Category: art

Packed Sundays

I’m almost on my way. Packing, packing, packing. Hauptstadtfeeling, here we go. My trip to the motherland and other bits of old Europe starts this Friday. And at the end of October, I’m going to meet up with Mary Messhausen, Oliver, Prancey Girl and Toffi in Berlin. There are two exciting events for what is going to be a super extra long (but not very halloweeny) weekend in the capital.

On Sunday, November 1st, I’m going to be djing for my friend ND Baumecker’s birthday at Berghain Kantine. Mary Messhausen will be a hosting as The Juicy Punne. Starts around 9 or 10 pm.

The Wednesday before sees the opening of the Live Film, Jack Smith festival at arsenal. All the Jack classics will be screened. So many events, films and performances, there is barely time for shopping. What can you do? My favourites are posted below & make sure to read arsenal’s press clippings for all the 411.

Mark your calendars for Oliver’s premiere of Purfled Promises, Sunday afternoon, November 1st, 4:30pm. This is going to be one packed Sonntag.

LIVE FILM! JACK SMITH! Five Flaming Days in a Rented World

From Oct. 28 through Nov. 11, Arsenal Berlin presents the event “LIVE FILM! JACK SMITH! Five Flaming Days in a Rented World“. The performances, films and videos, slide presentations, exhibitions, concerts, lectures, and discussions, look at the gender-bending and genre-breaking works of Jack Smith, Andy Warhol and other avant-garde artists of the 1960s, from a number of angles. The work of Jack Smith is juxtaposed with recent works of numerous international contemporary artists. A special guest is the legendary drag performer and underground superstar Mario Montez, who on this occasion will appear in public for the first time in thirty years.

JS
Jack Smith (photo by Helmut Herbst)

Mittwoch, 28. October 2009

18:00 LIVE FILM! JACK SMITH! Five Flaming Days in a Rented World Eröffnung
– Jack Smith (ST315) Andy Warhol USA 1964 4 min
– LIVE FILM! Susanne Sachsse, Marc Siegel, Stefanie Schulte Strathaus über Five Flaming Days in a Rented World
– Der Superstar in Berlin. Ein Gespräch mit Mario Montez
– Lost and Found. Jerry Tartaglia über die Restaurierung der Jack-Smith-Filme
– Jungle Island/Reefers of the Technicolor Island Jack Smith 1967 20 min
– Hot Air Specialists Jack Smith 1970er 7 min
– Song For Rent Jack Smith 1970er 4 min
– Kino-Catering von Gordon W.
– Ausstellungen: John Edward Heys, Michael Krebber, Klaus Mettig, Uzi Parnes, Kristian Petersen, Jerry Tartaglia/ Sean Michael Kirk
Kino 1

Friday, 30.October 2009

19:30 Konzert von Kinky Justice (Justus Köhncke), Im HAU 1, Foyer

20:30 Mario Banana 1 & 2, Andy Warhol 1964 8 min
Mario Montez im Gespräch mit Marc Siegel, Im HAU 1, Saal

21:30 Memory Island, Performance von Vaginal Davis & Chocolate Grinder Collective , Im HAU 1, Saal

22:30 In Erinnerung an Ronald Tavel: Ronald Tavels The Life of Juanita Castro
Performance mit Rainald Goetz, Mario Montez, Katharina Sieverding, Bruce La Bruce, Susanne Sachsse, Diederich Diedrichsen, u.a. , Im HAU 1, Saal

Saturday, 31. October 2009

22:00 Konzert & Performance von Tony Conrad und Gordon W., Im HAU 2 , (Bis 2.30 Uhr, Einlass durchgehend)

23:00 Denial of Death, Performance von Penny Arcade , Im HAU 1, Bühne

Sunday, 01. November 2009

16:30 Purfled Promises, Oliver Husain 2009 10 min
In Anwesenheit von Oliver Husain, Kino 2

17:00 Playing Hide and Seek with Odors
Ein Gespräch über Performance in Film und Video mit Deirdre Logue, Nao Bustamante, Isabell Spengler, Oliver Husain, Moderation: Vaginal Davis, Kino 2

Three Toronto Must Sees Siehs

So, this week is a bit crazy, the social butterflies have to rush to several events every night. Below is just the tip of the iceberg.

IMAGINE, THERE: Three Contemporary Mythologies

assume vivid astro focus, Oliver Husain, Terence Koh
Curated by Kevin Hegge (iFag)
Exhibition runs February 13 to March 13, 2009
A Space Gallery, 401 Richmond St. W. (Richmond & Spadina)

The opening reception is tonight, Friday February 13th from 7-9pm
I’m very excited about this. Come to The Dollhouse and get your mind erased.

