Life-Changing Art: David Fair (Half Japanese/CooCooRockinTime)

What piece of art changed your life? How did it affect you?

Calder's Circus is life-changing. The first time I saw the movie I was left speechless. So many elements combined to produce a liberating message. Alexander Calder was so inventive and productive but also playful. Here was a man in the movie crawling around on the floor and pretending to be a circus ringmaster. He brought motion and life to small circus figures that he had twisted from wire and constructed from scraps of wood, cork, tin and fabric. For me it was an art expander. Art had been paintings and sketches, but suddenly it was embracing a child-like innocence, and acceptance. Everything was possible. Bits of wire came to life. A circus could fit into a few suitcases. An adult could crawl on the floor. Art could pour straight from my heart and art could be whatever I created. It could be fun. It could be useful or pointless. It could be huge or tiny. With that movie the walls and rules tumbled. Anything goes. I never looked back.

David Fair founded the seminal punk/art band Half Japanese with his brother, Jad. He also fronted the rambunctious CooCooRockinTime, which recorded one brilliant album for Penn Jillette's 50 Skidillion Watts Records in 1990. Long out of print, the disc has just been reissued as a deluxe 4-CD set that features artists such as The Tinklers, Boister, Lurch and Holler, and R. Stevie Moore covering the record in its entirety. This Saturday night, Coo Coo Rockin' Time and friends play a super-rare, super-charged show at the Creative Alliance in Highlandtown. This one's been 20 years in the making, so don't miss it.