Underskog

COMMUNITY ACTION CENTER

2010

69 min.

A.K. Burns & A.L. Steiner (US)

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This event is RSVP only, so please confirm your attendance via email or facebook.
Doors closes exactly 20 minutes after given time.

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Community Action Center is a sociosexual video which incorporates the erotics of a community where the personal is not only political, but sexual. This project was heavily inspired by porn-romance-liberation films, which served as distinct portraits of the urban inhabitants, landscapes and the body politic of a particular time and place. Community Action Center is a unique contemporary womyn-centric composition that serves as both an ode and a hole-filler.
Because the video contains sexually explicit content, the term ‘porn’ is relevant and the artists have an interest in exploring the trappings of the term itself. Sex, sexuality and the complexities of gendered bodies are inherently political. Queer sex and feminist agency is a shared acknowledgment of reciprocal penetration. This project is a small archive of an intergenerational community built on collaboration, friendship, sex and art. The work attempts to explore a consideration of feminist fashion, sexual aesthetics and an expansive view of what is defined as ‘sex’.

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Burns and Steiner worked with artists and performers who created infinitely complex gender and performance roles that are both real and fantastical, set to a soundtrack of music and original compositions by Chicks on Speed, Effi Briest, Electrelane, Chateau featuring K8 Hardy, Lesbians on Ecstasy, Light Asylum, MEN, Motherland, NGUZUNGUZU, I.U.D. (Lizzi Bougatsos & Sadie Laska), Kinski and Thee Majesty (Genesis P-Orridge), and featuring original compositions by Justin Bond, Nick Hallett & Sam Greenleaf Miller, Ashland Mines & Wu Tsang, Sergei Tcherepnin and Tri-State Area with AV Linton. The video seeks to expose and reformulate paradigms that are typical of porn typologies, intentionally exploiting tropes for their comical value, critical consideration and historical homage. Using the gallery to exer/exorcise the mystical and discreet lost spaces of homosocial configuration, the artists have created a reason and a space to reflect on the cultural realness of homo-grown lesbian sexuality. The work aims to be a hedonistic and distinctly political adventure.

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Community Action Center has been presented at MoMA, SFMoMA, TATE Modern, Konsthall C, Göteborgs Konsthall, El Lugar Sin Limites, Quito, Ecuador and REDCAT Gallery, Los Angeles, among others.

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A.K. BURNS is an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Burns’ practice explores interpretation and implications of sexuality, power and language, often taking the form of sculpture, video, drawing or social actions. Burns has been a frequent contributor and active member of both LTTR and Ridykeulous. Burns is a founding member of the artists activist group W.A.G.E. (Working Artists and the Greater Economy). Burns is co-editor of RANDY, a trans-feminist arts magazine published by Capricious. Her work has been featured at Taxter & Spengeman (NY), Horton Gallery (GER), TATE Modern (UK), The Hessel Museum of Art (NY), The Sculpture Center (NY) and The Brooklyn Museum (NY), among others. She received a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from Bard College, Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts. akburns.net

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A.L. STEINER uses constructions of photography, video, installation, collage, collaboration, performance and curatorial work as seductive tropes channeled through the sensibility of a cynical queer eco-feminist androgyne. Based in Brooklyn, NY, Steiner is a collective member of Chicks on Speed, the co-curator of Ridykeulous, a founding member of W.A.G.E. (Working Artists and the Greater Economy) and collaborates with numerous visual and performing artists. Her work has been exhibited and published internationally, featured at P.S.1./MoMA (NY), Taxter & Spengeman (NY), Horton Gallery (GER), The RedCat (CA), TATE Modern (UK), The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (MA) and SFMoMA (CA), among others. She is represented by Taxter & Spengemann. www.taxterandspengemann.com…

FRANK is an informal meeting place using domestic settings to host art. Initiated by Liv Bugge, Sille Storihle and Synnøve G. Wetten.