If only I were in New Orleans right now. If so, I would be petting an alligator (because you can do that there), walking along the edge of the world (because you can do that there, too), and visiting 2 Freaky 2 Friday at Pelican Bomb Gallery X (which you still have time to do because the exhibition runs through September 18). The mostly femme and femme-identifying artists in the exhibition all explore images of celebrity in a sometimes critical, sometimes celebratory way that fits in so well with the AFC brand. A note on the exhibition from curator (and friend of AFC) Amanda Brinkman:
I grew up with a British mother and an American father in a small German town with a population fewer than 9000 people. Celebrities were my lingua franca and my guide to living like an American kid in the ’80s—something I was determined to do even halfway across the globe….I eventually threw away my New Kids on the Block sheets, but my interest in celebrities and what they can represent continues today. I’m routinely condescended to by intelligent people who “don’t even own a TV” and see stars as the ultimate waste of time and brainpower. But celebrities can help us theorize the relationship between the surface-level, lowbrow, and easily accessible and the deep, highbrow, and complex in incredibly fruitful ways.
In lieu of buying a last minute plane ticket, I’m posting excerpts from Faith Holland’s 2013 GIF series “Chelsea Manning Fan Art,” part of 2 Freaky 2 Friday. Peace out, y’all—it’s Friday night, so I leave you for the weekend with the now-classic Lady Gaga and Beyoncé video for “Telephone,” from which the GIF takes its lead.
