POPPY JACKSON [UK] and DIDIER ODIEU [Belgium]
Controversies! Turn Around!
Curated by Jill McDermid
Tonight brings together two artists whose lives have been affected by their use of their personal lives in their performances and the post-performance effect that raw honesty in your work can have on your life.
We also hope to have a tribute to Michael Brown and others using performance to explore oppression and violence in the United States.
POPPY JACKSON [UK]
Poppy Jackson is a painter, performance artist, facilitator and writer based in London, UK. She received a BA (Hons) in Visual Performance from Dartington College of Arts, and earned her MA in Performance Making from Goldsmiths University. She makes action-based works exploring the female body in as an autonomous zone. Her work mixes a grungeaesthetic with the iconography of Catholicism, through a methodology of violence as creative and transformational catalyst.
Poppy's work has been supported by Arts Council England and presented internationally, including at The Barbican and Whitechapel Galleries (London), Arnolfini (Bristol), Black Box (Belfast), Project Arts Centre (Dublin), Kunselforum (Cologne), Fluxus Ministeria (Kaunas), FEM Festival (Girona), Museum of New Art (Detroit) and Grace Exhibition Space (New York). She was recently guest editor of BLUD ZER0 Collective's first E-Zine and her written work will be published in the 'Action Art Now' anthology later this year.
Poppy acts as a mentor to graduates from Norwich University of the Arts and has been invited to teach, present talks and give workshops at arts spaces and universities. She regularly curates events and facilitates professional development projects for emerging artists. She is Project Director of Liminal Bodies, the international network of nomadic artists; she also runs Site Space, a monthly site responsive event. Poppy lives and works in London where she is an AssociateArtist of ]performance s p a c e [.
COMING SPRING 2015
'TALKING TO THE MACHINE' - Poppy Jackson & Nina Arsenault
This three-day durational performance extends Jackson and Arsenault's ongoing investigation of collaborative practice through durational performance. The artists will live and work inside Grace Exhibition Space for the work's entirety.
The performance aims to 'explode gender through body, mind & spirit', and whilst tackling gender-based issues it also furthers the artists' rigorous practical investigation into performance as spiritual and life practice. The work responds to Grace's current theme 'Controversy: Public vs Private life in Performance Art.'
The attire of Artist Poppy Jackson is custom produced by ARTTIRE art project.
Poppy JacksonDIDIER ODIEU [Belgium]
ODIEU is an essential character of the alternative underground European scene, born in Belgium with the 1977 punk movement; he began throwing rotten beef stomachs on the audience and killing chickens with an electric knife, then created pornographic ballets for family audiences. Finally tired of hospitals (every performance turned into a riot) what was created was a stupid and schyzophrenic pop star, who's unexpected success became hundreds of concerts and 6 albums. But this wasn't Odies’ plans, so after 4 years of fame, he decided to stop the experience: he went on stage and instead of singing, broke his piano with a hammer and a gravel. After trying to make love with a baby pig on the stage of an agricultural fair, Odieu then entered the Guinness Book with his next brilliant idea:The World Record of Sports Megamix singing 178 hits in 13min45sec. His very extensive work has made him an icon of the Belgian alternative-culture. Odieu has worked with Ron Link, Bryon Gysin, Malcolm Mc Laren, Topor, and many more... The music is always present in his works - as a decoy, as a pretext. This is supposed to be a concert. But it's the kind of concert you never saw before. This is supposed to be funny. but it may be frightening, sad, fearful, highly disturbing... and always unpredictable.
We do not count many such nutcases as Odieu; the most anarchist of the Dadaists, biggest saboteur of success. Stainless jester, sour but not ready to be embittered, he has devastated his homeland, Belgium, then France, but he has yet to flabbergast the United states. Finally, the beast is unleashed again for our greatest pleasure. Obviously in great spirits, Odieu does his big number of a mad dog which, tail wagging, sweeps all the porcelain vases lovingly arranged on the living room coffee table ... www.odieu.com
Didier Odieu:ABOUT GRACE EXHIBITION SPACE
182 AVENUE C NEW YORK, NY 10009
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GRACE:
Grace, n. - simple elegance or refinement of movement
Grace Period - an extended period granted as a special favor
The Three Graces (Greek Mythology) - charm, grace, and beauty
Opened in 2006, Grace Exhibition Space is devoted exclusively to Performance Art. We offer an opportunity to experience visceral and challenging works by the current generation of international performance artists whether emerging, mid-career or established. Our events are presented on the floor, not on a stage, dissolving the boundary between artist and viewer. This is how performance art is meant to be experienced and our mission is the glorification of performance art.
Grace Exhibition Space presents over 30 curated live performance art exhibitions each year, showcasing new work by more than 400 performance artists from across the United States and the world since 2006.
Grace Exhibition Space for International Performance Art Space IRS tax-exempt 501(c)3 status in 2015.
Grace Exhibition Space follows the We Have a Voice Collectives Code of Conduct to Promote Safe(r) Workplaces in the Performing Arts For more information and resources, visit: www.wehavevoice.org