Monty Cantsin ist eine von dem Künstler David Zack im Jahr 1978 ins Leben gerufene multiple, offene Identität, die von unterschiedlichen Künstlern und Musikern in Anspruch genommen und mit Leben gefüllt wurde. Sie ist eine mythische Gestalt in Geschichten, Erzählungen, Verfälschungen und künstlerischen Aktionismen. David Zack wandte damit das Prinzip des Multiples nicht nur auf das Werk eines Künstlers, sondern auf die Künstlerpersönlichkeit selbst an. Er beschrieb die Entstehung wie folgt:

"Maris and I were in Portland. We'd been working with a Xerox 3107 that makes big copies and reductions. We were making giant folios; monster folios and dinosaur folios we called them. And one night Maris started fooling around with the tape recorder, singing songs in Latuvian about toilets and traffic. Well, we decided to make a pop star out of Maris. But it had to be an open pop star, that is, anyone who wanted could assume the personality of the pop star. This open pop star would be the most talented in history, better than Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Sal Mineo and even Ry Cooder all rolled together in one. Pop stars have always been special to me, growing up the son of a symphony conductor the way I did. To me they stand for rebellian and acceptance, revolution and success and a whole lot of other things at the same time. We were mouthing Maris Kundzins' name, and it came out Monty Cantsins. Then we got to saying can't sin and can't sing and quite a few other things to give the impression that this pop star could be a thief as well as a saint." (David Zack) 

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