Openings: Christine Tarkowski: Last Things Will Be First and First Things Will Be Last

It's only been up since Friday but I've already been to the Chicago Cultural Center twice for Christine Tarkowski's new show. The exhibit explores systems of belief and life's perpetual rituals. The show includes a massive ship-like installation in the main gallery which is framed by two enormous curtains screened printed with juxtaposed images of Roman excess and third world strife. Tarkowski has two collaborators in the show one being 80's alt-punk icon Jon Langford of the Mekons and the other an Amish woman looking to save her soul. Tarkowski a devout atheist gave the woman an year to convert her but her efforts were fruitless. Recovering from this strange relationship Tarkowski produced her own gospel album with Langford (which soulfully provides a soundtrack for the second gallery). The show runs through May 2nd at the Chicago Cultural Center.

In the Studio: Potent Male Tropes

I started working on some collages that are turning into animations. I'm using vintage French Tin Tin Adventure magazines from the 70's and gay erotic pulp covers as source materials. Over the last few weeks I've expanded these collages and hope to get the animations based on them in production soon.

On the Road: NYC Weekend

My friend Barbara Wakefield and I decided to hit the road and spend a few days in NYC. We had an amazing time, although snow caused our 11 hour drive to becomes a 16 hour drive. We hit openings for: Josh Faught at Lisa Cooley, Virgil Marti at Elizabeth Dee, Marc Dion at Tanya Bonakdar and got to see a lot of amazing work throughout the city. Barb and I were also lucky enough to catch my roommate Oli Rodriguez in a performance organized by Sharon Hayes at X-Initiative (formerly part of DIA). The pieces incorporated a reading of Anna Rüling’s What interest does the women’s movement have in the homosexual question?

Barbara at Marc Dion's opening.


Oli at the X-Iniative

Work by Josh Faught at Lisa Cooley.

Artist David William and I at Virgil Marti's opening.

In the Studio: Design for a Larger Community

After my final critiques I took at second look at the body of work I was calling Giovanni's Room and transformed it into another piece I'm calling Design for a Larger Community. It's a nod to my wilder youth and a common practice in queer communities where young queers form a circle of friend through sexual introductions. Not exactly what the HRC wants to hear about but it was my experience.