After the biracial artist set up his WhiteSmellBot on Twitter and was retweeting about 80 “white people smell like” stereotypes a day, he set out to the streets of New York in whiteface to “protest” those racially-tinged comments. Since the first trial, he’s done this several times — in Harlem and, three times in the Upper East Side. His thirteenth performance (above) was his last.

What have you learned?

I started by going to Harlem to tell black people that they could be racist, but many told me they didn’t have enough power to be racist. I adjusted my approach to say that black people could have prejudice. That was received better but still not well, and two common arguments arose directed at me — “White people started it” and “White people don’t care what we think.” I then went to the Upper East Side to see for myself if this were true. I was mostly ignored by white people on the street. Perhaps it was because white people aren’t aware of the stereotype that they smell funny to black people, or they don’t care, or I was intimidating to them in whiteface. I then returned to Harlem, and told black folks that I didn’t think white people cared, and that they were right to begin with.

How has it changed, so far?

I am done. I decided to stop. I’m not a masochist and it started to feel masochistic.

As far as what happened in the video above and why Nate’s left screaming theatrically, Nate explained that showing up in whiteface that a few street-vendors he encountered in the section of 125th St caused particular tension: “When they see me in whiteface, it’s like the perfect storm.”

The reason I lost control and began screaming “white people are the devil” was because that is what some people in that video really think. If you listen, you can hear one or two men agree. I also lost control because I felt attacked and I felt like I was losing control of the situation. I was hoping that after screaming back, I would equalize things, then we could have a conversation. But some people don’t want to have a conversation with me in whiteface. They want to tell me how it is, and then watch me run off with my tail between my legs. I wasn’t going to do that. On three occasions, I passed these same men on 125th St, and each time they yelled, “Don’t come back!” and each time I returned, and we spoke again. It was weird.

What are some of the difficulties you’re facing in sustaining “character”?

People want to look behind the curtain, as I said to the man in the latest video. It was difficult to keep them interested in talking to a pretend white man. They quickly want to move on to, “Who are you really?” I would try to redirect, but I didn’t want to be a jerk about it. Sometimes, I would reveal that I’m biracial (black/white) first, and sometimes strangers would just blurt it out. It was messy. The saddest part about it to me was that many black people on the street used my biracial background as a way to undermine my message that black people could have prejudice. So it became my problem or something wrong with me, the reason I was protesting. I don’t have anything to hide. I freely admitted on the street that I’m more sensitive to black/white relations because of my racial makeup, but that is not a reason to disregard my message, and I would argue, it is why I was the most qualified to be The White Ambassador in the first place.

It was a difficult project to execute and challenging to have taken it this far, exploring not only notions of prejudice, but also the challenges of taking an object of controversial, confrontational internet art into “real life.” It’s clear that this has opened up the issue to further inquiry — When does an artist break “character?” How is the performance transformed when the artist’s immediate audience dismisses it as “mentally ill”?

Hill explains:

Black people are racist too. They need to deal with that. All white people don’t stink. Wake up and smell the damp, white hair. I have some in a plastic bag. Then sign my petition.

So he walked the streets with a clipboard, a bag of white person’s hair for sampling and an umbrella, presumably to protect his delicate ahem ahem complexion. He chanted “We are white. We smell alright” and loudly proclaimed that unlike the stereotypes curated by his Twitter bot, white people do not smell like Cheetos or hot dog water or other things more offending to the senses/your feelings, white people.

This video gets particularly tense when Nate is forced to “break character” and explain his project and his biracial background to the passerby who seem, at first, unamused with the performance. The discourse transpires next is more interesting than oh so many things you hear at Chelsea gallery openings.

When’s the next one?

(Video and Photos: Tod Seelie)

Remember the white girl milk-”purifying” garglers of White Power Milk? That’s part one. “Since I’m half black and half white, I find the tension between the two races fascinating,” Nate tells ANIMAL. “I started making work about race that is presented on the Internet and stopped doing performance art.” Instead of trying to theorize this with my blah-blah, let’s let the artist/the CEO of Racist Incorporated speak.

Racist Incorporated is also Race Warriors — “Answer ten easy questions to uncover your racial prejudices, and play your own personalized race war video game.” Comprised of hacked NES games and Do the Right Thing clips (for “nostalgia” purposes), “The game functions on the logic that if you take part in an experience that is both racist and absurd then racism is absurd,” Nate explains.

