The Reality Shows

Ms. Finley hasn't lost the power to disturb.-Ben Brantley, The New York Times No other contemporary performing artist has captured the psychological complexity of this decade's political and social milestones as Karen Finley has in the past ten years. In her inimitable style, Finley has embodied some of the most troubling figures to cast a long shadow on the public imagination, and has envisioned a kind of catharsis within each drama: Liza Minnelli responds to the September 11 attacks; Terri Schaivo explains why Americans love a woman in a coma; Martha Stewart dumps George W. Bush during their tryst on the eve of the Republican National Convention; Silda Spitzer tells the former governor why I'm sorry just isn't enough; Jackie O cries, Please stop looking at me! The Reality Shows is a revelation of a decade by one of our greatest interpreters of popular and political culture. Karen Finley 's raw and transgressive performances have long provoked controversy and debate. She has appeared and exhibited her visual art, performances, and plays internationally. The author of many books, including A Different Kind Of Intimacy, George & Martha, and Shock Treatment, she is a professor at the Tisch School of Art and Public Policy at NYU. Kathleen Hanna, activist and writer, was the lead singer of the punk band Bikini Kill before fronting the dance-punk band Le Tigre. She released a solo album under the name Julie Ruin. |||This book is sold in the US by Sony Electronics Inc.

Finley (Shock Treatment) begins this showcase of recent work-performance, installation, conceptual, and visual art-with "Make Love," an homage to post-9/11 New York via "a cabaret-driven, lounge-style act that channels Liza Minnelli," who is used as a stand-in for the city and also to soften the subject for the audience. "The Passion of Terri Schiavo" allows Finley to examine the "political, ethical, and moral dilemmas" of the case, resulting in a feverish mantra told from multiple perspectives. The amusing "George and Martha" imagines a love affair between George W. Bush and Martha Stewart as a highly-eroticized Freudian romp both disturbing and hilarious. In her foreword, Hanna recalls an early show by Finley as "the most intensely vulnerable, perfectly crafted performance I'd ever seen," akin to "watching Patti Smith turn into Evel Knievel." Reproducing performance pieces as text, says Hanna, "lets you get at so many other layers of meaning." True, but it also serves as a sort of artistic kryptonite, stripping away what gives Finley much of her power. Illus. (Mar.) � Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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• Published by

  The Feminist Press

• Publish Date

  February 28, 2011 

• Print ISBN

  1558616713

• eBook ISBN

  9781558616721

• Imprint

  The Feminist Press

• Filesize

  4.26 MB

• Number of Print Pages*

  220

* Number of eBook pages may differ. Click here for more information.