Alexis' Glam Rock Show & The Viper Drops and Dances

"Alexis' Glam Rock Show" was created for a Performative Writing Workshop assignment to create a collage based on Amy Kilagard’s essay “Collage: A Paradigm for Performance Studies”. The piece embodies my idea of transformation, which is a key part of collage and performance art. The glam rock genre inspires me and I see transformation in the music. This collage is an homage to glam rock and a celebration of an ability to transform through performance. The piece draws on Glam Rock’s transformative and imaginative qualities, taking after the genre by shattering gender, academic and societal norms. The background is split into quadrants, loosely dedicated to glam rock artists. Along with images of these artists, there are influences of galaxy and space, used as symbolism in glam rock. The work itself lights up and I used light reflecting materials, glitter, metal and jewelry parts. The work references Manet’s 1882 painting, "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère" which has references to nightlife and prostitution, and yet has a day in the life quality. Glam Rock romanticized nightlife and revealed a beauty in objects stigmatized for being frivolous or subversive. “Alexis’ Glam Rock Show” takes inspiration from those artists and performs on its own.

“The Viper Drops and Dances” was written for a Performative Writing Workshop assignment to write about a musical performance by a diva and how her voice performs. I chose to write about Siouxsie Sioux’s vocals on her song “Bring Me the Head of the Preacher Man” (1984) and its role in an experience I had with a friend. I chose the song because the dead preacher man represents not just patriarchy, but also the way women often permit men to rule their lives, both physically and emotionally. The preacher man’s dismembered and decaying state is a representation of the rejection of such norms and the active reclaiming of our own lives. The piece also reflects the abundance that is found in sisterhood. Siouxsie in the 1980s was laying the groundwork for us to find our strength in the coven once the preacher man is dead. The writing adopts some of Siouxsie’s style as a songwriter, evoking a limitless, psychedelic world.