The last of the triad as the Twitter White Smell Bot — “Learn what black people have to say when no one is looking about how white people smell.” Oh, it’s racist. I asked Nate if it’s getting him Twitter hate. “Why would I get hate? I’m just retweeting what other people say. I’m only curating. That is what Racist Incorporated is designed to do. We make racist experiences for good. If the racism repulses you, which I hope it does, then that is good.”

Looks like Nate isn’t quitting performance art but modifying it.

We’ve accompanied NYC performance artist/provocateur Nate Hill on one of his Chinatown Garbage Taxidermy Tours before and, trust us, the rotting fish aroma soaking into your shoes from bloody puddles as you trollop along the alleys ways, garbage-diving for feathered fauna, frogs and fish heads to saw together… is worth it. Seems like Hill’s back on the streets. Here are his latest bloodily puckering canvases of his restaurant waste taxidermy. Requests?

Or not. The project is inspired by racially-tinged Tweets like these and is open to interpretation, each one more uncomfortable than the next.

Check out the close up of gargling action sent to us by photographer Teresa Nasty.

Essentially, the website offers up the mouths of five girls “from the right family.” The freshly-gargled milk is express shipped in a cold pack and comes with a purchasable video of aforementioned gargling. Check Nate’s behind-the-scenes video interview below, wherein he asks one of them if she feels lucky to be a pretty, white girl. Cringe cringe. Nate tells us the girl “is not happy with the video.”

“What do you think about the people who would order such a thing?” Indeed.

Though some restaurants have started to hide their trash timed to Nate’s arrival over the course of the month, we hit the jackpot at the fish market street. Granted, there was usually a wider variety of specimens to sculpt with – and more people to sculpt them into art – but it was a merry, goopy taxidermy session. None of us will ever look at discarded organisms (and organs) the same way again. (Photos: Marina Galperina/ANIMAL New York)

On Monday, someone happened upon performance artist Nate Hill while he was channeling his Bouncy Rides character, supposedly for the last time, at the Hunter College subway station and had no idea what was going on. The firsthand account:

As I was walking on the NYC subway platform with a coworker, we ran into the live version of a cracked-out, lost character from the book of possibly Gilligan’s Island, the free bouncy ride man [woman]. I couldn’t help but record this under our MTA MOMENT OF THE WEEK. If you do run into this thing, please get a bouncy ride. I haven’t tried it myself, but it sure looks like someone might have fun [get off] from this. ENJOY!

In a month-long endurance performance, Nate Hill will be resurrecting some of his most iconic identities for Best Art Show of 2011. Punch Me Panda, the Chinatown Garbage Taxidermy Tour, Death Bear and Free Bouncy Rides will be performed every day in March. So, if you want to exorcise your life from your ex, dig for fish to sculpt with, get bouncy-bouncy on a friendly plush lap or punch a giant panda, see the initial schedule below.

Check the site for more.

Tuesday, March 1st: Punch Me Panda appears on the Lexington Ave/53rd St stop of the E, M subway platform at 6p. Punch Me Panda also offers house calls for Manhattan and Brooklyn apartments. Text 347-742-2293 for an appt.
Wednesday, March 2nd: The Chinatown Garbage Taxidermy Tour begins at 8:30p from the southeast corner of Canal and Lafayette in Manhattan. After the tour drinks at Winnie’s at 104 Bayard St.
Thursday, March 3rd: Death Bear offers house calls for Manhattan and Brooklyn. Text 347-742-2293 for an appt.
Friday, March 4th: Free Bouncy Rides appear at the Lorimer stop on the L train subway platform at midnight.
Saturday, March 5th: Punch Me Panda appears at the 14th St/Union Square stop on the L train subway platform at Noon. Punch Me Panda also offers house calls for Manhattan and Brooklyn apartments. Text 347-742-2293 for an appt.
Sunday, March 6th: The Chinatown Garbage Taxidermy Tour begins at 8:30p from the southeast corner of Canal and Lafayette in Manhattan. After the tour drinks at Winnie’s at 104 Bayard St.
Monday, March 7th: Death Bear offers house calls for Manhattan and Brooklyn. Text 347-742-2293 for an appt.