Meet David Ford of Kansas City. David is one of those performance artists you can’t believe doesn’t get beat up like every single day. Recently he flew his entourage of 24 to Williamsburg, Brooklyn where he created “art” by turning a Mayan religious ritual into something hipsters could enjoy. Kind of like “Mary Is My Homegirl” t-shirts, but without any redeeming social value.

The idea grew out of Ford’s travels to Central America, where he encountered Maximon [the patron saint of vice] […] Also known as Hermano San Simon, the spirit is traditionally maintained throughout the year with offerings of tobacco, liquor, music, flowers, and incense, and is said to serve as a redemptive or protective source for the prostitutes and gang members of Guatemala.

But the Williamsburg version is a little more “bacon-y”:

The humid space was thick with smoke and reeked of incense and pot; shrines to “The Saint” were littered with beer cans, cigarette butts, and half-eaten sandwiches; the bottle of indeterminate liquor that had magically remained full all night as it was passed among the revelers was finally close to empty. The show was over. Yet still this tiny, tattooed naïf sat on the filthy floor, her legs folded up beneath her, frying bacon.

Seriously, who would pay money to watch a bunch of dirty hippies get high and eat bacon?

[Ford] received funding in 2001 from the Charlotte Street Foundation, an organization […] dedicated to the support of visual arts; since then, “The Saint” has become something of a private tradition in Kansas City. Six years later, Ford was invited to stage Maximon at Jack the Pelican Presents [in Brooklyn], an attempt to replicate the sense of familiarity that’s become a given in the Midwest.

It’s moments like this we realize we’ll never be understand you, rich, White people.

Kansas City denizens bring a sacred Mayan deity to Williamsburg [Village Voice]