MY FUNNY VALENTINE

[CULTURE] With just a week to Valentine's day, we dig into some London cabaret archives for a very special message of love from A Man to Pet.

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CIRCUS FREAKS

We love it when nightlife meets art and that's why we're thrilled to hear that Queen of the night Jodie Harsh is teaming up with photographer-superstar Tim Bret-Day to create an exhibition celebrating London’s twilight characters - including Jaime Winstone, Lisa Snowdon, Sadie Frost, Mika, Matthew Horne and more.

In celebration of five years of the legendary club night Circus, Tim and Jodie have collaborated on a photographic project bringing together key characters from the club’s evolution.

There's tonnes more we can tell you, but why ruin the fun of the fair... check it out.
 
Thursday 29th of September: 12pm - 6pm - Exhibition open to the public (free)
Friday 30th of September: 12pm - 7pm - Exhibition open to the public (free)
Saturday 1st of October: 12pm - 8pm - Exhibition open to the public (free)

BOND -  24 Kingly Street, London W1B 5QP

SPOTLIGHT: LA JOHNJOSEPH

PHOTOGRAPH: ADRIAN LOURIE

BY CIARAN RUA

La JohnJoseph’s choices growing up were to join the priesthood or the army. Luckily for us, he decided on neither and since then, the world of performance art hasn’t quite been the same. Upon meeting La JohnJoseph, one is initially struck by his idiosyncratic allure, an allure which was to become embedded on my memory after I had the pleasure of meeting him in Berkeley, California some years ago…

A self-styled transdrogynous performance artist, La JohnJoseph is quite unlike anything you’ve ever seen before and, for those of you who haven’t, keep your eye out for him, as you’ll never know when he will pop up. Right now, he’s hiding out somewhere in Berlin, after a successful run of his show, Underclass Hero in London.

Weaving together real events and experiences from his own life, Underclass Hero is the perfect introduction to the strange and bewitching creature that is La JohnJoseph. It is the third in a trilogy of memoir-based pieces which he has been working on for three years, culminating in his current pièce de résistance.

This transatlantic performer’s rise to stardom began when he was living in Berkeley in 2004. He had been asked to perform at a ‘gay prom’ which he later described as both “inane” and “mediocre” but which was to catapult him into the world of performance.

Having not come from a traditional theatre background, his only experience of performing before this had been working as a model (which he now speaks of negatively), explaining how it left him with the impression of having been used as an “artefact without consciousness”. La JohnJoseph decided, following his performance at the prom, to help establish ‘Boyfriend Robotique’, a troupe of performance artists whose own brand of irony and insanity brought them success along the West Coast of the United States.

This was followed with a tour of Paris, London and Liverpool (La JohnJoseph’s native city) where they were met with much acclaim. Following his work with Boyfriend Robotique, La JohnJoseph moved on to solo pieces whilst he was living in New York.

He was asked to perform at Dixon Place and it so happened that he concurrently had been thinking about writing an autobiography. He decided to use the text he had been working on and turn it into a show. This resulted in Notorious Beauty, his first memoir-based show. The following year witnessed the birth of I happen to like New York, the second in the trilogy.

La JohnJoseph’s shows are difficult to define, lying as they do in the margins of various genres. Perhaps this is appropriate for this transdrogynous performer who is equally as difficult to define, living as he does in the murky middle area between genders (he was first questioned about his gender at the age of 12). It is this undefinable mélange that makes his work so captivating and distinctive. They are points of transvergence for burlesque, drag, live art, cabaret, song and the absurd, all of which is overlaid with La JohnJoseph’s intelligent, witty and articulate observations. Such honest, heartfelt and engaging pieces of performance are to be missed at your own peril.

boyfriendrobotique.blogspot.com

YOUR CHANCE TO CATCH LA JOHNJOSEPH'S SHOW: UNDERCLASS HERO, IN LONDON, IN MARCH:

La JohnJoseph “Underclass Hero” at Oval House
March 3^rd, 4^th , and 5^th  2011

“Poutily poignant, bracingly glacial…A sublime young talent” – Time Out

The show is a frank, and almost charming tour of the artist’s formative years, in which La JohnJoseph tells all about life as an oversexed, underage Catholic on Liverpool’s most glamorous council estates. Part JT LeRoy, part Evelyn Waugh, part Jean Genet, the show is morbidly funny and genuinely raw, combining outspoken monologues with near the knuckle candor and tender ballads. Delivered in the wild and witty signature style, that made his previous show I Happen To Like New York such a hit, Underclass Hero offers indiscrete storytelling interspersed with reworked classics from Suede, Bowie and Broken Social Scene. A success at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern’s Hot August Fringe last Summer, “Underlcass Hero,” returns to London for three nights only.

Tickets are £5 and can be booked at www.ovalhouse.com or by calling 020 7582 7680 

QUEER ART IN THE BIG SMOKE

BY MARTIN PERRY

It's a good time for queer art in London, with two very different shows for you aficionados out there: HUNG, an exhibition of edgy erotic photography, drawings and video put together by the talented, young queer artist/curator Stuart Sandford at the Horse Hospital, and TRADEMARK/SCENE: A-Listers, Heros and Heroines at La Galleriea - a collection of new paintings by artist Mark Wardel, featuring portraits of gay icons including Grace Jones, Boy George and Out There's very own Paul Burston.

HUNG is a fascinating look into Stuart's up-front obsession with all things homoerotic, bringing together work by queer art stalwarts like as Bruce La Bruce with a crop of new international talent and raft of artists in between. All of whom deal with issues surrounding sex and men in their own way.

Notable examples include a series of small photographs by Jesse Finley Reed of young men whose bare flesh have been painted to resemble ripped, muscular torsos; that have the confusing effect of making the photographs themselves seem like paintings, plus a wonderful series of prints of naked boys in various states on undress printed onto newspaper by New York based Russian artist Slava Mogutin. And not to mention a couple of mixed media, poster sized pieces by Brian Kenny on vintage American shooting-target paper. But the highlight for me was the striking black and white 'Pin-up' by one of my all-time favourite artists, Paul Mpagi Sepuya. (Look out for our exclusive interview with Paul in Issue 2, out in just a few weeks).

The dungeonesque Horse Hospital seems a fitting venue for such an orgiastic collection. If you like your art gritty and queer and you're in need of an artistic or erotic pick-me-up during these damp cold dark days, then this exhibition is definitely worth a detour to Russell Square. Although it includes some 30 odd individual pieces by 11 artists, it's small enough to whizz around in your lunch hour or on your way home from work.

HUNG runs until 30th October at The Horse Hospital Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 1JD.

At the other end of the spectrum, and decidedly more glam Trademark/Scene is the latest collection of paintings by the established Liverpudlian artist Mark Wardel, famed for his work for the original legendary Trade flyers and QX covers. Mark's sharp graphical style is instantly recognisable to any of us old enough to remember clubbing in London in the 90s. The show runs from the 1st to the 7th November at La Galleria, 30 Opera Arcade, Pall Mall, London, SW1Y 4UY trademarkart.com