Gay Tape: Butch and Femme (1985) screened recently at the Valade Family Gallery in Detroit. Many thanks to curators Scott Northrup and Jonathan Rajewsky!
Desire as Politics, gallery installation, Valade Family Gallery, Detroit Feb-Mar 2018
Work by:
Sadie Benning Cecilia Dougherty
Matt Lambert
Zachary Marsack
Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay
Rashaad Newsome
Ira Sachs
Akram Zaatari
Desire as Politics presents a selection of LGBTQ perspectives in contemporary film and video from 1985 to 2017. The exhibition is not meant to summarize this arbitrary span of time, but rather to look at works exploring a range of identities, social constraints and prejudices unique to LGBTQ positions, including representation, fantasy, fear, love and the blurring of binaries, positions that we feel are vital in our current climate.
Scott Northrup & Jonathan Rajewski
Larger than life, a mural-sized installation for my video Gay Tape: Butch and Femme (1985)
From the exhibition catalogue:
Dougherty’s first video, made while she was studying at Berkely:
“I made it just around the time when the term ‘gay’ was for everyone and then ‘lesbian and gay’ become the new term, until we progressed to ‘LGBTQ’.
“Gay Tape is a documentary about some of the regulars at Ollie’s Bar, a lesbian dive on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland. The 1970s sartorial statement of flannel shirts, 501s, and Frye boots was passé and at odds with the new eighties aesthetic—tons of makeup, big hair, and complicated lingerie. Along with the new aesthetic came the reemergence of good old fashioned butch-femme role-playing. While the femmes pranced around like Stevie Nicks, their butch girlfriends reverted to an earlier role model, acting out fifties and sixties-style tough girl with brilliant aplomb. I asked some of the women from Ollie’s to talk on camera about role-playing.
“The camera instantly gave me too much control over content, so I tried to balance it by providing a platform for the women to speak on the butch-femme issue without overtly directing them. I relinquished authorship in favor of revelation and avoided coming to conclusions; the speakers were experts as well as subjects and could say whatever occurred to them. They spoke extemporaneously about their lovers, the details of their sexual identities, and their fantasies. My girlfriend at the time was one of the subjects. As her story unfolded I realized from my privileged position behind the lens that the lover she was describing in detail was not me. So much for the power of the gaze!
At a recent screening, the audience was interested in the difference between butch and transgendered, maybe not understanding that there were trans people in the community in 1985. I think there’s a distinction and as always, the people making the distinction are self-identified.”
I went to Harlem Stage last night to see Parijat Desai’s performance of her piece JustLikeThat. It was intelligent, fantastic, and the dancers are amazing. Thank you, Parijat!
The choreography presented a riff on the news – the who, what, when, where, why and how – journalism with Indian and American influences, ultimately about the collusion of mass media and corrupt politicians to more or less not inform the public of what’s really going on with the people who pull the strings.
Well, I’m not describing it very well! Go see it for yourself!
Here’s a clip from a previous iteration – this piece keeps evolving:
Video still from my 2-channel installation GONE (2001, 37 mins), starring the inimitable Laurie Weeks.
Join the Wexner to celebrate the accomplished work of female filmmakers supported by the studio throughout its 27-year history. Exploring both traditional and experimental approaches to narrative, this program includes Hiatus, Ericka Beckman’s phantasmagoric, analogue exploration of virtual reality (1999, 30 mins., 16mm transferred to video); Gone, Cecilia Dougherty’s split-screen recreation of the PBS docudrama An American Family, here starring artists Laurie Weeks and Amy Sillman and featuring music by Le Tigre and Mike Iveson (2001, 36 mins., video); and the Ohio premiere of Artist Residency Award recipient Jennifer Reeder’s 2016 film Crystal Lake (19 mins., HD video). (program approx. 85 mins.)
Mix Queer Experimental Film Festival screening and panel discussion Feb 5, 2017
Artist and co-curator extraordinaire David Kalal and I have been working on a screening program and panel, called In-Between Theories, for the 29th MIX Queer Experimental Film Festival based on ideas we’ve been tossing around for at least a year. Or possibly longer!
The program is an exploration of queer ideas and expressions that are not quite the media for academic or even queer-political categorization, and which fall into – or more precisely, create – their own time/spaces.
When: Sunday, Feb 5, 6PM
Where: MIX29, The Dreamhouse, 1022 Wyckoff Ave., Bklyn/Flushing
(L train to Halsey)
What: Film, video and interactive work with a discussion with the artists to follow — things are going to get real — or maybe unreal — promises to be a great evening either way.
Click on the invite picture to go to our website http://www.inbetweentheories.com
with more information about the work and artists
