Volle punktzahl
With having to paint 50 new pieces for
exhibition in New York City I completely forgot to report on
Original Sin. Original Sin is the CHEAP Kollektiv collaboration with
XiuXiu that premiered in December of last year at silent green
KulturQuartier. Every night of the production was sold out and
greeted to thunderous universal acclaim. OS is the second time CHEAP
has worked with Jamie Stewart of XiuXiu who wrote the music for our
2015 re-interpretation of Mozart's The Magic Flute called MAGIC FLUTE-An Opera in
Six Steps.
With OS the starting off point is Fearless Leader of CHEAP
Susanne Sachsse's famous grandmother Luise Brand. OS is presented in a
non linear fashion as a concert/installation. La Sachsse stars and
directs OS. I perform as one of the many manifestations of the
grandmother. The piece also features Jamie Stewart and his beautiful
and talented wife Angela Seo, along with Marcuse Siegelstein, Richard
Gabriel and Senol Senturk who along with Jonathan Berger did the
production and set design completely transforming the kupula of the
silent green. Jackie Shemish the lighting designer of Magic Flute also brought his stellar talents to this group effort.
The star studded publicum at the performances
included: Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, Tom Holert founder of
Harum Forocki Inst and writer for Art Forum and Texte Zur Kunst,
with Claudia Honegger the children's book editor. Tom and Claudia
are one of Berlin's sexiest power couples. Kathrin Tidemann,
artistic director of FFT Dusseldorf who has been a longstanding CHEAP
admirer. Ruth Schonegger and her actress/director girlfriend Miriam and Noam Gorbat. Ruth & Noam were
also part of the OS production team supervising the video portion of
the piece. Deutsch It girl Clarissa Mehring who is related to Ms.
Davis from the German side of the family, Salome Gersche &Nadja
of Arsenal Experimental, dreamy scholar Nanna Heidenreich and her
delicious gal pal Fine, Philipp Albers the famed journalist and jury
member of the Berlin Arts Funding Body, film ingenue Victoria
Schultz, artists A.L. Steiner, Phil Collins, whose Cologne Art Academy students contributed to the video portion of OS. Aykan Safoglu who is on
the board of the Schwules Museum, Stephan Genne and Cidem of bbooks,
Toby Ashraf, Piero Bellomo of La Collezione, Stefi Albert, Sharon Smith of Gob Squad,
Eike Wittrock and Stefanie Wenner. Coming all the way from London to see OS Martin Hargreaves with cutie pie Francesco, Assaf Hochman, Sophia and Dan of plan b, Michael
Dutte the Konig of Wilmersdorf, Ida Mueller and Vegard Venge with
company members Robert Faber & Ilaria, Camilo Del Valle Lattanzio
aka: Camilo of the Valley, of Columbia who is one of Berlin's
hunkiest and smartest sex champions, Mara Mills of NYU, Ashley Hans
Scheirl and Tina Jacob Lena Knebel, Mason Leaver Yapp KW curator,
art shtar Yael Bartana and her artist girlfriend Saskia, Juliana
Rebentisch who just won a prestigious philosophy prize with artist
Ely Clark, everyone's favorite sexy smarty the beauteous Ms. Hannah Hurtzig of Mobile Academy
with the drummer of the German avant garde ensemble Zeitkratzer,
hungthrob Jan Kunemond, artists Mark Tereite, Pola Seiverding,
Christophe Gurke, Michael Stipe of REM with his mega hot French
photographer lover Thomas Dozel, dashing Dean Sameshima, Berlin trans legend
and German TV star Zazie De Paris, Koen Klaerhout, Michel Belague, Jorg &
Tina of silent green, Pauline Curnier Jardia, Prima Ballerina Trixie
Schonherr aka: Beatrice Cordua, Ulrich Ziemons of the Berlinale's
Forum Expanded who is also Europe's most handsome man with his life
partner the brainy ginger curator Anja Lueckenkemper. The Frankfurt
School Gang: Rembert Hueser, Verena Mund, Kerim Dogruel& Kalani
Michell with beau Benno Herz of the band Oktalog, Sophie Bunge of
Suhrkamp Press, Gina Doria, Stephen Ahrens of Zeughaus Kino, kJohnny
Blue and goddess Emelia, award winning filmmakers Merle Kroeger and
Phillip Scheffner, the artist/filmmaker Shelly Silver, and Madeleine
Barnstorff of Oberhausen Programming Committee.
After coming back from Offenbach am
Main teaching a bevy of super smart young artists the Vagimule doll didn't have time to fart, as she immediately had to jump on stage for a performative conversation No One Leaves Delilah-A (W)rap on Riots
with curator Natasha Ginwala at Acud Macht Neu (Studio). This was
part of the larger art congress and exhibition Riots: Slow
Cancellation of the Future. A last minute addition to the
performative conversation at Acud was Josh Kun who is in Berlin as an
American Academy Fellow. Josh is one smoldering dorky Jewish boy, that Ms.
Davis has lusted after for centuries. Josh use to be a professor at
UC Riverside but is now teaching at USC. Josh is the ultimate mover and
shaker, was even a guest on NPRs Fresh Air with Terrie Gross a few
years back and I believe he is the recipient of a MacArthur Genius
Grant. It was a lovely packed audience of a crowd that you normally
don't see in Berlin mixed with older and younger people and larger
sprinkling of colored folks then is the norm for artsy fartsy events
in Berlina proper. I had invited the wonderful young Afro Brazilian
student Leo Lina who studies with Hito Steyerl and Ming Wong at UdK
and he brought a juicy gaggle of young kids with him. It was great
to see in the audience Angela Anderson, Djane Olga Damnitz, Angela
Melitoupolous, Susanne Sachsse, Marcuse Siegelstein, Richard Gabriel,
patrician curator Beau Rutland and my super hot Berlin gallerist Dan
Gunn.
One of my fav 1990s children has to be
Scotland Zeif. I first met Scottland when I was hosting the Sunday
afternoon punk rock beer bust and olde English T-dance Club Sucker at
the Garage in Silverlake. Scottland at the time was a mere weenage
troubador and FIT who approached me for a gig at my club. I booked
him and he was an immediate singing sensation with his joyous ode to
film star Sigourney Weaver. A few years later when Scottland was a
college freshman he fronted a performance group with two other young
beauties that performed at my Bricktops at the Parlourclub. The
Parlour's owner Lenny Young was so smitten with the boys, that he
flirted with them all night pouring them stiff drinks even though
they were a few years shy of the legal age limit to embibe. Lenny
usually was quite the stickler when it came to following rules as he was a closet conservative but his one weakness was young attractive caucasoids.
I hadn't seen or heard from Scottland
in a few years. He now lives in New York City with a look-a-like husband. But out of the
blue he sends me a copy of a book he co-wrote called The Joey Boots
Chronicles. I didn't know anything about Joey Boots, so i just
started reading and couldn't stop. Its only about 200 pages. Mr.
Boots was one of the gonzo contributors to the popular Howard Stern cosmos.
Talk about a world I wasn't familiar with. The life of Joey Boots is
quite startling. The best part is his life as a teenage
hustler/petty criminal and his stint in the army during the Balkan
Wars. Certainly a fascinating read that I can honestly recommend.