Kalup Linzy, Conversations wit de Churen V, As da Art World Might Turn (installation view), 2006. DVD, color, sound, TRT, 11 minutes, 16 seconds. Courtesy of the artist and Taxter & Spengemann.

When:
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
12:30 pm

Where:
Mission Hill Building, Room C112

About:
New York-based artist Kalup Linzy has created a body of work modeled on the soap operatic genre of popular daytime television. Over the past five years, Linzy has assembled and developed a remarkable cast who frequently appear in his ongoing series Coversations wit de Churen, as well as in other short videos and performances. The characters Taiwan, Tyrone, Katonya, Matissa, and Nucauvia are regularly featured, along with Linzy, who writes, directs, and stars in all his videos. While decidedly camp in nature and roughly shot, each gesture and conversation is dissected and carefully considered within these vignettes. Open-ended and interwoven plot lines deal with death, love affairs, loss, and art world politics.

By playing multiple characters within the same storylines and conducting the voice overdubs for all of the other characters (which take place largely via telephone), Linzy makes keeping the characters and stories "straight" somewhat difficult for the viewer. But this confusion serves to establish a critical distance from actual daytime soaps or prime time serials, offering a subversive act of recovery within this genre. Through his insertion of the daily stories of individuals who would never make their way onto mainstream television, he offers a humorous undermining of stereotypes surrounding southern black culture, gender, and sexuality.

- John Rasmussen, Director, Midway Contemporary Art