Just look at this awesome slow-moving performance artist whose face has been covered with exploding bananas.

Just look at it.

William Lamson's Bananas Exploding on Face (via JWZ)

Previously:

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Art and Design • Culture

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

tm_tm

I would love to see the artist get credit for his work. His name is Will Lamson.
http://www.williamlamson.com/
Thanks!
mellowknees

there is no reason at all for me to find this as funny as I do. I nearly split my sides when the nose banana went.
Anonymous

are bananas with abnormal curvature more dangerous when exploding?
JohnRomeoAlpha

Man’s inner struggle captured perfectly. I can’t tell you how many times I have felt like _this_.
GeekMan

@#4: The exploding nose banana made me lose it. Clearly the climax of the performance symbolizing the …. something, something.. art… LOLZ
Anonymous

Pretty awesome how he had to light each fuse manually.

v2.0: a series of long fuses tied to go off at once.
Clifton

I have been drafted into some performance art pieces but never one quite like this. I’m sure some of my art school friends are envious.
Anonymous

Sometimes I thought “this bananas thing has gone too far.”

Other times I thought “hilarious! just look at it!”

But now I wonder: Did Cory plan, months ago at the start of it all, to show this video? If so – a tip of the banana to you. Brilliant!
Anonymous

i’m more perplexed that the video after it is a woman breastfeeding an 8 year old. i think part of my brain just died a little upon thinking the sentence “the exploding face bananas followed by woman breastfeeding 8 year old”.
Anonymous

This is what I remember from the old Boingboing from a few years back. The totally benign and weird. More! More!
Brainspore

Just wait until he ignites the one in his pocket.
deebee

Cry Dctrw pstd th vd – crdt/ttrbtn fr th pstng.
Th vd s th wrk f Wllm Lmsn http://www.wllmlmsn.cm/
m crs why y wld pst smn’s wrk wtht ttrbtn. t sms njst,
rrspnsbl nd lzy.
m fn f ths st bt y hv stppd n th ts f vry gd frnd nd n rtst wh wrks hrdr tht ny knw.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  deebee,
  
  Do you usually accompany requests with insults? You could have simply offered the information and asked for attribution.
dhl

@tm_tm #32

Thank you for the link. It’s easy to laugh at this piece and treat it as a joke, but if you look at artist’s site, it’s clear he has a serious and thoughtful creative practice. I especially like his “Interventions” series:

http://www.williamlamson.com/#/selected_work/intervention/works/12

This is really great stuff — in it you can see influences from conceptual sculptors such as Erwin Wurm.

Guess it just goes to show that with this kind of art, context is everything.
baccaruda

deebee, thanks for clarifying that for all of us who thought that Cory Doctorow HIMSELF was Captain Bananaface.

Really, if you want this argument, take it up with whomever posted this video on Youtube without attribution.
PARONYMOUS RICH

Personally, I loved the way he (?) slowly pulled up the barbeque lighter and snapped it on.

This reminds me of a bit on SNL, oh, thirty years ago. The performer pulled a mask over his face and then triggered dozens of “snakes in a can” that were attached to him. Does anyone know who that was?
Axx

It explodes the banana on its skin. Yes it does, Precious.
deebee

Antinous,
In a fit of disbelief I may not have been kind or clear.
I am stating that Cory Doctorow posted the video. He is taking credit for posting the video: By Cory Doctorow at 10:31 PM February 27, 2010
I am also stating that the video is not credited nor is it attributed to the creator – in this case the artist William Lamson.
I think it is odd that an author would post someone else’s work without attribution; without identifying who made the work he is telling other people to look at.
I have never seen a posting without attribution on BoingBoing. I have seen it on other sites and it is bothersome.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  You’re right. We should never post anything from YouTube that doesn’t have a clear pedigree. That will guarantee that original creators get maximum exposure for their work.
xlastshotx

lol. So confusing/strange.
igpajo

Where do you find this stuff?
Starting to worry about you man.
lewis stoole

people, people, all of this bickering over something that is easy to correct. now if you don’t mind, some of us are trying to watch a guy explode bananas on his face.
Felton

Daaaaaaay-ow!
Anonymous

this is the icing on the ‘just look at it’ banana cake.
Anonymous

The nose banana was worth waiting for. It went like a cigar in a Bugs Bunny cartoon.
- Jaycatt
  
  Isn’t it though? I was wary for the whole thing, then he lit the one on the nose… Waiting… waiting… and then laughed my fool head off.
tuckels

