 11th, 6-9pm
The Box is pleased to announce the extension of Paul and Damon McCarthy's Rebel Dabble Babble through Saturday, 21 July 2012. 
 
In the bank, in the beginning comes James Franco to ask us, Damon and I, to make a piece based on the rumors rumors of Nick Ray, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, James Dean and Dennis Hopper, and the time the time they spent in Bungalow number two at Chateau Marmont during the filming and rehearsal of Rebel Without a Cause.  What is said is that I wish to dabble.
 
Damon and I construct two sets, two re-creations.  The Bungalow number two at the Chateau Marmont, and the staircase in Jim’s house in Rebel Without Cause, an enclosure and a stage.  We begin to conceive of scenes/actions.  We audition people for the parts, the actors for Judy/Natalie Wood, Jim’s Mother/Natalie Wood’s mother and Plato/Sal Mineo.  It was decided that I/Paul would play the father and Nick Ray. James Franco would play Jim/James Dean.  Elyse Poppers as Judy/Natalie Wood, Suzan Averitt as Jim’s Mother/Natalie Wood’s mother, Jay Yi as Plato/Sal Mineo.
 
Session One, Episode One.  Two days of filming. It’s an encounter of characters, an improvisation, an abstraction of existing scenes of the film Rebel Without a Cause beginning with the staircase antics of Jim, the Father and the Mother and art world bedtime reading with Jim and the Father in bed.  Substituting rehearsals in the bungalow with life drawing lessons conducted by Jim’s father as Nick Ray with James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo as students.  The nude models, the friezes, the statues for the life drawing are Natalie Wood, Jim’s Father and Sal Mineo.  
 
Session Two, Episode Two. Seven days of videotaping without Jim, James and the Mothers, Suzan.  The bungalow is reminiscent of a head, a skull, a reliquary.  It is to be a requiem, a box, a stage for a fantasy play.  A subconscious Oedipus.  A mass for the dead, a composition or song, a token of remembrance.  Interchangeable archetypes, performers, characters, role-play of relationships.  Father and daughter, older male film director and younger starlet.  Older male, younger female.  Male and female stars and future stars.  The story of a love affair.  The bungalow the upstairs downstairs layering of the portrayal the trail of a cartoon.  A subconscious tracking, the house as a trap without a mother.   The rumors, Rebel Without a Cause, performance art memorabilia are a structure, a coat rack, to hang the action and the work on.  The characters in the piece are ultimately iconic, representing more than a singularity. Sex doubles for James Dean James Franco Natalie Wood Elyse Poppers, skilled professionals.  Pornographic director hired.  Nick Ray director films Nick Ray pornographer director.  They do what they do best.  They play a role.  They provide a service.   These actions are played out, reinvented, extended all in the attempt to create a house, a theatrical home of drama and trauma.
 
The bathtub, the film Splendor in the Grass, the tub scene.  The flip out.  Tub therapy.  Bathtub therapy.  Natalie Wood starlet daughter actress patient.  Nick Ray director father therapist, patient.  The action begins with water therapy then champagne therapy yellow shower urine and finally gravy therapy fetal fecal bath.  
 
Hollywood film is a populous medium along with its cousin the adult entertainment world, primarily financial and profit motivated.  Giving the population what it desires and what it is conditioned to want. The dream machine.
 
Art as a dangling participle.
 
 --Paul McCarthy
 
 
Credits for Cast: 
Paul McCarthy, Elyse Poppers, James Franco, Suzan Averitt, James Deen, Jimmy Lifestyles, Heather Vahn, Jay Yi
 
Rebel Dabble Babble opens to coincide with MOCA's exhibition REBEL opening May 12-June 23
941 North Highland Avenue, LA, CA 90038
 
 
 
To continue reading versions 2 + 3, please download the PDF. 
Jun 21 2012link
Paul McCarthy and Son at The Box
Host: Hunter Drohojowska-Philp
KCRW.com
21 June 2012
Jun 15 2012link
Rebel Without a Cause
By Katya Tylevich
DomusWeb.IT
15 June 2012
May 18 2012link
Portrait of an American Family, or This American Life: Aaron Wrinkle on Paul and Damon McCarthy’s Rebel Dabble Babble
By Aaron Wrinkle
Notes on Looking
18 May 2012
May 17 2012pdflink
McCarthy family's 'Rebel Dabble Babble' blurs fact, fiction

By David Pagel
The Los Angeles Times
17 May 2012

May 31 2012pdflink
Paul McCarthy and Damon McCarthy’s “Rebel Dabble Babble”

By Jonathan Griffen
Art-Agenda.com
31 May 2012

Jun 1 2012link
Inside Rebel: Part One The first installment
By Matt Black
NOWNESS
29 May 2012
May 11 2012pdf
Rebel Dabble Babble Press Releases Version 1+2+3
By Paul McCarthy
The Box, LA
May 11, 2012