Presenting themselves as previously undiscovered Amerindians from the fictional uncolonized island of Guatinau, Fusco and Gómez-Peña presented a fabricated Encyclopædia Britannica entry on "Amerindians" and a corresponding map of the Gulf of Mexico island of Guatinau as part of the staging of their performance.[3] This information was further supplemented both by plaques or pedestals alluding to the history of peoples placed on exhibit over the last 500 years.[4] Other texts provided also narrated their role as volunteer representatives of Guatinau, detailing the daily life activities of the Amerindians, and validating the habitat of the cage and its contents as their natural habitat.[5]
Aided by the students of the University of California-Irvine, the artists erected a cage and filled it with a ghetto blaster, candles, Polaroid camera and film, bed pans, ritual artifacts, spray paint, body paint, a television and hammock.[5] Students and institutional staff members served as guards and assistants to the caged couple: feeding them, educating the audience about their origins, and assisting audience members in taking commemorative Polaroids with the caged performers.[5] Those acting as docents or guards also were responsible for the daily disposal of cage waste, feeding the performers, and escorting them to the bathroom on a leash.[5]
Gómez-Peña and Fusco were outfitted in primitive costumes: designer sunglasses, a cheetah luchador mask, leather boots, face paint, long wigs, grass skirt, necklaces, a leopard bikini top and Converse low sneakers.[6]
The caged artists performed "traditional" Guatinau tasks: watching television, sewing voodoo dolls, using a laptop computer, pacing back and forth, eating or being fed fruit, and drinking bottled water and Coca-Cola Classic.[6]
In stark contrast to works from their own practices and from other collaborations, the artists remained silent during the performances, apart from Gómez-Peña, who would recite traditional stories in a fictitious nonsensical language in return for donations.[7] By the last performance, these "traditional stories" chronicled the Guatinaui tour of the West, with the nonsensical outpouring peppered with recognizable words like "Chicago", "Mexico", "Minnesota" and "America".[8]
