QVK x Kala Lolo
08.24.2019
at the Carpenter’s Shop at Snug Harbor Cultural Center
ABOUT KALA LOLO
Lys Obsidian’s Kala Lolo is a series of variety shows focused on bringing queer programming and avant-garde theatre to Staten Island. The events feature artists of various disciplines, but with an emphasis on experimental theatre/performance art.
In the inaugural QVK event, we combined efforts with Kala Lolo—the well-established series of queer variety shows and experimental theater produced by Staten Island-based artist Lys Obsidian—to present a cross-pollinated night of art, entertainment, and gay propaganda.
Held at Snug Harbor’s Carpenter Shop, Queer Van Kult x Kala Lolo featured installations and art by Dot Dulgarian, Peggy, Zoë Tirado, Maria Ladias, Jenno Snyder, and Nicie Mok; projections by Cherry Mag (the duo Ai Vila and Velvet Tatiana) and Rachel Fox; and performance art by SB Kosinski, Snooze, PNK VLVT WTCH Ensemble, and Nola Star; and was hosted by Porno Pig.
Held at Snug Harbor’s Carpenter Shop, Queer Van Kult x Kala Lolo featured installations and art by Dot Dulgarian, Peggy, Zoë Tirado, Maria Ladias, Jenno Snyder, and Nicie Mok; projections by Cherry Mag (the duo Ai Vila and Velvet Tatiana) and Rachel Fox; and performance art by SB Kosinski, Snooze, PNK VLVT WTCH Ensemble, and Nola Star; and was hosted by Porno Pig.
PERFORMING ARTISTS
PNK VLVT WTCH
PNK VLVT WTCH (they/them) are a multi-instrumental and performan
ce art entity embodying both masculine and feminine spirits. Their work is grounded in surrealism and witchcraft, both emotional and archetypal. Their PNK VLVT WTCH ensemble features Jezebel Viper (they/them) and Obsidian Absurd (she/her, they/them).
NOLA STAR
Performance artist and Pain Proof Princess Nola Star (she/her) eats and breathes fire, swallows swords, and sleeps on a bed of nails, usually doing all of it for the legendary Coney Island Circus Sideshow.
SNOOZE
Originally from the suburbs of Chicago, snooze (aka elam karabush) (he/him) moved to NYC in 2011 to study saxophone performance and philosophy at The New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music and Eugene Lang College. While in school he began working at Make Music NY as 2014 Festival Fellow and at Roulette Intermedium as the Programs & Artist Services Manager. In addition to supporting musicians from behind-the-scenes as an administrator, snooze has worked collaboratively creating music and performance with Stevie May, Tess Dworman, Kyli Kleven, and june melton; and has danced for Kim Brandt, played saxophone with noise-rock trio Gold Dime, and assisted in sound design for devynnemory/beastproductions.
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SB KOSINSKI
SB Kosinski (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist who works with collaging found objects, painting, video, and dark humor. Their work is shown in the NYC area and beyond, in both formal gallery settings and transient spaces. This makes some of their creations completely accessible and collectible for the general public, breaking the notion that art is only for the wealthy class. Kosinski is a native Staten Islander who lives in Brooklyn and works in all five boroughs.
PORNO PIG
Porno Pig is Nicie Mok’s beloved pet. Nicie Mok (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist and NYC’s official lost-soul-in-residence. Although often absurd in application, her work largely deals with issues of conformity and the commonplace narratives we tend to subconsciously employ. Her last two zines, Increase Your Male Power! and This is a Sign! were published by NYSAI Press. She has a Financial Economics degree from Columbia University. www.niciemok.com
INSTALLATIONS
STRAP-ONSEMBLE
by Jenno
The Strap-Onsemble is an interactive installation designed to remove the taboo of queer pleasure. This collection of homemade noise instruments includes The Organ Grindr, a synthesizer made of strap-ons, and The Moan Machine, a drone instrument which contains three vibrators vibrating at different frequencies creating harmonious overtones.
