Body hair played a major role in 14Karat Cabaret’s eclectic group of performances last weekend. With an exhilarating spirit, the performances explored two sets of issues: body and self image, and art and artists, which often intersected.
Behind the Curtain of Hair
A few of us early arrivals got to experience an installation/performance, Get it Off Your Chest, Pluck it From Her Breast, where Hannah Brancato and Kendra Hebel welcomed prospective “patients” for “Dr.” Sarah Tooley. They stood outside a booth covered in artificial hair. Garbed in body suits that feigned nudity and dripping in hair suspended from their heads and breasts, Hannah and Kendra took reservations for consultations with Sarah. Mine came at intermission when I slipped through the booth’s curtain of hair to find Sarah seated in a crisp white doctor’s coat with a table of tweezers and rubber gloves beside her. This was the Get it Off Your Chest part.
We exchanged stories about those painful moments of needless shame over our bodies. Sarah told me her own story about body hair (my lips are sealed by reverse medical confidentiality) and I told her mine (I am hoping her lips are sealed too). Then, a pluck occurred. I left with an assignment: to write my own story about body shame on a card that contained a strand of Sarah’s hair encased in plastic. When I completed my homework, Hannah rewarded me by pinning a long tuft of artificial hair on my shirt. (Why wasn’t school this much fun?)
You can check out the full story of this installation in an excellent article by Peter Boyce on Radar Redux. Or visit the artists’ site for stories of the installation’s participants over time. (If my story is there, pretend you don’t recognize it!)
If you don’t have the pluck to contribute—at least imagine how liberating this new form of feminist confession might be!
A participant's story
Dear Starbucks
I have long looked forward to hearing Chris Ferrera’s Starbux Diary. The installation is the result of Chris’ five-and-a-half year correspondence with Starbucks and its customer service team. In a selection of letters, Chris shared with them (and us) not only her dedication to caffeine elegantly presented, but also her tongue-in-cheek observations about Starbucks’ employees and customers, not to mention her deeper thoughts about life, love, and art. There were many chuckles, especially as the customer service reps’ replies progressed from form letters to more personal responses. Listen to how she wove this tale at Stoop Stories.
If you love me, I will love you back
Next, in Google Art Video, Chris performed an experience that will seem familiar to many of us: talking to ourselves. This she accomplished by carrying on a conversation with an on-screen version of herself. In the first segment, we see a Google search with the keyword rape being typed in. The two Chrises (one in-person and one onscreen) discuss a video project about a “friend’s” memory of being raped.
You can see a video of Chris’ two onscreen personas, but don’t miss the next chance you get to see her portray some of this in the flesh. My favorite part came when she looped through the circular logic of “if you love me, I will love you back.”
Shockingly Brilliant
Described by others as an “experimental theater goddess,” Theresa Columbus always manages to be hilarious while making me think. Here she presented a report on the development of her artist’s statement, Shockingly Brilliant. To get an inkling of her energetic performance, check out an earlier version of this piece on the infamous Ed Schrader show earlier this year:
Director Drogoul
Sculptor and 2006 Sondheim Prize winner Laure Drogoul directs 14Karat Cabaret with amazing results that those who follow her work have come to expect. Startling Baltimoreans for nearly 30 years, she is a leader in creating the lively atmosphere for the Baltimore art scene that we enjoy today. Check out 14Karat Cabaret’s site for more on its lineup. (You might remember Laure’s earthworm installation at the BMA or her The Root on the lawn at Evergreen House, or if you were lucky, maybe you caught her knitting performance at Atomic Books.)
The Root by Laure Drogoul
Filed in: 14Karat Cabaret.
Doreen Bolger is always on the move because she can’t stop seeing, supporting, and writing about the arts in and around Baltimore City. Her lengthy love affair for the arts began in Long Island when her father, an executive in the textile industry, brought home breathtaking fabrics every night from the heart of the garment district. 