by Michael Anthony Farley on November 14, 2016
Probably the most inspiring night of my life was Genesis Breyer P-Orridge’s artist talk at MICA a few years ago. I’m likely paraphrasing here, but there was anecdote along the lines of “If you told me when we were pissing in a bottle as performance art in the Sixties that we’d end up saving dolphins in the Eighties, we wouldn’t have believed it. But now, in retrospect, we see that they’re all parts of the same process.” The message I took away from this: art is important. Working out our frustrations and tears and hopes now might lead to tangible victories in the future—even if they might be considered small in the grand scheme of things.
That’s why I’m personally exceptionally proud to have Genesis speaking on Wednesday night as part of our Strange Genitals exhibition at AICAD. This is a person of extreme wisdom, compassion, and rebellious spirit—qualities the world desperately needs right now. In a strange twist of irony, two events extremely dear to AFC’s interests are competing with the talk: a discussion about DICKS at Fortnight Institute, and a performance interpreting Dennis Cooper’s GIF novels at the New Museum.
There’s plenty of more overtly politically-minded art events for the rest of the week. Thursday night, Xaviera Simmons opens a mysterious solo show at Half Gallery, and Terence Gower talks US-Cuba relations at Simon Preston Gallery, followed by an unrelated LGBT anti-Trump rally in Washington Square Park. If you’re energized from that, meet with State Committeeman Ben Yee at Arts on Site Friday for a discussion on organizing resistance ahead of the midterm elections. We’re also excited for openings at the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts and Vector Gallery, where some AFC reviews might just find their way into JJ Brine’s sculptures…
The weekend brings Pioneer Works’ conference on alternative art schools. I’d expect the conversations to be dominated by the election results rather than pure pedagogy. Saturday night, Michael St. John uses Walt Whitman to consider subjectivity in democracy at Andrea Rosen Gallery, and PS1’s Mark Leckey-centered Night at the Museum might just encourage us to dance our way through these trying times.
Don’t give up on art. You are so, so important.
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by Michael Anthony Farley on November 10, 2016
There are a lot of reasons we love Phaan Howng, one of the artists in our F.A.G. exhibition Strange Genitals. For starters, she made a giant neon dick covered in vagina-like orifices full of tiny penis teeth. She also strapped it to the hood of her car and drove it Brooklyn from her studio in Baltimore, along with the work of two other artists, when we had a logistical problem due to a family emergency. Phaan is a trooper.
That’s evidenced by her election story. She’s registered in Florida, but has been in Baltimore to attend grad school at MICA. When she realized she missed the deadline for an absentee ballot, she flew down to her hometown just to cast her vote in person. Considering how close the election was there, it’s pretty admirable.
So Phaan was justifiably pissed off when her fellow Floridians decided to use their hefty electoral college power to elect Donald Trump, and keep all-around-douchebag Senator Marco Rubio. She posted this GIF to Facebook today, and I think it’s a sentiment we can all relate to—the symbolism of hacking off America’s weird, flacid orange dick is cathartic on several related levels.
Come see Phaan’s own, slightly-less apocalyptic phallus at AICAD in Brooklyn next Wednesday, during Genesis Breyer P-Orridge’s artist talk at 7:00 p.m. Or see it in Florida itself, during our restaging of Strange Genitals at SATELLITE during Art Basel Miami Beach! Let’s enjoy Miami Beach while we still can! Given our new government’s environmental policies, it’s likely to disappear a lot faster than we planned. When that happens this GIF is going to seem a lot less funny and much more prescient.
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