Blacklips Performance Cult

Participant presents an exhibition addressing the work of Blacklips Performance Cult, a late night theatrical collective that staged a new play each Monday night at Pyramid club between October 1992 and March 1995. For this exhibition, video documentation of 29 of those plays will be featured in the gallery, with a single play as the central focus each day.

Nov 9: Revenge of Blacklips (by Anohni, 10/26/1992)

Nov 10: The Blue Angel (by Anohni, 11/9/1992)

Nov 11: The Descent into Hell/The Ascent into Heaven (by Anohni, 11/16 and 30/1992)

Nov 12: Spectra (by Johanna Constantine, 11/23/1992)

Nov 13: The Palomar Ballroom (by Hattie Hathaway, 12/14/1992)

Nov 16: It Came Upon a Midnight Clear (by Psychotic Eve, 12/21/1992)

Nov 17: Swiss Family Donner Party (by Psychotic Eve, 1/11/1993)

Nov 18: Frankenstein (by Lost Forever, 1/18/1993)

Nov 19: Jack The Ripper (by Lost Forever, 2/15/1993)

Nov 20: Hunch! (by Lost Forever and Hattie Hathaway, 3/1/1993)

Nov 23: Revelations (by Lily of the Valley, 3/8/1993)

Nov 25: The Funeral of Fiona Blue (by Anohni, 3/15/1993)

Nov 26: Charlies Angels (by Psychotic Eve, 3/22/1993)

Nov 27: Class Nine Nuclear Mishap (by Dr. Clark Render, 3/29/1993)

Nov 30: Starvation (by Anohni, 4/12/1993)

Dec 1: Sodom (by Anonymous, 5/10/1993)

Dec 2: Clayworld (by Lily of the Valley, 5/24/1993)

Dec 3: The Socialite (by James F. Murphy, 6/12/1993)

Dec 4: Your Cigarette (by Lost Forever, 6/19/1993)

Dec 7: The Wings of Honnimies (by Johanna Constantine, 7/2/1993)

Dec 8: Seven (by Lily of the Valley, 11/29/1993)

Dec 9: World of Monsters (by Johanna Constantine, 2/7/1994)

Dec 10: Aunt Klunch’s Lonely Waxworks (by Herr Klunch, 3/14/1994)

Dec 11: The Birth of Anne Frank (by Anohni, 5/2/1994)

Dec 14: Rushes (by Sissy Fitt, 5/9/1994)

Dec 15: The Shysters/Earthquake (by Dr. Clark Render, 5/30/1994)

Dec 16: Death (by Flloyd, 9/19/1994)

Dec 17: 3 Weeks/Waiting (by James F. Murphy, 10/10/1994)

Dec 18: Chop! (by Jennifer Honkytits, 10/24/1994)

Blacklips Performance Cult: 13 Ways to Die is the third in a series of exhibitions curated by Anohni exploring work related to Blacklips Performance Cult. Blacklips was started by Anohni in New York City's East Village in the summer of 1992 with founding members Johanna Constantine and Psychotic Eve. At times, Blacklips enacted an art of death as described by artist and queer theorist Jill H. Casid, anticipating the Necrocene with the production of allegorical plays that addressed the intertwined issues of AIDS and the Anthropocene, weekly and with great effort, through scenes of post-apocalyptic horizons populated by dead and undead, non-human and human characters.

Blacklips: Her Life and Her Many, Many Deaths from Anthology Editions release on March 14, 2023

Blacklips Bar: Androgyns and Deviants — Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels, 1992–1995 double vinyl lp from Anthology Recordings release on March 10, 2023

Anohni (b. 1971) is an English born/American-based musician, artist, and theater director. In 2016, Anohni released the starkly political electronic album Hopelessness in collaboration with Hudson Mohawk and Daniel Lopatin, addressing “the constellation of systemic brokenness across many aspects of our societies that is now culminating in ecocide.” The single, “4 Degrees,” was released on the eve of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, and the album was included in 2017 top ten lists of The Guardian and The New York Times. Anohni was the first trans performer to be nominated for an Oscar in 2016 for her co- composition and performance of "Manta Ray,” a song addressing collapsing life systems in the world’s oceans.

With her group Antony and the Johnsons, Anohni has performed with symphonies and in opera houses including Sydney Opera House, London Opera House, Olympia in Paris, Teatro Royal in Madrid and Carnegie Hall. MoMA presented her performance Swanlights at Radio City Music Hall in 2012. Her 2008 album The Crying Light was described by Ann Powers for Los Angeles Times as "the most personal environmentalist statement possible, making an unforeseen connection between queer culture's identity politics and the green movement." Anohni was awarded the UK’s Mercury Prize for her album I am a Bird Now in 2005, affording a rare moment of broader visibility during that era to a trans artist. In response, in 2006, Anohni mounted a tour of Europe in collaboration with Charles Atlas and 13 trans, queer, and subcultural women from New York City, entitled Turning.

Anohni first performed at the Pyramid Club in New York City in 1992, and founded her performance group The Johnsons in 1995, in honor of trans activist Marsha P. Johnson. In 2019, she staged She Who Saw Beautiful Things, an exhibition and theater work in honor of her collaborator Dr. Julia Yasuda, at The Kitchen in New York City. Anohni has also presented her visual artwork at Sikkema Jenkins & Co, NYC, Kunsthalle Bielefeld in Germany, Kunsthal Nikolaj in Copenhagen, and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Anohni was co-facilitator of the art project Future Feminism, which was presented at the Hole, NYC in 2014 and as part of Anohni’s artistic residence in Aarhus Denmark, 2017 European Capitol of Culture.