Major

Sat, Nov 19, 2011
7:00 PM

New Museum (directions)

Wu Tsang: Full Body Quotation (Presented as part of Performa 11)

Part of Exhibition Related

Full Body Quotation brings together an ensemble of performers and sound-makers for an evening soiree hosted by Wu Tsang, who is joined by DJ Total Freedom. The centerpiece is a choral performance and a living sculpture, in which Tsang and his performers channel a chorus of voices sampled from the known (and unknown) canon of transgender cinema. Voices and bodies blend together into a hydra-headed, polyglotinous beast, staring back at onlookers across the boundaries of time and space with fifteen unblinking pairs of eyes—the apotheosis of a glamorous yet terrifying new mythical reality.

FBQ is an austere interpretation of drag culture and revelry as it has been caught on camera by films and news media of past decades. In the tradition of realness, Tsang maintains a studied and irreverent relationship to the source material, calling into question the authenticity of narrative, self-presentation, and intention.

Wu Tsang (b. 1982) is a performer and filmmaker who lives in Los Angeles. His projects have been presented at X-Initiative, New York; Sala de Art Público Siqueiros, Mexico City; Oberhausen, Germany; REDCAT, Los Angeles; and the 2010 California Biennial. Tsang was a 2010 Independent Filmmaker Project Documentary Fellow for his first feature, WILDNESS (currently in post-production).

Total Freedom, aka Ashland Mines, is a DJ/Producer living in Los Angeles. Besides being known internationally for brain broadening DJ sets, Ashland is known in Los Angeles for his work curating and producing events. The first experiments with The Table were directed by him.

Full Body Quotation is presented as part of Performa 11.

Sponsors TOP

Full Body Quotation is presented as part of Wu Tsang’s Museum as Hub residency organized in conjunction with the 2012 Generational.

“The Generational” is made possible by a generous grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Additional support provided by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust.

Major support is provided by the Friends of the Generational, co-chaired by Shelley Fox Aarons, Toby Devan Lewis, and Lonti Ebers.

Steering Committee Members: Mitzi and Warren Eisenberg, Susan and Leonard Feinstein, María José Garcés, Dakis Joannou, Tina Kim and Jaewoong Chung, Sueyun Locks, Shaun Caley Regen, Lyndley and Samuel Schwab, and Eve Steele and Peter Gelles. Friends of the Generational: Kathleen O’Grady.

Support for the accompanying publications is made possible by the J. McSweeney and G. Mills Publications Fund at the New Museum, and a grant from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation. Curatorial travel and research for “The Generational” has been underwritten by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Asian Cultural Council.


Artist residencies will be presented through the Museum as Hub initiative, organized in conjunction with the “The Generational.” The Museum as Hub Residency Program is made possible through the lead support of the Rockefeller Foundation. Additional funding is provided by Laurie Wolfert. Artist travel is supported, in part, by a grant from the Ford Foundation. Public Movement’s travel is made possible through the Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General Of Israel in NY.

Museum as Hub and public programs are made possible, in part, through the support of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts. Endowment support is provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Skadden, Arps Education Programs Fund, and the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fund for Education Programs at the New Museum. Education and public programs are made possible by a generous grant from Goldman Sachs Gives at the recommendation of David and Hermine Heller.