The LA-born, Berlin-based artist Vaginal Davis has returned to New York, where her legacy as the mother of ‘terrorist drag’ has a strong presence in the Bushwick drag scene, in order to present a solo exhibition of new work and an opera.
Come on Daughter Save Me, a solo exhibition at Invisible-Exports gallery, presents a series of 16 blood-red clay and nail polish frieze sculptures of faces, featuring goddesses, mythical and historic women as well as self portraits. The sculptures also contain hairspray, perfume and other products of “traditional” femininity.
Running parallel to the exhibition is The Magic Flute, an interpretation of Mozart’s tragi-comic opera written by Vaginal Davis, who has also created a new score for the performance that the show’s director (and Davis’ long-time collaborator) Susanne Sachsse says, “is better than Mozart’s.” Described as “an opera in six steps,” the show opens at 80WSE gallery next week, running December 1-5, and will be the subject of a film by Michel Auder, to be shown at the gallery June 8- August 13, 2016.
If you aren’t familiar with Davis, do look her videos up on Youtube and check out her website, where you can find out more about her work, become one of the “15,000,000” readers of her blog and find out biographical information like, “Ms. Davis even had a lesbian love affair with actress Gwyneth Paltrow before she married rock star Chris Martin of Coldplay”.
Come on Daughter Save Me is at Invisible-Exports until 20 December. The Magic Flute is at 80WSE gallery 1 – 5 December.
Credits
Text Charlotte Gush
Photography courtesy Vaginal Davis