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Health & Fitness

Farewell to quadriplegic performance artist Frank Moore

Quadriplegic artist Frank Moore passed away peacefully Monday morning at 67, ending a long career as performance artist, shaman, poet, essayist, painter, musician and Internet TV personality. Although cerebral palsy left him unable to walk or talk, Moore relished a life spent pushing the boundaries of artistic expression and free speech.

Moore is perhaps best known as an NEA-funded artist targeted by Sen. Jesse Helms and the General Accounting Office in the early '90s for art that some called “obscene." Moore's five to 48-hour performances featured audience participation, nudity and eroticism. They continued until earlier this month at The Temescal Art Center in Oakland.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, to an Air Force father, Moore spent his childhood all over the U.S., and in Germany and Morocco. He moved to Berkeley in 1975 and here he stayed.

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I first met Moore in the late '70s, as a journalist, at the Mabuhay Gardens nightclub in San Francisco during the heyday of punk rock. Moore was about to perform his cabaret show, the Outrageous Beauty Revue (The Intimate Theater), which consisted of Moore on stage in his wheelchair, surrounded by a coterie of women gyrating erotically.

I was struck that Moore – who communicated through an interpreter using a laser-pointer and a board with letters, numbers, and commonly used words – was less awed by the prospect of publicity than other performers I'd met. Moore didn't fawn like the others.

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The Outrageous Beauty Revue continued regularly at the Mab and by the '80s Moore had become well known. In 1992 he was voted “Best Performance Artist” by the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

I ran into Moore again at a 2009 festival at People's Park, Berkeley, and he invited me to appear, as a songwriter-guitarist, on his internet TV show, “The Shaman’s Den.” He hosted the show on his web station, LUVeR (Love Underground Visionary Revolution) and on BTV Channel 28. While the show was fairly low-tech, it drew an interesting cross section of local musicians to the studio in Moore's Berkeley living room.

By then, the years had taken their toll on both of us, but Moore was his old, frank self. When I played what I called my “attempt at teen pop music,” Moore responded: “You're 40 years too late.” I had to laugh.

Moore was an excellent painter who showed his work across the United States and Canada. As a writer, he coined the term "eroplay" to describe physical play between adults. He saw eroplay as a way for people to connect on a deep human level beyond social and cultural limitations, and as a way to melt isolation between people.

His books include Cherotic Magic, Art of a Shaman, Chapped Lap and SKIN PASSION, and Moore was widely published in various periodicals.

In artist Pamela Kay Walker's book, Moving Over the Edge, she called him one of the artists who "greatly impacted me and many people through their artistic expression and their lives." Performance artist Annie Sprinkle also considers Moore one of her teachers.

In announcing Moore's passing, Linda Mac, his translator, housemate and partner-in-art, said, “Frank was very sick and told us he was at peace with dying ... Once admitted to the hospital it was clear that the only ways to keep him alive were the kinds of procedures that he definitely did not want, so we put him on Comfort Care and Mikee and I and Corey, Alexi and Erika sat around the bed loving Frank for several hours. Although he couldn't talk, he made little sounds and responded to us the whole time. He was very present with us. He died at 6:24 am with all of us and with no pain.”

Moore's followers will hold a music-jam celebration of his life on Saturday Nov. 2, at The Temescal Art Center 511 48th Street, Oakland, starting at 8 pm. For details see: http://www.eroplay.com/events.html

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