A few weeks ago I reported on a supposed project that Amanda Palmer was working on which included some Siamese twins that are joined at the hip. The project would be called Evelyn Evelyn as a play on the “twins” names. As I wrote originally, I wasn’t going to believe a lick of it until a picture was produced or a video thrown up online. As it turns out the whole story of the conjoined twins is a hoax but the project titled Evelyn Evelyn is not. In one giant blog post Palmer even laid out the huge sorted tale of how she found them, what recording with them in the studio was like and even shows a from behind picture of the two. Quite a measure to go through for a gag.
Apparently some people did not find this “side project” as amusing as others which caused Palmer to put up another blog post in which she apologized saying:
listen: i deeply apologize if anyone has been offended by our project.
there is and was absolutely no harm meant, and if harm was taken, it’s obviously worthy of discussion.i am, as always, very very happy to see super-intelligent conversation cropping up about the nature of art, life, and appropriateness in the blog comments & in other sub-threads.
please keep it up, it is awesome. but please, please, please do refrain from calling each other names. that sucks.
Palmer and Webley still intend to release the record on March 30th and hope to tour with the album as more of a performing arts show rather than a concert.
What’s my point of view you ask?
Amanda Palmer has built an audience upon grandiose (and possibly offending) stage shows. But one thing is for sure, whether you’re offended or not you must admit that she is intriguing to watch and always has something else up her corset. The farcical story that Palmer and Webley wrote about the sisters Evelyn was so detailed and intricate that it was hard not to believe. But the adding of information concerning being molested and raped (now edited out of the original blog post) made the story even more believable but made the whole thing a little less fun when it was revealed that the story was actually a farce.
Art often times can skirt a fine line between beauty/creativity and offensive, where that line falls is completely up to the observer. For me personally I believe that the story being sold was outrageously believable that the extra details of molestation and rape were not needed. The other thing is that Palmer states that the twins “are EXTREMELY protective about their privacy.” and what could be more private than the experience of being molested?
It’s hard to say whether the “joke” would have been taken any better had it played out in full and at the twins first concert Palmer and Webley appeared on stage in a dress sewn together or if Palmer would have received the same backlash that she is dealing with now. I suspect that regardless of how the truth came to light there would have been some repercussions for Palmer to face.
Of course there is nothing funny about the fictional experiences that the “twins” faced growing up and I definitely don’t believe that Palmer intended for them to be taken as a joke but as a way to make her story more believable. Webley even said in a report to Spinner that “I had misgivings about that blog that was posted that I didn’t voice because I felt, ‘Well, that’s Amanda’s blog — that’s her thing,’”. This is definitely one of those times where someone working with the project should have spoken up and said “Maybe these little details aren’t needed.”
It is a shame though that such a fantastic idea and such a build up to a release and stage show has had to be ruined like this. Even though I don’t think that anyone was completely duped by the story it was a great way for Palmer to turn some heads and get some excitement back in a oft times boring music industry.
Your thoughts?
