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May 03, 2007
"Wayout" on Espanola Way
As part of the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Espanola Way (seen above in a promotional shot), was quite busy last night. A total of twenty-three different performance pieces were presented in various locations, curated by Dana Keith of the Miami Beach Cinematheque. Some of the presentations were combinations of live performance with film or video. Other works could be described simply as mixed media. Most of the work was by local artists, plus films by Guy Maddin, Kenneth Anger and Barbara Hammer.
Guy Maddin's short Sissy Boy Slap Party was presented as a peep show loop. Anger's Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome was projected in a small gated area between two building, on a screen, with performance artist Octavio Campos lounging underneath playing with jewels and flowers.
Juan Carlos Zaldivar's installation piece, "Strings #8" was made up of video images projected on linen panels. Part of a series, the images made me think of small versions of exquisite shoji screens. Dinorah De Jesus Rodriguez' piece, "Telepathia", was a video loop projected onto a large white ball. More conventional in presentation was Jan Wandrag's photo series "Jonathan + David".
Corporate sponsorship combined with performance art with the Tylenol PM Boys and Girls doing something titled "Sleepy Boys, Sleepy Girls". The gray pajamas with faint stripes made me think of the concentration camp uniforms. I don't have quite the imagination to make up this kind of stuff. There were also the Stoli girls in matching white, form fitting dresses.
Definitely not corporate were the Wrestling Rooster Girls, giving new meaning to the phrase, "shake your tail feather". I couldn't begin to explain the meaning of Heather Maloney's performance, "The Panty Scene". What I can report is that when the piece was over, there was enough underwear on the floor to make one person comment on Maloney's laundry bill.
In addition to Flamenco lessons by drag performers Geraldine and Fernandicute, David Rohn, as "Modern Bride" Esperanza tossed dandelions from a balcony, when not seeking potential husbands. The main event of the night belonged to local legend Adora performing a comic lip-synch of an aria from La Traviata. "Singing" from a balcony to the crowd below, Adora lived up to her name as one of the most beloved characters of Miami Beach.
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at May 3, 2007 04:41 AM