As part of the space’s East Village Series, a homage to its surrounding neighborhood, Performance Space New York spotlights a feminist poet and novelist in “Kathy Acker: Who Wants to Be Human All the Time.” The presentation is co-curated by Jenny Schlenzka, the director of Performance Space New York, and Norwegian artist Bjarne Melgaard.
During her lifetime, Kathy Acker performed with Genesis P-Orridge and played chess with Salman Rushdie. The exhibit is as subversive as the writer was herself, including a puppet inspired by Acker, and will last until April 8. The New York Times says:
In the same vein of Acker’s writing, the art that appears in dialogue with the video are works of self-exposure: close-ups of male and female genitalia rendered in rainbow pastels by the painter Celia Hempton; a letter to Acker by the artist and poet Diamond Stingily, acknowledging the fact that they would not have been friends; a sculpture made of the mattress that artist Ser Brandon-Castro Serpas and an ex first had sex on. It’s an all-women show without labeling itself as such, with two obvious exceptions: Sondheim, Acker’s “Blue Tape” co-star, and Melgaard himself.
