Darin Klein & Friends Present: Suzanne Wright Viewing Party/Closing Reception + DJs Rich Bott & Kelly Eginton

Cockpit (work in progress), colored pencil on paper, 84x156"

Recent work, installation view

Recent work, installation view

Sketches, drawings, collages

The traxxx!

The crowd

April 24
Viewing Party/Closing Reception
+ DJs Rich Bott & Kelly Eginton
A good sized crowd came out to celebrate the conclusion of Suzanne’s residency at Amy’s studio. We’ve spent the last month communing with, looking at, thinking about and highlighting different configurations of Suzanne’s work, all the while enjoying the talents of our friends and peers with a full schedule of public programs. Tonight was really all about people engaging in dialogues with the artist and one another about the gorgeous new installation of Suzanne’s recent work. Oh, I almost forgot mention, WE PARTIED HARD with an insanely diverse and somewhat obscure music playlist, all on actual vinyl records, courtesy of DJs Rich Bott and Kelly Eginton!

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Suzanne Wright + Queer Pile-up!

Suzanne cleared wallspace in anticipation of...

Queer Pile-up!

21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves, hottt off the press

Pocket Niko & Nathan Jones perform in front of Suzanne's work-in-progress, Cockpit

Zac Monday reads tarot cards in the back alley

Daniela Sea performs in front of Suzanne's work-in-progress, Cockpit

Micha Cárdenas & Elle Mehrmand perform Virus Circus

Just like we promised... Queer Pile-up!


April 17
Queer Pile-up!
Plus… ‘Zine release party: 21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves
Local queer artists were invited to bring work to the studio for a one-night exhibition. All mediums were welcomed, with wall space available on a first-come, first-served basis. 24 artists brought everything they needed for installing their drawings, paintings, photos, videos and sculptures. Pocket Niko and Nathan Jones performed live electronic guitar and keyboard (their very first show ever, and the music was really sweet!). Daniela Sea improvised a movement piece in front of Suzanne’s work-in-progress, Cockpit. Micha Cárdenas and Elle Mehrmand performed Virus Circus, a new piece involving amplified electronic sounds created by the proximity of their bodies to one another. But wait, there’s more: Jen Smith brought a homemade vegetarian feast for everyone to enjoy and Zac Monday did tarot readings in the back alley. Whew!

Visual artists: Sadie Barnette, Eden Batki, bodega vendetta, Chris Diaz & Vivian Babuts, Drew Dunlap, Kelly Eginton, Deanna Erdmann, Eve Fowler with Math Bass and Martha Windahl, Brian Gainey, Kate Gilbert, Michael Hayden, Kuan Hwa, Larissa Brantner James, Dave Jones, Anthony Lepore, Zac Monday, Andrew Printer, prvtdncr, Mina Rahnema, Christopher Russell, Jimena Sarno, Daniela Sea, Jen Smith, Elysa Voshell, Suzanne Wright, Joe Yorty

Also featured tonight was 21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves, a ‘zine by and about queer artists living and working in the 21st Century. A resource for sharing information and educating ourselves and our peers. A guide to identifying, contacting and inspiring each other. Artists from from around the world were invited, and 59 participants answered the call, each producing 100 standard size copies of images and/or texts documenting or representing their work. Contributors were instructed to include biographical info, web and email addresses and artist statements on the backside. The pages were collated alphabetically and stapled together. The result: 100 ‘zines including all the submissions, released to the public tonight at the Queer Pile-up!

