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

Hail

Saw “Hail the New Puritan” by Charles Atlas (who was in attendance and did a Q&A) last week. He also did the Leigh Bowery documentary.
Hail is a fantasy documentary about a day in the life of Michael Clark and friends, shot in 1985. I especially enjoyed the parts of the movie where variations of a scene repeated itself and also where wild cuts intersected the narrative. There is a little bit of both in the opening scene below.

The Club Kids (blurry)

blurry kidsMichael Alig, Leigh Bowery and Amanda Lepore at the Joan Rivers Show in 1990.

(via papermag blogs, who are totally addicted to youtube, but I guess the first posting was over at wowreport, with an intro by James St. James, who’s on the show too)

The young Amanda says: “I don’t have any time to work, cause I’m to busy getting ready all the time or going out.”

More Leigh Bowery movies at showstudio.com. The voice overs are a bit spooky but I love the outfits in #2 and #4. (Thanks Brad).

Taboo

Wer lädt mich kurzentschlossen zu einem Wochenende in NYC ein? Das Einzigste was ich dort wirklich sehen möchte, ist das Broadway-Multi-Millionen-Dollar-Musical Taboo von und mit Boy George. Leider ist die letzte Vorstellung schon am 8. Februar. Das Musical tourt zwar auch in England, dort aber ohne Boy George and it isn’t on Broadway!

Taboo ist ein musikalisches Portrait des Nachtlebens Anfang der 80er Jahre in London. Die Protagonisten sind Boy George und Leigh Bowery; letzterer konnte sich am Besten inszenieren. Boy George spielt nicht sich selbst, sondern Leigh. Schon das Bild bei obigem Link ist einfach phantastisch. Ich kann eine weitere Recherche zu Leigh Bowery und dem Musical nur empfehlen, da die Kostüme einfach phänomenal sind.