tHe FinaL rUn iNs [detail of installation, including a bit of "unique miscellany"]
Kalup Linzy The Pursuit of Gay (Happyness) 2007 digital black and white video with sound [still from installation]
We were at Taxter & Spengemann this afternoon, but we had totally missed the excitement of the opening, a performance by the random hardcore band "tHe FinaL rUn iNs" (Ben Brantley, Nathan Carter and Matthew Ronay), whose sets, instruments, glitter and ragged concert remnants (including the semi-trashed fish tank above) now line the walls of the main space at the gallery. After a look around at this very site-specific installation we headed upstairs, where currently there's a lineup of four artist films in the gallery's self-described "Blockbuster Summer" exhibition.
Confession: We picked out one of these four shorts on the remote mounted on the wall, Kalup Linzy's "The Pursuit of Gay (Happyness)". I glued myself to the screen all the way to the end of this delicious little love story, starring the artist and Joshua Seidner (pictured). My favorite line was Seidner's woebegone response, as 'hero', correcting 'lady in distress' (Linzy) when she refers to important parts of her lover's anatomy, " . . . our cottontail . . . our peter!", while the voice of Bernice Edwards sings "Butcher Shop Blues" in the background. But in spite of their serious temptations it was a bit too warm inside to stay for the others* today. Absolutely must return.
For the first quarter of Linzy's piece, see this one-minute-plus excerpt on YouTube:
*
including two 1964 films by Lance Richbeurg and Pete Broadrick