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Wacky Wednesday: Erotic African Art, A Feast For The Senses, and Sensibilities

wacky_wednesday_41_lady_skollie

In this instalment of Wacky Wednesday, we flip and bring you Wondrous Wednesday and present South African artist,  Lady Skollie. Based out of Johannesburg she creates erotic art that’s a visual feast for the eyes, and well, other parts of the body. Her work is bold, and brash, full of colour and life, a feast for all senses!

Born in 1987 in Cape Town with the birth name, Laura Windvogel, her pseudonym tells the real story of a woman in control of her own. For those that know Afrikaans, Skollie describes a person of colour as a suspicious character, used by the police of the area, so it seems fitting that at she would use it in her own name.

In a recent article for The Huffington Post by Priscilla Frank , she tells of the history of her people, the “Khoisan Tribe, a group that 22,000 years ago was the largest on the planet but now numbers approximately 100,000”. Its a humbling short read that gives great descriptive on her work and choice mediums in which to produce her elaborate work. Work that is without a doubt thought provoking.

Her work is currently on display at the Tyburn Gallery London.

A feast, well worth it.

Wacky Wednesday: PLUSH by Marilyn Minter; Some Pubic Consumption

MM pubes

I love presentations of female sexuality, created and presented by women. It has a very distinct and different feel than the art produced by their male counterparts in the art world. Less objectified, if we can say that, although I am not opposed to a some objectification now and then.MarilynMinter_Brooch

Marilyn Minter is just such a woman.

To say her work is unique is an understatement, she has worked with photo, video, and paintings producing work with lush vivid colours evoking emotive desire around the female form and beauty in all it’s shapes and sizes. Her work spans over three decades.

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Vancouver Art Gallery Presents FUSE, Revolution Counter Revolution

FUSE: Revolution Counter Revolution 

Friday, November 14, 2014, 8pm–1am
Vancouver Art Gallery (750 Hornby St.)
November 7, 2014, Vancouver, BC – FUSE, Vancouver Art Gallery’s enormously popular quarterly event where art, music, performance and drama collide, will be reinvented on the night of Friday November 14, 2014. Guest curated by multi-media maestro Paul Wong and produced by MediaLab, FUSE: Revolution Counter Revolution will be an unforgettable evening that riffs and mashes new ideas with old traditions, inspired by the Gallery’s current exhibition The Forbidden City: Inside the Court of China’s Emperors. In addition, FUSE-goers will have the opportunity to see Unscrolled: Reframing Tradition in Chinese Contemporary Art, a major exhibition featuring three generations of Chinese artists, prior to its official opening day (Saturday, November 15, 2014).
FUSE’s extraordinary lineup of artists, musicians and performers will fully engage visitors’ senses throughout the Gallery. Four floors of the exhibition space will be transformed with radical idealism and injected with iconic revolutionary figures, including:
Madam Mao – Enacted by Cara Sui, this tragic heroine/villain, wife of the Chairman, architect of the Cultural Revolution and leader of the Gang of Four, will engage the public and critique on art and culture.
Red Guard Ballerina – Taking cues from the ballet created during the Cultural Revolution in China (1966-1976), Carolyn Chan will strike heroic poses and pirouettes in her military gear.

The Monkey King – Dancer Michael Kong will be the mythical trickster depicted in Chinese folklore Journey to the West. He will pose, perch, hide, observe, intermingle, peek and bounce around in his new kingdom, the Gallery.
Emily Carr’s Psychic – This fictional figure, brought to life by Cindy Mochizuki, will read visitors’ fortunes in a seemingly private setting that is made public via live audio/video feed.

The cast will also include Beijing Opera diva Catherine Li as the Drunken Beauty, ArtCart Rickshaw by Ken Lum, Velvet Steele and team parading in a Sedan Chair, performance video by Catherine Chun Hua Dong, movement artist Sandra Moore, street portrait artists, Tea Master Olivia Cheung, the Flower Factory and Smoking Lily. DJ Kevin Shiu and DJ Don Chow will duel it out in the side-by-side Art Bars that feature proletariat beer and bourgeois cocktails, with clashing live visuals by Leó Stefánsson of Hybridity Media using social media platform #generateapp.
In addition to performances, FUSE-goers can also see the following exhibitions: 
The Forbidden City: Inside the Court of China’s Emperors
Jock Macdonald: Evolving Form
Emily Carr and Landon Mackenzie: Wood Chopper and the Monkey
Tickets: $20 (+tax) | Free for Gallery members
Website: http://vanartgallery.bc.ca/events_and_programs/fuse.html
Event Hashtags: #fusenight #generateapp
About FUSE: Since its inception in July 2005, thousands of FUSE-goers have converged at the Gallery for this unique adult event. Live performances and music in the Gallery spaces, DJs, eclectic Gallery tours, contemporary dance and unexpected surprises have made FUSE Vancouver’s favourite art party—a place to see and be seen.
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MEDIA INFORMATION & EVENT PASSES: 
Debra Zhou, Communications Specialist
dzhou@vanartgallery.bc.ca, Direct: 604-662-4722, Mobile: 604-671-2358

About the Vancouver Art Gallery: The Vancouver Art Gallery is a not-for-profit organization supported by its members, individual donors, corporate funders, foundations, the City of Vancouver, the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts. We thank everyone for their continuing generosity.

ARE YOU READY? Second annual Nuit Blanche Party.

nuit-blanche-party

Details soon to come

Alien Sex

Alien Sex

You can help make beautiful Alien Sex! Get your tickets on Kickstarter until June 1 to get fabulous fringe benefits! #aliensex https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1326493289/alien-sex

Tentacles wrestle the sexual status quo; secret identity exposes itself; and the Empire is challenged by authentic expression, in a work that mixes whimsy, savage poetry, heartbreaking vulnerability and B-movie joy.

Actor/director and Alien Sex instigator David Bloom conspires to bring together an exciting and diverse team in a multi-genre, multi-generational feast, inciting new work by emerging local artists and unearthing rare and unexpected discoveries by established cultural luminaries.

The all-star cast features Vancouver genderqueer creators Olivia B (performance poet/tap dancer) and Floyd VB (performance poet/visual artist) propelled by the visceral and immutable life force of Taiko drummer Eileen Kage, composer/dancer/video artist Sammy Chien, actor/dancer/visual and performance artist Robert Leveroos, and photo-based artist SD Holman (of BUTCH: Not like the other girls).

Drawing upon energetic interpretations of the transgressive BDSM poet Linda Smukler/Samuel Ace and the divisive heterosexual playwright David Mamet, each of these artists individually transgresses the constraints of any single genre, while sparking a shared explosion of preconceptions, categories and labels.

Gay, lesbian, bi, queer, straight, vanilla, kinky and yet-to-be-named perspectives collide in a speculative fiction that fearlessly explores the strange, beautiful, and sometimes inexplicable territory of human sexuality.

Romantic, disturbing, passionate, and tender, this epic yet intimate collaborative project weaves together an original and contradictory collage by artists creating in words, images, movement, and sound.

#aliensex.