Part of me missed looking at bananas. A very small part.
JoshP

Some lightweight steel wool and a couple of nine volt batteries would ramp up the ignition for a stunt that is already pretty good…imho.
oh, hell, the NSA is on line 2 again…
Anonymous

I love the ‘Just look at it’ series. I bust a gut from the way the nose banana blew up. Very weird, but I found the entire thing hilarious.
- weatherman
  
  If you think exploding nose bananas are funny, you clearly don’t get it.
Anony Mouse

That guy’s ears must’ve been ringing for days. Not sure if I’m really getting the meaning. Nose banana was good though, as others have stated.
Anonymous

I think this falls under the “UH OH, ART!” category for me.
Anonymous

*cannot stop looking*
Hagrid

Gods, the bananas are back. Just look at it!
Anonymous

I know what I’m doing on Chat Roulette tonight…
zikman

it was funny watching him try to light the fuse
monument

DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN, Why!?
- Felton
  
  You’ve obviously never made a banana split. If you don’t prepare them properly, they’re poisonous.
Brainspore

Yes, we have nose bananas,
we have nose bananas today!
pa

He’s completely bananas!

Next time with coconuts please.
joeposts

BEHOLD. ART.
sarmady

i know i’m late to the banana-party, but, well, I spent way too much time on the korean traffic cops… you have to choose your battles, mine was internal… this IS art, and if the theme had been ping-pong balls we would’ve been treated to some exploding ping-pong balls as they were being shot out of an artist in south-east asia – for sure. i’ve seen dares like this towards the end of a hectic night hijacked by tequila – and, yes, the day after we called it art. but none of us ever thought of bringing a bunch of bananas, and THAT is why this IS art. Context, as someone earlier said, is everything.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I never even get invited to any banana parties.
  - Anonymous
    
    That’s cause you’re on the Wrong Coast.
  - sarmady
    
    do you live in a cupboard?
nanuq

Er, this is performance art, right? It’s not a new facial treatment?
alowishus

Next up, cocktail wieners!
neurolux

I think it symbolizes the futility of the human condition.
- Anonymous
  
  so weird, thats what I was thinking, the video kinda made me sad… one of those “are you a half-full / half empty sort of person”? I need a fruit cocktail chaser now to cheer me up :)
serfer0

Does it seem a bit foolhardy to have firecrackers constantly exploding so closely to one’s ears? Hopefully he left a couple intact ‘nanners in his sound holes of his.
Xydexx

Things like this are what make the internet great. -:)
jackie31337

I haven’t been able to watch the video yet, but from reading the comments, I am really looking forward to seeing it. It’s about time we had another just-look-at-it another banana-related post. We were way overdue.
Anonymous

Because he can.
Kobie

@neurolux: Don’t you meant the FRUITILITY* of the human condition?

* Yeah, yeah, I know – Bananas aren’t fruit, they’re mammals.
Anonymous

this is OLD. still cool though. just want to let everyone they are not as cool as me because I’ve already seen this years ago.
joelbenroth

According to Lamson’s website the title of this work is “Think Globally, Act Locally.”

Please explain.
kvh

Yeah, it sucks that the youtube.com poster didn’t include the origin of the video… (and no one seemed to add it to the comments either).

Thanks tm_tm, I’ve been searching for his site for years since I saw it last, and without knowing his name, it’s really hard to track down.

His other videos are really great.
Xopher

Like others, I laughed out loud at the nose banana. Did you notice that little dots like a tiny smile face got deposited on the glass directly in front of the exploded nose banana? Gives them an eerie drifting quality.
Jasonclock

I bet the issue has been raised before, but what would Freud really make of Cory’s insistance on having people look at his banana pictures? Still waiting for someone to make a “yeah, my banana exploded on someone’s face last night” comment.
- lauriok
  
  you just meta-made it.
  - mdh
    
    it’s a beautiful thing.
IWood

God damn it so much.
Anonymous

Art Torture
Anonymous

Money shot at 1:49.
unclejerry

please tell me this wasn’t govt funded art…
oscar

Bananas and fire? Here’s how you don’t do it, kids: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1694377
Steve Schnier

Uh… yeah…
I’m sure they made good use of their arts funding grant.

And now, a word on the subject from Mel Brooks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otPkk1sUFkI
turtlecrk

I’d like to be there when the artist puts in an injury claim for worker’s compensation!
Lod Tilly

Michelangelo would be proud.
Lod Tilly

It is so odd that now we do these things in the name of art, when we used to do them just for the sake of being goofy.
Felton

Who knew that Gallagher was actually a performance artist?