The (in)famous performance art legend returns with an encore of her acclaimed work.
September 23 & 30, 2023 at Laurie Beechman Theatre
Critic's Pick! "Yep, she’s still got it.... (Finley's) rawness feels like a jolt." -- Elisabeth Vincentelli, The New York Times
"Unrestrained talent. Her intention here is to heal herself and us, to help us see ourselves, feel our fellowship, and be able to say, 'Look, we’ve come through!' In this, she succeeds." -- Elizabeth Zimmer, The Village Voice
“Karen Finley is a profound theater-artist. Her artistry is due in part to her ability to alchemize ‘news’ and make it art… She is irreplaceable.” —Hilton Als, The New Yorker
After an extended run this spring, performance art legend Karen Finley will present an encore of her critically acclaimed performance piece COVID VORTEX ANXIETY OPERA KITTY KALEIDOSCOPE DISCO. Performances will be presented September 23 & 30 at 7pm at The Laurie Beechman Theater (inside West Bank Cafe at 407 West 42nd Street -- at Ninth Avenue, accessible from the A,C,E,N,R,V,F,1,2,3 trains at 42nd Street. Tickets are $27 for general admission or $39 for reserved VIP seating. Please note that there is also a $25 food/drink minimum at all performances at this venue. To purchase tickets visit www.SpinCycleNYC.com.
In COVID VORTEX ANXIETY OPERA KITTY KALEIDOSCOPE DISCO, Finley reflects on our pandemic era traumas, politics, and world events, as well as our coping strategies to deal with isolation, loss, and a culture overwhelmed by anxiety. Finley looks back at a time of Zoom discos, bingeing on animal videos, and pandemic hobbies like baking. This look back while trying to look forward to reimagine a new future creates the framework for this passionate, vulnerable, and often comical new work.
During the pandemic, Finley created hand-painted ink script over found book pages as an act of graffiti. Videos and slides of these works intertwine within COVID VORTEX ANXIETY OPERA KITTY KALEIDOSCOPE DISCO as a moving montage.
Since her first performances in the early 1980's, KAREN FINLEY has become synonymous with performance art. A performer, artist, writer, musician, poet, teacher and lecturer, she is the recipient of two Obies, two Bessies, Guggenheim, and multiple grants from the NEA and NYSCA. She has toured internationally with pieces including Make Love, George & Martha, The Jackie Look, The American Chestnut, A Certain Level of Denial and The Return of The Chocolate Smeared Woman, and Written in the Sand. In 1990, Finley became an unwilling symbol for the NEA when she, along with Tim Miller, Holly Hughes & John Fleck, sued the NEA for withdrawing grants on the grounds of indecency; the controversial case went all the way to the Supreme Court. Among Finley's books are Grabbing P___y, Shock Treatment, Enough Is Enough: Weekly Meditations for Living Dysfunctionally, the Martha Stewart satire Living It Up: Humorous Adventures in Hyperdomesticity, Pooh Unplugged, and A Different Kind of Intimacy. Her art is in the collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, among other places. Finley is a professor in the department of Art and Public Policy at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.