1998_cardoso flea circus_new museum NY_04

1998_cardoso flea circus_new museum NY_05

1998_cardoso flea circus_new museum NY_06

1998_cardoso flea circus_new museum NY_07

1998_cardoso flea circus_new museum NY_02

1998_cardoso flea circus_new museum NY_03

CARDOSO FLEA CIRCUS AT THE NEW MUSEUM, NY

New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY.
In collaboration with Ross Rudesch Harley.

"IT'S A DOG'S LIFE: THE FLEA CIRCUS"

“ Maria Fernanda Cardoso had never seen a flea circus when she decided to resuscitate the lost art of insect performance. For the past three years, Cardoso -- a 34-year-old Colombian-born, Yale-educated conceptual artist -- has painstakingly trained hundreds of fleas, using a variety of techniques that were popularized in 19th-century Europe. Now, in ''The Cardoso Flea Circus Video,'' an installation showing at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City from March 19 to April 19, Cardoso can be seen prodding her tiny charges (each flea is 1 millimeters long, or slightly bigger than a pinhead) into stunts like walking a tightrope, swinging from a trapeze, even sword fighting. ''The show is hilarious,'' she says, ''but it is a serious artwork.'' Here's a look.

The Players: Adult fleas live up to three months, feeding exclusively on warm, fresh blood. Cardoso (pictured) says she's not worried about infection from a stray bite, since (to her knowledge) her fleas are not feeding on diseased animals. ''But my mother freaked out anyway,'' she says. It was difficult to obtain her first fleas, which came from a ''secret lab,'' and Cardoso has learned to breed her own, using cat and kangaroo fleas. She picked up the latter from tame kangaroos in Australia, where she lives most of the year.
The Training: Cardoso says that the last full-blown flea circus was Professor Heckler's in Times Square in the 1950's; there were no veteran trainers around to help her learn the art. She starts with careful casting: ''I choose my fleas by talent and temperament, working with 12 at a time -- plus 300 understudies.'' Fleas dislike light but are attracted to all things furry as well as heat and carbon dioxide (animals emit both). Cardoso uses these elements as motivators. She also manipulates the six-legged squirts with ultrathin wire leashes, looped around flea heads and bodies. A tug on the leash and voila!, a flea is dancing, ''or at least looks like it.'' Despite these impressive results, there are still frustrations. ''Some fleas are just no good,'' she says, ''and there's nothing you can do.''
Show Time! Wearing magnifying goggles and a silver cape and brandishing a tiny whip, Cardoso conducts the extravaganza. Under a dollhouse-size circus big top, Hercules, ''The Strongest Flea in the World,'' pulls a toy locomotive many times his size. Estrellita, helped by a harness, wobbles across a tightrope on hind legs. Fearless Alfredo gears up for his high-dive stunt (drumroll, spotlight). But alas, after making a 10-inch plunge, he misses his water-filled thimble, hits the circus floor and dies. Is Cardoso pained by the loss? Not really. ''I treat them well and I think they know they are special,'' she says. ''And if they die, well, that's life.''

The New York Times. (March 15, 1998). You Are There; It’s a Dog’s Life: The Flea Circus. The New York Times. Available on: https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/15/magazine/sunday-march-15-1998-you-are-there-it-s-a-dog-s-life-the-flea-circus.html

English