Mr. Peanut Mayoralty Campaign 1974

Navigation Menu: Introduction | CV | Logistics | Works

Playing with persona and identity, Vincent Trasov slipped into the peanut shell and effortlessly assumed the role of Mr. Peanut with elegance and aplomb. It seemed a sensible stance in an era preoccupied with the dematerialization of art. Trasov’s interest in film animation had led him to appropriate the easily recognizable and simple to draw Planters Peanut anthropomorphic “Mr. Peanut.” First came a flip book which later was translated to film. These early efforts were realized at Intermedia and before long people were calling Trasov “Mr. Peanut.”

Simultaneously, Trasov was ideating with Michael Morris a modus operandi for bypassing the existing gallery structure and working directly with artists in a network. This concept became the “Image Bank” (now the Morris/Trasov Archive) and was carried out largely through the worldwide postal system. With the compiling of address lists and directories and fake bureaucracy this became the preferred means of communication and included a creative bureaucracy stationary, envelopes, postcards, and rubber stamps to accompany “bankers drafts.”

The peanut performance dated from 1969 to 1974. It involved appearances in costume in Vancouver, Toronto, Halifax, New York, and Los Angeles. These were mostly street events termed art city, presenting Mr. Peanut as a larger than life presence that created an event out of every appearance. It was a mixing of the familiar with the unexpected.

Fellow artist John Mitchell suggested to Trasov that he run as Mr. Peanut in the November 1974 Vancouver mayoralty election as a symbol for artists and their artistic aspirations. Mitchell saw Mr. Peanut as a living monument, a visual icon in the landscape. Michael Morris suggested the campaign platform: P for performance, E for elegance, A for art, N for nonsense, U for uniqueness and T for talent. The Peanettes sang and danced. William Burroughs visited Vancouver and made a formal endorsement of the candidate:

I would like to take this opportunity to endorse the candidacy of Mr. Peanut for mayor of Vancouver. Mr. Peanut is running on the art platform, and art is the creation of illusion. Since the inexorable logic of reality has created nothing but insoluble problems, it is now time for illusion to take over. And there can only be an illogical candidate: Mr. Peanut.

The campaign was a twenty-day performance with Mitchell as campaign manager and spokesperson and the involvement of the recently formed artist centres and groups: Pumps, Video In, Blonde Warehouse and Western Front. At the final counting of ballots Trasov received 2,685 for 3.4 % of the vote.

Michael Morris and Vincent Trasov, June 2001
(Morris/Trasov Archive)