Didier Morelli

Sensorium
March 18, 2015

Performance
Performance Review

SPAM-erica is in the Heart by Jonathan Magat

Title: UNCLE S(P)AM
Review:
pork shoulder, ham, salt, water, potato starch, sugar and
sodium nitrate.
- Nutritional Information for Original Spam: 340 grams (12 oz.)

Jonathan Magat premiered his original piece SPAM-erica is in the

Heart on the afternoon of Monday, March 17th in front of a hungry, but
squeamish, audience. Presented in the context of the Taste-Makers
Colors on Your Palate performance festivala taste themed event with
a

variety

of

culinary

and

less-gastronomic

piecesMagats

combination of task-specific gesture and narrative performance was

refreshingly engaging and delightfully tasty or so Im told. With the
curatorial theme of the day being taste, many looked to evoke the
aesthetic, cultural, political, performative, and relational aspects of this
tongue-centric sense. One of the important considerations in many of
the works, including SPAM-erica is in the Heart, was the ways in which
taste is a complex sense, which combined with other elements of
touch, sound, sight, and smell, can evoke particular cultural and social
conditions, tensions, and questions. The event provided an interesting
(and tasty) incubator of different forms of taste testing that not only
caused strong affective responses from its audience but also was
effective in leaving all of us comfortably stuffed and potentially
needing a healthy does of antacids.
Magats SPAM-erica is in the Heart came right after a brief
intermission, five pieces into the event. Standing at the back of the

audiencebumping a can of SPAM over his chest in order to mimic the

sound of a heartbeat while holding his other hand in a military salute
Magat looked directly ahead at a large projection of a recognizable
blue can of this pinkish processed meat. As the audience slowly came
to silence following the intermission, Magat continued his repetitive
gesture. Finally, the overhead speakers began to play sounds of war
riffles being shot, firearms exchanging bullets, bombs exploding nearby
and Magat started to crawl on the floor like a commando tactically
moving amongst the chaos. This transition was a bit awkward, his
crawling, sporadic and intense was very theatrical in comparison to the
simplicity of the first action. His movement took him to the front of the
studio where he huddled under a table. Opening the can of SPAM he
began to eat it protectively. Around this time, the sounds of the
performance shift and a radio report on issues of heart disease in
Filipino populations was heard. The gunshots were replaced by news
coverage of a health epidemic, and there was a clear look of concern in
Magats face. The imaginary bunker (table) seemed like a thin defense
between he, his can, and the violence (war and obesity) loudly raging
outside.
The performance then took another turn, and the table became
although unclear due to the clutter and lack of decisiveness between
actionsthe set of a cooking show. The video projection behind Magat
switched to images of a bleeding heart during surgeryan immediate
visual echo of news reports on the many heart ailments in America
related to diet and exercise. Here, Magat adopted a new character,
choosing and opening a new SPAM can, placing its contents on a plate,
and cutting it methodically like a surgeon performing heart surgery. As
I moved between the image of Magat cutting the thick SPAM and the
projection of the bleeding heart I could not help but look around the
audience and notice the many different looks of apprehension on

peoples faces. The juxtaposition between the canned meat and the
bloody heart left many, who had already demonstrated hesitation at
tasting earlier performances, wincing. Magat continued to build his
meal, silent and methodical, adding white rice and eggs to his SPAM. It
is, however, at this point that his performance started to break down
for me, since without warning or real assurance, he began to explain
that in the Philippines this meal is usually served with white rice and
eggs. While Magats voice was jarring after so much gesture and
silence, his uncertainty when he spoke was more awkward. The
convictions of his earlier actions and gestures are lostas he
somewhat timidly offers up an explanation that this meal is adapted
differently in other regions where SPAM is used. Finally, realizing that
he has had the opportunity to taste plenty but left his audience hungry
or completely disgusted in some casesMagat apologized for his bad
manners and passed around a plate with four pre-prepared SPAM
sandwiches made of two thick slabs of bread, a generous portion of
SPAM, and some mayonnaise.
In closing, Magat states that he fucking loves SPAM and taps
his chest in pride echoing the earlier sound of the heartbeat. The
moment is brief, but it speaks to the overall structure of the piece.
Magats precise gestures were brilliant, but his speech and some of the
transitions between scenes of actions lacked clarity and assuredness.
The economic uses of objects for multiple purposes were compelling in
his piece, and they could have been the source of much more attention
and time on his part. While the piece lacked choreography and
commitment to a performance script at times, it was compensated by
strong visual juxtapositions. Magats commentary on the taste of
colonial practicescolonialism continuing to ruin our arteries in this
casewas not lost on us even though at times the roles and personas
he developed were not well-defined enough. The simplicity and

preciseness of his gestures also allowed for concise connections to be

made between what otherwise may have been disparate ideas like the
thump of a heart and the thump of pride. These actions illustrated the
cultural, social, and political tensions that come with eating SPAM.
They demonstrated the culinary ambiguity of this pink meat as it has
become part of a cultural heritage through American intrusion. Both
belonging and being apartboth conquered and conqueringbut in
both cases indisputably harmful to the health of those who consume it.