Events Calendar

Transactivation: Revealing Queer Histories in the Archive

Admission is free.

A series of events will be presented in conjunction with the exhibition Cruising the Archive: Queer Art and Culture in Los Angeles, 1945–1980 at the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives. The events will foster discussions about LGBT histories, queer art and aesthetics and archival practices in contemporary art.

Artists Heather Cassils, Zackary Drucker, Wu Tsang and Chris Vargas will present a series of live performances and video projects inspired by the collections at ONE. These artists explore trans content in their multidisciplinary work and are interested in a discussion about LGBTQ archives and the "Ts" and "Qs" that are often missing from historical records. The performance will be followed by a discussion moderated by Dean Spade, assistant professor at the Seattle University School of Law.

Performer and Speaker Bios:

Heather Cassils is a body builder who uses her exaggerated physique to intervene in various contexts in order to interrogate systems of power, control and gender. Often employing many of the same strategies used by Fluxus and guerrilla theatre, her method is multidisciplinary and crosses a spectrum of performance, film, video and photography. She is also a founding member of the Los Angeles–based performance group Toxic Titties.

Zackary Drucker is a Los Angeles–based artist who is interested in obliterating language obstacles, pulverizing identity disorders and revealing dark subconscious layers of outsider agency. Drucker disarms audiences using live performance, film, video and photography.

Dean Spade is an assistant professor at the Seattle University School of Law, teaching law and social movements, poverty law and administrative law. His book, Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law, is forthcoming from South End Press.

Wu Tsang is a Los Angeles–based visual artist and performer whose projects have been presented at X-Initative (New York), Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros (Mexico City), Oberhausen (Germany), REDCAT (Los Angeles) and the California Biennial 2010. In 2008, his short film The Shape of a Right Statement was included in Artforum’s “Best of the Year (Film).” Tsang is currently directing his first feature documentary, Wildness, which is in post-production.

Chris Vargas is a video maker based in Oakland. With collaborator Greg Youmans he creates the sitcom series Falling in Love . . . with Chris and Greg, and with Eric Stanley he is the co-director of the movie Homotopia and the feature-length sequel Criminal Queers.

Organized by Joseph Hawkins, Mia Locks, David Frantz, Onya Hogan-Finlay and the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives. Co-sponsored by LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) and the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time Initiative.



For further information on this event:
visionsandvoices@usc.edu

Location: One National Gay & Lesbian Archives, 909 West Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Daria Yudacufski