Self Evidence:
Jonathan VanDyke
Type
Conversation
Lecture Performance
Series
Staging Sex, Staging Self
Location
Skowhegan NYC
136 West 22nd Street
New York, NY, 10011
Date
7 PM
1 of 2
Jonathan VanDyke, Family photo of Uncle Gary, 1980. Courtesy the artist
1 of 2
Jonathan VanDyke, Family photo of Uncle Gary, 1980. Courtesy the artist
Jonathan VanDyke looks for himself in a family photograph taken during his childhood. The picture shows his adopted uncle wearing his mother’s dress while holding the trunk of a stuffed elephant in his mouth. Jonathan’s talk explores the issues faced by queers who were children during the AIDS crisis and 1980s culture wars, and how the hyper-capitalism and theatricality of this period nurtured a certain type of passing (including his own). Augmented by research into a gay panic that happened in his rural hometown, passages from the soap operas he watched as a child, and memories of a disappeared uncle, he evokes the repressed ghosts of a lost generation of queer mentors while exploring his own transition from theatrical youth to closeted jock.
About the series:
Staging Sex, Staging Self is a series of artists’ talks that move over and under the line where the body meets language and where that same body asks, “how is it that I am this way?” This series hinges on the production of gender, theatricality, and culture.