Fountain Miami 2010: Donnie Darko, Styrofoam Boobs, and Urination

Marlene Rodriguez

Kikuko Tanaka "A Tragic Bambi"

​Now in its fifth incarnation and featuring 25 spaces, the Fountain Fair draws the type of unruly installations and unsettling performances that make it an unpredictable must-see attraction during this week's chaotic art muddle.

It's perfect for jaded art lovers wondering where they can stumble across fresh, anti-corporate, stick-it-to-the-man hijinks in a laid back environment reminiscent of Burning Man. Fountain is probably as close to a dive off the ladder of ordered existence as Art Basel week ever gets.

AABier "Symptom Neomatic"

​Yesterday, as the modest indie affair opened to a thin trickle of visitors, sisters Adina and Arielle Biber took the stage as one of the attractions presented by the Grace Exhibition Space. For their performance, titled "Symptom Neomatic," the siblings appeared in ratted hair, Carmen Miranda-style helmets confected from Styrofoam boobs and raccoon makeup while dissecting sculptural cadavers and impregnating stuffed animals with paint bombs. Also at Grace was Kikuko Tanaka, who's "A Tragic Bambi" features a dismembered doe's body parts upon which the artist urinates.

Limchoy Lee "Soft Don't Go"

​It was just one of several performance pieces, which included works by New World's Limchoy Lee who was tip-toeing through the minefield of the sexual objectification of black women while wearing a cocktail dress and spiked heels for Miami's Hotbed Project across the way. You can follow Hotbed performance unfolding live at Fountain over the next few days here. 

Greg Haberny "The Pornography of America"

​Some of the unrulier installations included Greg Haberny's ode to Donnie Darko and Saint Sebastian and Steve Gagnon's dueling visions of poverty and opulence in the Magic City unspooling on twin video monitors stuffed into a homeless persons shopping cart.

While at Fountain, don't forget to pop into the Murder Lounge, its "VIP" open bar offering the Rums of Puerto Rico free to the public during the gritty fair. The area also features works by the "grunts" who helped set up the booths and can't afford to pay to display their own work. Cutltist snagged four silkscreen pieces from artist Dave Tree in the Murder Lounge in the 20 bucks range.

"The Fountain organizers let us sell the stuff here because we have skin in the game," Tree said while knocking back rum shots. "We also get to hang hammocks here at night and sleep for free. Otherwise it would be impossible for a bunch of us to come here from New York and experience Basel," he adds.