Sunday, May 22, 2011 at 8:14PMIF YOU LIKE OUR BLOG, PLEASE SHARE
Hello Lovers,
I've been all over the continent in the past few weeks, traversing Europe, "inch by inch, step by step, mile by mile, man by man" as Liza once sang. On my travels I met Joel Gibb, the frontman of the ever more popular Canadian ensemble The Hidden Cameras. Mr Gibb was kind enough to spare five minutes for this exclusive little chit-chat, witness the charisma! Alexander x
"So today I spent the morning with the reigning Alternative Miss World, Fancy Chance. And the afternoon with my old Vauxhallville co-conspirator Timberlina. It was good to see them. And great to get into the rehearsal room. I’ve spent the last few weeks staring at a computer screen, editing the show’s two films. One with video artist Kate Pelling. The other with actor and activist Bette Bourne. Tomorrow, David Hoyle…
Together we’re developing a new show called ‘I Love You But We Only Have Fourteen Minutes To Save The Earth’ at the Oval House Theatre. And you can take a ‘first bite’ of it this Sunday, the 20th, at 7 o’clock. Which will be, for me, the culmination of a year’s work.
The idea first germinated early in 2010 when I discovered the TED app: TED is a twice-yearly conference which invites some of the world’s ‘inspired thinkers’ to ‘give the talk of their lives’ in eighteen minutes. The app then streams these talks - many of which were, indeed, inspiring. As was the format: wouldn’t it be great, I thought, to do something similar giving artists a guiding time frame and concept to produce a performance rather than a talk? And then Dale Arden’s voice popped into my head hollering ‘Flash! I love you but we only have fourteen hours to save the earth!’ (as her character does in Queen’s title song to Flash Gordon.) And that was it. I had it. The title, the time-limit and the concept.
I would invite artists to ‘save the earth’ in fourteen minutes. The time limit would be literal enough: the lights would go out fourteen minutes after they came up. But not the concept: artists might save us in whatever fashion they chose to… they might choose not to save us at all.
Five of my favorite queer artists accepted the invitation. Next stop: a venue for us to perform in. Over the past few years I’ve directed a lot for the Vauxhall Tavern, including a trilogy of pantomimes. But there’s a limit to what you can get away with at a south London gay pub and I felt perhaps it was time to move on and give myself, and the cabaret artists I would be working with, the opportunity to do something a little more serious. So we slipped down the road to the Oval House. And they said ‘yes’. It’s been great to have their support, and that of the Arts Council – for which, in these straightened times, I’m especially grateful. I must also say thank you to the various individuals who crowdfunded the remains our development budget.
I say development because I’m hoping there’ll be a life for the show beyond Sunday’s performance. The plan is a London run later this year, or early in the next one, followed by a UK tour and global domination.
But now it’s bedtime: I’m tired and there’s a lot still to do before the weekend. I’m not certain it’ll all get done. I’m not even certain what we’ll be doing. Or why we’re doing it. But it’s all part of the development process…"
'I Love You But We Only Have 14 Minutes To Save The Earth' features David Hoyle, Fancy Chance, Bette Bourne, and Kate Pelling. It premiers at the Oval House Theatre, 52-54 Kennington Oval, London SE11 5SW on Sunday 20th March, at 7pm, tickets are £5
Monday, February 7, 2011 at 10:07PMIF YOU LIKE OUR BLOG, PLEASE SHARE
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.
YOUR CHANCE TO CATCH LA JOHNJOSEPH'S SHOW: UNDERCLASS HERO, IN LONDON, IN MARCH:
La JohnJoseph “Underclass Hero” at Oval House March 3rd, 4th , and 5th 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.comor by calling 020 7582 7680
Monday, January 10, 2011 at 3:24PMIF YOU LIKE OUR BLOG, PLEASE SHARE
Chinese artist Mu Xi draws inspiration from Oscar Wilde and a Tang Dynasty calligrapher to deliver haunting illustrations portraying a youth’s coming of age...
INTERVIEW BY XING ZHAO
Born and bred in Shanghai, 27-year-old Mu Xi is a young gay man who drinks green tea, practices calligraphy, and grows plants at home. He is also the artist who creates delicate, yet erotic portraits of a youth with deer horns growing out his head, and tree branches germinating out of his chest, refl ecting pain and confusion.
Youth, beauty and desire, Mu Xi claims are his self-refl ection as well as inspiration that stimulate him to portray the loneliness and the desire of youth.
Where were you born and where did you attend school? I was born in Shanghai and I went to Shanghai Arts and Craft s College, majored in art and design.
When did you first start to draw? In 2004, I started to draw the Erotic Picture series on a notepad, simply for fun. Later I drew more and more and started to fill them in with colours by using a computer programme and with water colour paint.
Portrait of Youth is the main motif in your drawings, is it an obsession with youth? I read the first half of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, and felt the affection and admiration for the beauty and youth of Dorian Gray in the novel resonates my self-reflection and expression of emotion.
Is beauty greater than talent? I think before getting to know other qualities of a person, one’s physical beauty is the first thing that strikes and moves you, without any explanation. That’s the idea I want to express in my art.
Why do you make deer horns, trees and flowers germinate and grow out of the youth’s body? The deer horns growing out of the head is a metaphor for growing pains. There is much confusion and pain in a young man’s life when he goes through the transition of becoming a man. I also read a story written by the late Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima, who is well known for depicting violence as a form of aesthetics. In the story, when a Greek youth tied to a rock is killed by arrows, the onlookers feel thrilled. I wanted to depict that beauty and cruelty can go hand in hand. When the youth’s soul is wounded, or when it dies, a tree or a flower grows out of him. It is a lot of pain, but it is also reincarnation.
Do you use models to draw? No. Some people say the boys in my drawings look like me, but they are not self portraits. He is not someone that we would consider a beautiful youth, but he is suitable for my expression.
Has your expression of homo-eroticism caused you any trouble, especially in a rather conservative society? Although I couldn’t upload some of the more explicit drawings online in China, the homo-eroticism is a natural outcome in my work. I think sex and desire exist in every detail of our lives. I do not particularly intend to picture that, and I do not try to avoid it either. I am happy to let the viewer see what they want to see.
Have your parents seen your work? Are you out to them? I’m not out to my parents and I have never talked to them about my sexual orientation. But they have seen my work and they like it.
Who are your artistic influences? Oscar Wilde and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s fairytales, ink and wash paintings by Bada Shanren of the Qing Dynasty and calligraphy by Yan Zhenqing of the Tang Dyansty all inspire me in terms of the temperament and style of my work. Gus Van Sant, Jan Svankmajer, Matthew Barney are my favourite filmmakers. Hiroshi Sugimoto’s photography and Goto Shigeo’s architectural designs also give me new, fresh ideas.
What’s a day in your life like? I water my plants before going to work (as a graphic designer) in the morning. After work, I draw at home, and upload some of my drawings online. On the weekends I often go to second hand bookstores or flower markets. Sometimes I meet my friends for tea. But I spend a lot of time alone.
The youth in your drawings often look sad and alone. Are you lonely? I am. But on the other hand, I really enjoy the loneliness. I need the time to be alone and think no one should waste their time if they’re on their own, even when it’s lonely, because that’s the time one can have conversations with oneself.
What are the most important aspects of your daily life? Health and routine. I cannot work at all if I feel under the weather. I need to eat and sleep at the exact fixed hours. I don’t work after midnight. I live like an old man.
What are your ambitions? I’d like to have conversations with creative people from different areas, to have a small garden of my own, to draw and paint on a quiet island or in the mountains.
Sunday, May 22, 2011 at 8:14PM
