(via Self-Portraits : Jen Davis Photography) Mike and I, 2006

Jen Davis is a Brooklyn based photographer. For the past ten years she has been working on a series of Self-Portrait’s dealing with issues regarding beauty, identity, and body image. She has also been exploring men, as a subject and is interested in investigating the idea of relationships, both physical and psychological, with the camera.

She received her MFA from Yale University in 2008, and her BA from Columbia College Chicago in 2002. Jen is represented by Lee Marks Fine Art.

Interview with JD Samson of MEN re: their tour with CSS.

SFBG: Why name the band MEN?

JD: The idea for the name came out of a feminist confidence boosting philosophy that Johanna was teaching me. If you are in a club and the promoter is being a dick, don’t apologize to them, or feel guilty for existing. what would a man do? at the time she was telling me this, we were asked for a name for the project and we decided to go with MEN.

via Feminist dance pop: Q&A with MEN’s JD Samson | San Francisco Bay Guardian

curate:

thegang:

Photos by Dru Donovan

Young American photographer Dru Donovan’s photographs are ambiguous and sensitive and compelling. Looking at the images, its hard to know whether her work is staged, or more reportage based. She graduated from Yale last year, but information on her or her work is scant, which actually serves to make the images more intriguing and open to interpretation. 

Taking place in a strange suburban limbo, and dealing with issues like body image and the awkwardness of teenage years, Donovan’s work shows subjects seemingly uncomfortable in themselves, often awkward in front of the lens. There are shades of Diane Arbus with her uncanny knack of capturing weirdness in mundane situations, but it’s Donavan’s ability to capture the vulnerability in her subjects in such a thoughtful way that makes her work so powerful. A talent to watch.

 (words via Field of Vision)

(via sexartandpolitics)

DanceLife Blog | Dance Life Australia

A mischievous sharp shootin’ cabaret of burlesque with balls, highflying circus bandits and burly gender offenders. Briefs slams together a beef-caked and disorderly line up of Brisbane’s finest performers and mischief makers in a circus-infused variety show for the not-so-faint-hearted.

Stumbling onto the block with a fresh, raw and savvy style of circus and burlesque with balls and brains, their blend of the absurd, wicked humour, gob-smacking physicality, piss take and not-so-bashful displays of flesh have won them legions of fans.

Briefs review from their recent Sydney run. Reblogged because Polytoxic troupe will be doing free performances of their new show in progress ‘The Rat Trap’ at the Brisbane Powerhouse soon, and Fez Fa’anana [pictured] is a bit of a queer circus legend.

via Julie Fogarty’s blog, The legend of Petra Flurr Berlin, 2010

cuntymint:

MEN — “Off Our Backs”

And I shall nevar forget how much I love MEN. 

I found queer pop Burning Man vibe of this clip really disconcerting at first re: JD dancing before the sun, sweaty dancers and a barren landscape.

Like it reminds me of something else I enjoyed that would be seen as semi-embarrassing by some art people. Just realized now: Jesus Christ SuperMEN.

(via loveandzombies)

ladyfest ten week: a chat with MEN « wears the trousers magazine

JD Samson, interviewed by Wears the Trousers mag.

You and Ginger have talked about how current queer/feminist dance music can be seen as shifting from “angry” music to politically “optimistic” music. Can you elaborate on that?

That shift I think began a long time ago when Le Tigre was at the helm of the feminist dance music scene. I think now we are kind of working somewhere down the line from optimistic to thought-provoking. We aren’t happy all the time, we are only realistic, practical and hopeful.

Are we not divas? We are MEN! Q&A with JD Samson

JD “the girl with the mustache” Samson is perhaps best known as member of Le Tigre, having joined the “Deceptacon” trio in 2001. The band acquired quite a following with indie labels Mr. Lady and Chicks on Speed, but not long after their major-label effort in 2004, most of the noise surrounding the group was rumors of breakup. Although they haven’t split up entirely – the three recently worked with Christina Aguilera for her new album – JD’s main focus for the moment is MEN, a new band with Michael O’Neill and Ginger Brooks Takahashi, integrating themes of gender inclusivity and queer rights into catchy, danceable pop beats.

MEN are now touring throughout Europe, including a Berlin stop on the 20th of April at Festsaal Kreuzberg. I recently had a conversation with JD about the tour, Christina, Amanda Blank, the forthcoming MEN album and the New York University Library’s new riot grrrl collection.

..and about fucking your friends to get a little baby.

A Place To Think: Sadness (1999)

William Yang has worked as a photographer and theatre performer for over three decades. Descended from Chinese grandparents who migrated to Northern Australia in the 1880s, Yang was born William Young in 1943. After visiting China in the mid 1980s he changed his name to Yang in recognition of his Chinese heritage.

During the 1990s, Yang developed and performed a series of thought-provoking monologues, using projected slides for illumination. His third monologue Sadness wove together two themes: the discovery of the artist’s Chinese heritage and the rituals of dying and death in Sydney particularly as it effected many men with HIV aids. This show toured nationally and internationally to critical and popular acclaim. As well as performing his celebrated monologues all over the world, Yang is internationally recognised as a photographer with over twenty solo photographic exhibitions across Asia, Australia, Europe and North America.

Favorite pic of Yang, apart from his own self portraits. taken by Anna Zahalka.

Handsome Men for Women « ARTimeNY

At 93 years old, Sylvia Sleigh continues to paint portraits, often nudes and often of men.

As she was quoted in New York Magazine recently, “There were always pictures of beautiful women but very few of handsome men, so I thought that it would be truly fair to paint handsome men for women.” Engaged in the feminist art movement, Sleigh in the 1970s challenged the tradition of the odalisque by substituting a male subject.

In her current show of small-scale portraits,  Sleigh takes us back to the art world of the 1960s and 70s. Arriving in NY from England in the early 60s and married to art critic Lawrence Alloway who coined the term “Pop Art”, Sleigh became very involved in the local art scene