Matt Schlanger. Lumpy Banger. When I was young my parents gave a costume party. It being the sixties several of their guests conspired to come as hippies. They picketed on our driveway, walking up and down carrying signs with anti-Schlanger slogans. Our neighbors called to ask if they should phone the police. They were assured that "everything was cool." Days later my friends and I were playing in the basement and parts of discarded costumes were still littered around. We were young, maybe 10. One of the hippie signs read "Schlanger is a shlump." My buddy Frankie thought this was funny and began to call me shlumpy schlanger. I guess this didn't please me too much, but instead of dropping it, the name kindly morphed into Lumpy Banger, and later shortened to Lumpy. Now Lumpy Banger was not great either, but from my inner circle I accepted it as a nick-name which was used affectionately. Few knew me by this name, it is extremely infrequent that I hear it now. So the name Lumpy Banger had been with me for a while, it was part of me, and upon finishing this piece I could not resist using it.

Lumpy Banger displays the joy and excitement of penetration, though at the same time it reveals frustration and rage. It is meant to be playful in its combination of emotions and is a graphic symbol for a side of life. Talk about being stingy, 1:04 minutes was getting out of control, especially since the range of material from this session was rich. Thankfully I later made a 10 minute cut that was used in the installation/ video object with the same name.

Lumpy Banger, the video object, is a contemporary electronic fetish object that combines video, a monitor imbedded in a wood post, a hammer and nails. I invite the viewer to hammer a nail into the post. I imagine that some very motivated people might even create and bring with them their own nails, thereby extending the interactive process beyond the walls of the gallery. This work obviously refers to African fetish objects. It is also obvious that this work is not electronically interactive; there is no computer, laser disk or sensors. And yet Lumpy Banger demands interactivity. Please do not try to put a nail into the monitor. It will break.