Public Programs
Kalup Linzy and Dynasty Handbag: Amplify the Avatar
October 3 2008
Working as one-person production houses for music, video, and performance, the artists on tonight’s double-bill combine consumer-grade digital technologies with ample doses of absurdist humor and critical insight to create textured universes that amplify the inner monologues of the avatars they portray. In the performance-based videos that he writes, directs, edits, and stars in, Kalup Linzy leverages the styles and narratives of American soap operas and Spanish-language telenovelas, Hollywood tearjerkers, and Nigerian video melodramas to satirically deconstruct themes of sexuality and gender, race, class, and pop culture. Meanwhile, Dynasty Handbag is the one-woman music/comedy/video/performance/meltdown/portable electro-ballad vehicle of Jibz Cameron. Cameron performs with a backing track containing original dialogue, music, and video of her deranged yet sensitive exploration of personal psychic waste.