Pages Navigation Menu

Jay Critchley: Performance Artist, Activist

Jay Critchley:  Performance Artist, Activist

 

 

Introduction to Jay Critchley.   1:41 min.  Interview:  Raymond Elman.  Post-Production:  Lee Skye.  Music: Carmen Cicero,  Recorded via Zoom:  7/31/2024.  Provincetown + Miami.

 

JAY CRITCHLEY’s visual, conceptual, performance work, and environmental activism have been exhibited and/or performed in Argentina, Japan, England, Holland, Germany, Columbia, Scotland, Ireland and the United States.  His solo exhibition at Freight + Volume Gallery in New York City received exciting reviews in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Forbes  and the Village Voice; and his survey exhibition at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum – “Jay Critchley, Inc.” — traveled to Florida Atlantic University in 2016. Critchley is also featured in the recent podcast, Welcome to Provincetown, by Rococo + Room Tone.

A longtime Provincetown-based (Cape Cod, MA) resident, Critchley utilizes the town and its architecture, landscape, harbor, beaches and dunes as his medium. He founded the Old Glory Condom Corporation, which won a controversial three-year legal battle for its U.S. Trademark. He produced, wrote and directed several movies and documentaries, including “Toilet Treatments,” which received an HBO Audience Award at the Provincetown International Film Festival.

Critchley has taught at the Museum School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, has had residencies, and has lectured at Harvard University; AS220 in Providence, Rhode Island; Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts; Real Art Ways in Hartford, Connecticut; Milepost 5 in Portland, Oregon; Santa Fe Art Institute in New Mexico; Fundacion Valparaiso, in Mojacar, Andalucia, Spain; CAMAC, in Marnay-sur-Seine, France; Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center in New York City; and Cill Rialaig, in Co. Kerry, Ireland.

Significant awards include a special citation from the Boston Society of Architects for his visionary, environmental proposal, “Martucket Eyeland Resort & Theme Park,” and an award from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum/Smithsonian Museum in New York City for his ecological response to Boston’s “Big Dig” − the mega highway/tunnel project –  “Big Twig Tunnel Tapes.”

The Massachusetts State Legislature honored Critchley as an artist, founder, and director of the Provincetown Community Compact, producer of the Swim for Life, which has raised $7M+ for AIDS, women’s health, and the community since 1988. Moving beyond Land acknowledgement, The Compact raises funds for the Native Land Conservancy through a volunteer Honor Tax.

Critchley was recently the keynote speaker at the UK Conference on Menstruation and Sustainability at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and spoke at the Nuffield Ireland Conference in Dublin, Ireland.

 

The videos below were recorded via Zoom, are organized by Success Factor, and run between 30 seconds and 4 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.

 

 

EXPOSURE TO BROAD INFLUENCES:   1:56 min.

Where did you grow up, and what was your first awareness of art of any discipline?

 

PERFORMING ON THE TED MACK ORIGINAL AMATEUR HOUR:   2:28 min.

Eleven year-old Jay Critchley and five of his seven siblings perform a capella harmony on the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour in 1958.

 

DEVELOP A VOICE:   0:47 sec.

So you began honing your talent for showmanship at an early age.

 

SERENDIPITY:  3:17 min.

What was your evolution from a capella harmony to making visual art?

 

SERENDIPITY:   1:53 min.

When did you first learn about Provincetown?

 

OVERCOMES CHALLENGES TO SUCCEED:   2:52 min.

When you moved to Provincetown year-round in 1975, did you think you would like there for the rest of your life?

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:  3:07 min.

Tell me about the evolution of your career as an artist and activist.

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:   1:05 min.

What messages did you want to convey with the Sand Car?

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:   3:48 min.

Tell us about your “Miss Tampon Liberty” project.

 

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS:  2:14 min.

When is the last time you performed “Miss Tampon Liberty”?

 

SELF-CONFIDENCE:   4:16 min.

Tells us about the evolution of the “Re-Rooters Ceremony” and “The Swim for Life” from conception forward.

 

SELF-CONFIDENCE:  2:56 min.

What’s the current status of “The Swim for Life”?

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:   0:53 sec.

Who are some of your role models and mentors?

 

UNDERSTANDS THE BUSINESS OF ART:   1:01 min.

What are the demographics of your audience?

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:   3:48 min.

Tell us about “Old Glory Condoms.”

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:   0:49 sec.

The themes for your work are very universal. Do you get requests to “franchise” your projects?