Oliver Husain's Pfau

Funkaesthetics

Justina M Barnike Gallery, 7 Hart House Circle
February 12 – March 23, 2009
Sorry, the opening reception was yesterday

Curated by Luis Jacob & Pan Wendt
With work by Pedro Bell, Leigh Bowery, Free Dance Lessons (Paige Gratland & Day Milman), Fergus Greer, David Gwinnutt, Nick Knight, Will Munro, Adrian Piper, P-Funk, Salvatore Salamone, Sun Ra, and Stephen Willats.

My favourite pieces are the Leigh Bowery costumes, the original Funkadelic cover drawings, the Will Munros and the Sun Ra in Egypt movie. Watch it NOEW (seems to be a double feature Egypt & Italy on youtube, but whatevs):

The Sexual Aberrations: Part One

Plays until Sunday, 8:00pm, The Chamber at Buddies

This play is written and directed by my friend Alex Wolfson (gay) and it is the absolute winner at the Rhubarb festival. The three actresses should get a Tony nomination. I adore them. Of course, I knew I would love everything about the play as soon as I saw the Trompe-l”™Å“il set design by the dearest Bojana Bobo Stancic.

Performed by Amy Bowles, Lindsey Clark and Liz Peterson
The Sexual Aberrations: Part One is the first in a series of three plays based on the Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality by Sigmund Freud.

Before

After

A Highly Advanced 3D Text Message of My Future Self

Finally, last night I saw some Ryan Trecartin. His 100 minute video I-Be Area kept me on my toes. So much fun to watch, too many lines to remember. I wish my reality was more like that. Identity switching, walking through walls, baby stealing(?), blotchy make-up, sped up voices, repeated dialogue. What’s there not to like?
Ryan Trecartin plays a lot of the characters himself, over the top gay pronunciations or a Southern accent included.

Pasta (played by Trecartin) and Wendy M-PEGgy

In this clip, I-Be2 (played by Trecartin) appears at around 3:15, becomes Oliver and changes his name to Amerisha

All of Ryan Trecartin’s videos are on his youtube page.

Day

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Yesterday, Mary and me went to Miss C’s Closet, a new drag store in an back alley near Yonge and Wellesley. Not only looked the store great from the outside, we just had a very pleaseuarble shopping experience. Highly recommended.

With our bags stuffed, we hailed and cab and drove to the Powerplant to see a performance by Ei Arakawa. He used Scott Lyall’s exhibition as his set, two pictures below.

Perfect Saturday.

Showgirls (fall down the stairs scene) projection

Ei sawing

Od’d on Gaudi

I’m basically overdosed on Gaudi.

Please send all your broken colorful tiles to my attention and I’ll prepare a turtle world out of them that will rival the Sagrada Familia but gayer. It shall be called “Gay Guell Tortuga (Gay)”. It shall take 77 years to be completed but it will not be finished ever. Think of it as an objet.

The turtle world will provide happiness to all people and will open everyday at 9 am. But the best pictures can be taken before 8 am, before the tourist busses arrive.

The merchandise shop will be open 24 h. The customers will be served free water.

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Turtle World (Rendering 1)

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Bearcelona: The Gaudi Years

(no title)

So, I went to the openings of Lucie Stahl (thank you & I owe you) at Dependance in Brussels on Thursday and Herr Krebber at Kunstverein Cologne on Friday.

Thursday and Friday, we went to the fish booth. It felt like I had never eaten fresher fish before. “The sale starts July 1st”, said the Margiela shop woman with the (bad) Amy make-up. Sabs and I had an orange juice across the street from the white building. As I’m on sale diet I didn’t buy anything in Brussels, except for a present.

Friday night, Michaela, Viola and I, disguised as Hase und Igel, went to the second bar first. We quickly ordered Schnitzel. There is nothing better than a Schnitzel at 4am. Michaela (bff) said I should take everything else and not just the Merlin wig. I only wanted long hair. “Aber sie hat doch so gern lange Haare.”

Saturday, got some V&R from Heimat (underground).

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Caking Night

Caking Night
Caking Night by Homer Sykes
Currently in an exhibition at Tate Britain

“Caking Night in Dungworth (1974) was shot in the Royal Hotel, Dungworth, Yorkshire, a small village on the outskirts of Sheffield. The “caking” usually took place on 1 November. (It was a local tradition associated with All Souls’ Day, where “soul cakes” were offered to poor Christian neighbours.) Competitors concealed their identity by wearing a mask or fancy dress, which by tradition had to be of local significance. Having paraded silently from lounge to public bar and back again so their voices didn’t give their identity away, the competitors went upstairs to be judged. In this picture the judging had taken place and one participant, still disguised, was supping a pint of beer through a straw. I liked the neat surreal nature of the disguise. His gloves contrasted with the couple in their woollen jumpers, slacks and pointy collars. Caking night no longer takes place.” (source)

It reminds me a bit of Newfoundland Mummers, whom I find just as much intriguing.