‘Zine contributors: Adam J. Ansell, Brent Armendinger, Eden Batki, Christopher Baughman, Jennifer Blowdryer, bodega vendetta, Erich Bollmann, George Bolster, Kathrin Burmester, Enrique Castrejon, osvaldo cibils, Kelly Cline, Tracy Dishman, Drew Dunlap, Kelly Eginton, Deanna Erdmann, Edie Fake, Daphne Fitzpatrick, Brian Gainey, Paul Gellman, Abel Baker Gutierrez, Michael Hayden, Kate Hoffman, Onya Hogan-Finlay, Larissa Brantner James, Dave Jones, Dawn Kasper, Hedi El Kholti, Darin Klein, David LeBarron, Anthony Lepore, Matt Lipps, Marget Long, Ian Mackinnon, Lucas Michael, Joanne Mitchell, Sharon Molloy, Ali Naschke-Messing, Amir Nikravan, Maria E. Piñeres, Joshua Ploeg, Andrew Printer, prvtdncr, Steven Reigns, Christopher Russell, Jimena Sarno, Daniela Sea, Zachary Sharrin, Cedar Sigo & John Huston, Jen Smith, Max Steele, Margaret Tedesco, Elysa Voshell, Jim Winters, Suzanne Wright, The Yes Men, Joe Yorty, Austin Young

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Suzanne Wright + Women Together... Fantastic! (WTF!)

Particle Accelerator installation view

Westminster Panties installation view

Shuttle Launch poster

fierce pussy installation view

Catherine Lord

Math Bass

Dawn Kasper

The crowd

April 3
Women Together... Fantastic! (WTF!)
With Math Bass + fierce pussy
+ Dawn Kasper + Catherine Lord
Suzanne installed all new work in the studio for this salon style gathering that proved to be both educational and entertaining. The installation was impressive and focused, highlighting the large drawings Particle Accelerator and Westminster Panties along with a series of smaller, framed drawings. Also on view were the sculpture Double Transmission and a poster-sized reproduction of her Shuttle Launch collage. To top it all off, the outer walls of the restroom were wallpapered with ephemera from the fierce pussy collective, on top of which was hanging Suzanne’s sculpture Transtar (Orange).

The crowd gathered and the anticipation for the events built. Around 9pm, Catherine Lord took the “stage” (in this case, Math’s scooter) and read a moving passage from King Kong Theory by Virginie Despentes. Next came Math, who repositioned the scooter to the middle of the studio, hooked up a computer and sound-system in the back basket, donned an helmet (safety first!) and performed a single, ominously utopian song accompanied by recorded music and the sound of the scooter’s motor. Rounding out the night was Dawn Kasper in a performance that involved an array of props, masks, hats, wigs and musical instruments. What transpired was part confessional monologue (to paraphrase: “It seemed like a good idea to glue this ass to this soy milk container, but now I’m not so sure”) and part absurd kindergarten storytime (a passage from a childrens book chronicling the life of a sausage who cooks himself).

Math Bass has recorded and toured as one half of the performance duo Marriage, contributed to the journal LTTR and has been featured in exhibitions including Shared Women at LACE in Los Angeles and The Way That We Rhyme at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Having moved to LA to collaborate with feminist inventors, Math most recently blew our minds with amazing gastronomical skills as one half of International Brunch.

Suzanne Wright and her fierce pussy co-conspirators have wheatpasted their posters and printed and distributed stickers and t-shirts throughout New York City. Other projects include re-designing the bathroom at the Gay and Lesbian Center, a greeting card campaign directed against the policies of Cardinal O’Connor and Senator D’Amato, and a moving billboard/truck. For Gay Pride 1991, fierce pussy re-named streets along the parade route after prominent lesbian heroines using stencils and spray-paint. In 2008, Printed Matter released an eponymous book of fierce pussy posters, many of which were on view tonight.
printedmatter.org

Dawn Kasper is a Los Angeles based performance and mixed media artist who describes her work ethic as one that ”houses a need for process, systems and the blurring of art and life.” She has performed and exhibited at venues including Anna Helwing, Circus of Books, The Company, J. Paul Getty Museum, LACMA, Raid Projects and Statler Waldorf in Los Angeles; Art Positions: Art Basel in Miami Beach; Art in General in New York City; and Migros Museum fur Genenwartskunst in Zurich.
dawnkasper.com

Catherine Lord is a writer, artist, and curator whose work addresses queer theory, feminism, cultural politics, and colonialism. She is the author of The Summer of Her Baldness: A Cancer Improvisation (University of Texas Press, 2004) and her critical essays and her fiction have been published in numerous journals and catalogues. She is Professor of Studio Art at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, UC Irvine.
studioart.arts.uci.edu