Ida Ekblad

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:50:40 +0000

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:00:06 +0000

Dear Cockettes: An Exhibition for and about the legendary Acid Queens: The Cockettes

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:22:50 +0000

DEAR COCKETTES: An exhibition for and about the legendary acid queens The Cockettes 17. november – 16. desember at UKS Curated by Ida Ekblad & Anders Nordby The opening Friday 16th of November at 19.00 featured performances by original Cockette Rumi Missabu, House of Egypt and Nils Bech. RUMI MISSABU JACK SMITH STEVEN ARNOLD NILS NORMAN STEPHAN DILLEMUTH BILL BOWERS DAVID WEISSMAN FAYETTE HAUSER JOSHUA FREIWALD GREGORY PICKUP HOUSE OF EGYPT BENJAMIN A. HUSEBY NILS BECH TOMATA DU PLENTY MICHAEL KALMEN DAVID WEISSMAN "The Cockettes are the double reverse of Gay Liberation... San Francisco's most outrageous freaks...practicing sexual role confusion out of a third-hand trunk of glitter, feathers, food stamps, and funk in wacked-out musical parodies - their usual style being stoned Busby Berkeley emerging from Kubla Khan's tent... insanity becomes reality -fantasy becomes truth." Village Voice "Their productions were transvestite-glitter-fairie-theatre masques. Transsexual dressing is a gay contribution to the realization that we’re not a hundred percent masculine or feminin, but a mixture of hormones – and not being afraid of that natural self wich the hormones dictate. The Cockettes brought out into to the street what was in the closet, in terms of theatric dress and imaginative theatre." Allen Ginsberg Dear Cockettes takes as its starting point the legendary performance group The Cockettes who derived from the Haight Ashbury hippie community and were active in San Fransisco from 1969 to 1972, (where parts of the group reformed themselves into a group called The Angels of Light.) With their flamboyant and psychedelic performances, unpredictability and energy, The Cockettes became a buzz in art and theater circles. Their rich visual material, bohemian lifestyle and mix of genres like art, theater, music, cabaret, performance and drag, have inspired artists, musicians and designers, like Mike Kelley, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, John Waters, Truman Capote, Alice Cooper, Antony and the Johnsons, Marc Jacobs, Sonic Youth and Allen Ginsberg -who performed with the group. The curators have assembled an extensive collection of unique material relating to The Cockettes' work, such as original vintage posters, photographic prints, scripts, newspaper articles, artefacts and paraphernalia presented in the form of a "Wunderkammer". To further enable spectators a rare opportunity to learn about The Cockettes' life and art, there will be screenings of various films about or concerning The Cockettes, such as the rarely seen Pickup's tricks (1971) by Gregory Pickup, a beat documentary where one follows The Cockettes and their founder Hibiscus through a crucifixion and resurrection culminating in a golden shower as a decadent celebration of life. Articulating the destiny of numerable members of The Cockettes, the film Song from an Angel (1988) by David Weismann, is a beautiful portrait of Angels of Light member Rodney Price step-dancing in a wheelchair two weeks before he died of AIDS. The exhibition emphasizes the importance of The Cockettes' break with established society, proposing debate around subjects such as gender and sexuality. Furthermore the exhibition explores the influence of The Cockettes on emerging generations of artists and performers like The London based House of Egypt, who will perform “The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the House of Egypt”, mixing the ancient queer sub-cultural art forms of drag, spoken word, lip-synching and voguing into a dark, mysterious and absurd saga of a less known Egypt. Their tour-de-force ends in the assembling of a photographic sculpture by House of Egypt member Benjamin A. Huseby, part shrine, part levitating pyramid, part debris. Nils Bech will perform Jimmy Somervilles Coming, reflecting on gender-patterns through falsetto and lyrical dance, continuing the tradition of what The Cockettes coined as "Genderfuck": "I am coming! I am coming! Here I am! Neither a woman, nor a man." Stephan Dillemuth and Nils Norman´s film I´m Short Your House (2007) brings together their parallel research strands of Bohemia, the ongoing financialisation of the city and the role of the artist within today’s burgeoning international art market.

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 00:24:30 +0000

Send Mail ida at computerprincess dot com

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 22:51:37 +0000

IDA EKBLAD born 1980 in Oslo, Norway EDUCATION 2008 MSA^, Los Angeles 2005-07 The National Academy of Art. Oslo (MA) 2002-05 The National Academy of Art. Oslo (BA) 2000-01 Central St. Martins College of Art, dep of Fine Art. London SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2008 Fotogalleriet, Oslo GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2008 Death By Basel, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, curated by Agatha Wara (upcoming) Swiss Institute Benefit Auction, NY (upcoming) MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami (Publication) CANADA, New York Art Since the Summer of 69, New York Dark Fair, Swiss Institute, NY, curated by Scott and Tyson Reeder ^MSA, Mountain School of Arts, Los Angeles GOOD NEWS FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE BAD NEWS, Swiss Institute, NY, curated by Gianni Jetzer Background, PREUS MUSEUM, curated by Jonas Ekeberg (Publication) Medium Cool, Art in General, NY, curated by Hanne Mugaas Lights On, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Art, Oslo Nada, Miami, in the auspices of KARMA INTERNATIONAL, Zurich 2007 The Corny Show, KARMA INTERNATIONAL, Zurich Tower, curated by Jonas Ohlsson, W 139 Amsterdam, Holland MA degree show, The National Academy of Art, The Stenersen museum , Oslo Robert Smithson, Fotogalleriet Oslo, curated by Lina Viste Grønli and Anders Smebye Paris Was Yesterday, curated by Hanne Mugaas, Galerie La Vitrine, Paris The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, The Green Gallery, Milwaukee (w Marius Engh) Von Zamlla mina mannar & ida, Galleri De Praktijk, Amsterdam, curated by Jonas Ohlsson 2006 The Copy and Paste Show, Rhizome, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, curated by Hanne Mugaas Giving People What They Want, Glassbox, Paris The Art academy in Exile, Uks, Oslo Everything I do (I do it for you) Projekt 0047, Berlin, curated by Hanne Mugaas Fultjacks Blot, Raid Projects, Los Angeles USA, curated by Jonas Ohlsson The Early Show, White Columns, New York, curated by Tyson Reeder, Scott Reeder og Elysia Borowy C U (on The Other) Side, Bastard, Oslo CURATORIAL PROJECTS Nils Bech in Concert, Willy Wonka Inc. Oslo Dear Cockettes: An exhibition for and about the legendary acid queens, The Cockettes, UKS, Oslo (w Anders Nordby) The Corny Show, Karma International, Zurich, (w Anders Nordby) Jim Drain & Nils Beck Performance, Willy Wonka Inc. Oslo Milwaukee International, Milwaukee (w Anders Nordby) There Are Two Paths, Torpedo, Oslo, (w Hanne Mugaas) Giving People What they Want, Glassbox, Paris (w Hanne Mugaas) With Us Against Reality, Or Against Us! Willy Wonka Inc. Oslo (w Anders Nordby) PUBLICATIONS The Cockettes, Editor w / Anders Nordby, Published by Torpedo Press Background, Preus Museum When The Sky Fell (From the archives of The Yellow Tomb) Fanzine With us Against Reality, Or Against Us! (w Anders Nordby) CD with works by 17 artists for "With Us Against Reality, Or Against Us!" “PHANTASMAGORIA” 28 pages in “Nesten”, Aschehoug -ISBN: 82032454638 PUBLIC COLLECTIONS The National Museum of Art, Oslo, Norway The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo Preus Museum, Norway Statoil Hydro Collection, Norway Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Norway