UNTITLED is a comprehensive project featuring a centerpiece video and supportive photographic documentation. Although mainly a study of Vogueing, UNTITLED reflects the overarching theme of my body of work.

 

Vogueing is a highly stylized dance form spawned in the gay Ball culture of New York City in the 1960s and 70s. Introduced to the mainstream audience by Jennie Livingston's 1991 documentary Paris Is Burning, Vogueing was later popularized by the video for Madonna's hit-single, Vogue. In its original incarnation, the dance form borrowed poses from fashion models featured in Vogue magazine and deftly blended them with moves derived from ballet, martial arts and yoga.

 

UNTITLED arose from my interest in Vogueing and its use of body language and gestures as a means of communication. I wanted to celebrate Vogueing due to its underrepresentation as a dance form relative to its contemporaries despite the strong parallels it draws to ballet and modern dance. Vogueing continues to remain native to the gay community and I wanted the opportunity to abstract it in my own way.

 

The piece features Shayne Oliver, one of New York City's top Voguers', and serves to shape a careful and loving visual study of both performer and performance. I invited Oliver to my studio to be filmed demonstrating different styles of Vogueing, and one style in particular most commonly referred to in the gay community as "banji-cunt". "Banji" is a word in the gay community used to describe someone as "ghetto fabulous" and "cunt" is a word used to describe someone as hyper-feminine. I find this particular style intriguing in that it prides itself on its failed glamour as well its performance within a performance -- i.e. a man trying to project ultimate femminity. This in itself provides an excellent platform to create a wide and powerful array of non-verbal communication that is strongly rooted to the practice of visual art. Using the footage I filmed during that session, I connected the shots to form sequences and then connected these sequences to create the 2-minute video "Untitled (Study for Banji Cunt)" and a collection of 10 photographs. This video was then given to the performer to study and elaborate on. "Untitled", an 8-minute HD-video, is the final result of Oliver's reinterpretation of this unique approach to choreography.

 

Rashaad Newsome

UNTITLED

2008

HD-video, 8 Minutes

 

Credits

Performer - Shayne Oliver

 

 

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