Jenno (she/her, they/them) is a Staten Island-based queer experimental composer, multi-instrumentalist, and intermedia artist. Her latest album, Too North, was released by Worry Records (2018). Formerly under the name God II, she released three EPs: Crazz (2017), Infinite Feedback Lute (Lost Notes Media, 2017), and Death After Life (Captain Crook Records, 2016). Previously, she was known for her work with Staten Island-based band Yeti, as composer and bassist. She is founder and editor of the Staten Island based literary press, NYSAI Press. She holds a BA in Physics and Philosophy from New York University. www.jennosnyder.com
by Jenno
The Strap-Onsemble is an interactive installation designed to remove the taboo of queer pleasure. This collection of homemade noise instruments includes The Organ Grindr, a synthesizer made of strap-ons, and The Moan Machine, a drone instrument which contains three vibrators vibrating at different frequencies creating harmonious overtones.
Jenno (she/her, they/them) is a Staten Island-based queer experimental composer, multi-instrumentalist, and intermedia artist. Her latest album, Too North, was released by Worry Records (2018). Formerly under the name God II, she released three EPs: Crazz (2017), Infinite Feedback Lute (Lost Notes Media, 2017), and Death After Life (Captain Crook Records, 2016). Previously, she was known for her work with Staten Island-based band Yeti, as composer and bassist. She is founder and editor of the Staten Island based literary press, NYSAI Press. She holds a BA in Physics and Philosophy from New York University. www.jennosnyder.com
by Peggy, Dot Dulgarian, and Zoë Tirado
These pieces presented at this time are meant to be interactive, intimate, and approachable. What is on display are faces with emotions that are detached and unobtainable, which makes each person’s opinions contrasting and interesting.
Peggy (she/her) is a part-time artist living in Brooklyn/Queens, NY. She received her BFA from The School of Visual Arts in 2014. Her art often portrays the parts of life that attribute to the way she lives within. Her work is mainly mixed-media based. She wants what she creates to be engrossing and relatable.
Dot Dulgarian (they/them) is a soft sculptor and print maker orbiting around the scenic Hudson Valley. Their work often focuses on the experience and living in a mentally and physically ill body, dysphoria, and their relationship with the natural world. They attended the School of Visual Arts and are still trying to figure out what it all means.
Zoë Tirado (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist living in Staten Island, New York. She received her BFA in Fine Arts from The School of Visual Arts in 2014. Often referencing her own search to define womanhood and femininity, Tirado’s work explores the female body, the abject and identity. Recently, Tirado released the zine Dynasty Forever with NYSAI Press and had her first solo exhibition, Buff Chixxx, earlier this summer. Zoë Tirado is the mother of Honey-Yucky.
SCULPTURES
by Maria Ladias
Maria Ladias (she/her) is an often-changing-mediums artist who graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2014 with a BFA in Fine Arts. You can find her in her corner basement studio situated in Brooklyn. Ladias’s art often deals with gender, intimacy, and the fragmented relationship we have to ourselves in a world that pummels us with tidal waves of content. Most recently, she is working on life-size sculptures with gaping holes in them—sometimes these voids are filled and other times they are not. Ladias also has a growing collection of funny, little, existential drawings under the guise of @big.bad.egg on Instagram.
PROJECTIONS
CHERRY DIP is
● an online and sometimes physical mag
● an ongoing collection of stories, moments, images, truths
● your mother and my mother having coffee together
● immigrant girls with secret lives
● post art school ego death
● sister signs with air moons
Ai Vila (she/her) is a tall immigrant girl who makes drawings, poems, and zines. If you ask nicely, she will make you something! Her drawings have appeared in Peach Mag and Poetry Foundation. Currently, she’s really into making rugs and writing about her apocalyptic anxieties.
Velvet Tatiana (she/her) is a NYC-based immigrant scorpio interested in tropicality as a site of decay and entropy where our identities, currently thinking hard about possibly going to nail school. She has shown work in and organized shows in independent spaces in LA and NYC and is less interested in formal spaces and more interested in the life art takes after that, in your home.
RACHEL FOX
Rachel Fox (she/her) is an intermedia artist and designer from Staten Island, NY. Her audiovisual compositions draw work from internet archives, collaging found footage from the 1950s onward with her music or foley experiments. Her videos often attempt to exploit the horror in vintage Americana’s view of women and people who identify as femme. Currently, she designs and markets for both the Brooklyn-based experimental arts space, Roulette Intermedium, and the Staten Island-based art and literary press, NYSAI. www.rachellyngholm.com
SPECIAL THANKS
Kala Lolo is made possible in part by a DCA Art Fund Grant from Staten Island Arts, with public funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
Queer Van Kult x Kala Lolo is proud to be sponsored by Killmeyer’s Old Bavaria Inn.
www.killmeyers.com
24–08–2019