Rocky (1976)
By Paul McCarthy
Renowned performance artist Paul McCarthy’s Rocky 1976, where the artist, dressed as a boxer, smears himself in ketchup and punches himself, senseless, around the head. Rocky comprises a single monitor video and fourteen related drawings. The video exists in an edition of five, but Tate's version is outside the edition since it is uniquely accompanied by the drawings with which it is always displayed. The video begins with a man, McCarthy himself, waiting before the camera with his back turned and then turning to face it. Wearing shorts and boxing gloves, he begins to address the viewer in muttered sounds which mimic the manner in which actor Sylvester Stallone speaks as the character Rocky in the eponymous 1976 film. He begins occasionally to hit himself on the head, as though to clear his thoughts and to demonstrate his virility, but gradually the number and violence of the blows increases. It appears as though the Rocky character is having an imaginary fight with another person, but as the film develops it turns into a masochistic fight with himself. He also smears tomato ketchup over his genitals, occasionally masturbating. Gradually the character runs out of energy as he re…
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