Diaristic Indulgences: A One-Night Exhibition of Performance Art

Saturday, February 19
7 PM

Participating Artists: Hannah Heilmann, Ann Hirsch, Georges Negri, Sunita Prasad, Nathaniel Sullivan, Alison Ward, Angela Washko, Chester Zecca.

Curated by Angela Washko.

Forty years after Valie Export’s infamous gun-wielding, crotchless pants wearing performance in an erotic film cinema in Munich(1), can the public accept the female body beyond private erotic fantasy? The exhibition title, Diaristic Indulgences (taken from a line in Carolee Schneemann’s Interior Scroll and Kitch’s Last Meal), refers to the exploration of the discomfort in the physical reality of the body that permeates everyday life.

The artists participating in Diaristic Indulgences find inspiration in the works of Judy Chicago, Valie Export, Carolee Schneemann, Cindy Sherman, Martha Rosler, Lynda Bengalis, Ana Mendieta, Karen Finley, and Marina Abramovic and explore notions of femininity, voyeurism, sexuality, and gender. The artists in this show expand on the path paved for them and reconsider today’s deep-rooted understandings of the physical body in relationship to the social body.

(1)In 1969, Valie Export cut the crotch out of her jeans and walked through a Munich art-film house THAT showed sexually explicit films.  She challenged viewers and voyeurs to confront a body that would not passively accept their gaze, but  return it. Posters depicting the event display Valie Export in the described crotchless jeans wielding a machine gun. Two years prior to that public action, Valie Export wore a large box over her torso with curtains draped over the front – encouraging citizens on the busy streets in Vienna’s shopping district to publicly touch her breasts in a performance piece called “Tapp und Tastkino” (Tap and Touch Cinema).

Dance Party with DJ We Are Architects, DJ Vinyl Richie, and DJ Wash Clothes to follow performances.  This is a free event, but donations are encouraged!

For event inquiries, contact angela.washko (at) gmail.com. For press, please contact info (at) fluxfactory.org.