Pink Flamingo: Clubs in Flux Group Exhibition

Dates: July 29 – August 14, 2022

Location: the cell theatre, 338 W 23rd St, New York, NY

“Pink Flamingo: Clubs in Flux ” is a collaboration between Flux Factory and Nancy Manocherian’s the cell theatre.

THE SHOW

NYC nightclubs have always been a hotbed of creativity and have nurtured the early careers of countless talented musicians. These clubs have fostered powerful music scenes over the years, and many of them evolved into sacred spaces for dedicated local communities. However, all good things must come to an end, and as rapidly as nightclubs pop up in NYC they also shut their doors due to gentrification, restrictive city laws and ordinances around nightlife, lack of money and support, senseless tragedies, and many other reasons.

Vivid multimedia archives of nightclub experiences can invoke visions of future social-cultural landscapes and inspire changes. The COVID-19 pandemic has created an even more urgent need for archiving due to the rapid rate of nightclubs shutting down and club communities being separated through isolation, in NYC and beyond. How do we hold on to and maintain the sense of community that underground club spaces consistently provide, as these fleeting moments in time end and then begin again?

This exhibition invites three groups of artists to design their ideal (very) temporary club space and design it in the cell gallery, with the space opening and closing in the span of one week. Each exhibition will conclude with a “closing” that will include documentation and ephemera from each of the clubs.

We ask artists: what would your ideal club environment look like? Who would you invite into the space? What music would you feature, and how would people interact with the sounds they hear? What memories would you like to make in your very temporary club?

ARTISTIC PROJECTS

“Algoclub: Light Mode/Dark Mode” by LiveCode.NYC

Algorithm + Rave = Algorave
Algorave + Club = Algoclub

Join LiveCode.NYC as they turn the gallery space into live feedback loop, celebrating algoraves past and present through musical and visual live coding performances, workshops, and more.

“Black Bliss Rave” by Black Bliss Rangers

A collaborative, community-driven, arts-based dreamscape that meets at the intersection of experiential design, visual imagery, and creative media production, the Black Bliss Rangers invite those who enter the space to contemplate imaginative and resilient productions of Black bliss. Expect a range of multi-sensory installations incorporating visual arts, experiential design, and creative media production in their main event, “Every Nigga is a Star Trek,” their workshop and open studio hours.

**Note: In order to center Black people and Black joy, this exhibition, including the main event and workshops, will be a BIPOC-folx only social experience.**

“Into The Limelight” by Andrew Fish

Visual Artist Andrew Fish will be paying homage to the storied NYC nightclub Limelight in the project space at The Cell from August 9th – 14th. He will exhibit multiple paintings that embody the vibe, spirit, and visual orchestra of the club’s atmosphere and reimagine the space for a dance party on August 13th, celebrating the music and energy of the era. Fish also plans to install sculptural and decorative elements to make the environment more immersive and reminiscent of the 1990s nightclub. The artist will host open studio hours during his exhibition period and invites visitors to share personal stories and historic memorabilia to enhance the spirit of community and collaboration.

THE SPACE

Founded in 2006, the cell has provided a developmental home in the heart of Chelsea for works in progress by artists ranging from early career to established staples of the New York community. Originally established as a theatre space, the cell has gradually restructured into a cultural hub for food artists, cyborg theatre artists, musicians, installation artists, choreographers and more.

A note on accessibility: Unfortunately, the cell is not wheelchair-accessible and visitors must go up a flight of stairs to access the space on the second floor.

THE CURATORS

Jess Dilday

Jess Dilday, aka PlayPlay (NYC) is a DJ, producer, writer, teacher and music scholar. They have been a long-term artist-in-residence at Flux Factory and a teaching artist through NYC’s Building Beats and through the Next Level US Hip Hop diplomacy program in Peru. They have previously taught “The Art and Culture of the DJ” through the UNC-Chapel Hill Department of Music. With a particular investment in mentoring those who are not traditionally represented in the music industry, PlayPlay has held DJ workshops at festivals, museums and universities worldwide. As a music scholar, Jess is particulaly interested in local music scenes, queer theory, media studies, nostalgia, dance floor dynamics and creating safer spaces in collective environments. And as a DJ and music producer, their experience as a lifelong music nerd and mainstay at underground clubs for over 20 years is constantly informing their encyclopedic sets, weaving together new underground club tracks with the classics.

Anton Lapov

Anton Lapov (Ukraine/USA) is an artist, musician, independent curator and museologist. His practice follows a multidisciplinary approach based on his interest in new media, sound-art, creative coding, digital humanities and experimental museology. He is constantly in search of non-conventional forms of exhibitional representation and seeks to avoid the logic of instrumentalisation through the creation of procedural communicative situations. In addition to being involved in the sphere of artistic/curatorial production he also conducts research into the history of sound-art/electronic music and local artistic communities of Eastern Ukraine.

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