Clayton Patterson "Pyramid Portraits"
Esopus Space
This event has ended.
An exhibition of never-before-seen photographs of the extraordinarily inventive drag queens who performed at New York’s legendary Pyramid Club in the mid-1980s.
The photos, which were taken by artist, documentarian, and social activist Clayton Patterson in the dressing room of the club over the course of several years, chart the boundless creativity of these artists, who, with little or no money, managed every week to create entirely new personas, each one more outrageous and compelling than the last. Patterson identifies his subjects as “availabilists” (after the term coined by performance artist and musician Kembra Pfahler) who utilized everything from shards of broken safety glass to abandoned lampshades to create the ultimate artworks of the period—themselves.
[Image: Clayton Patterson "Sun PK" (1986) color photograph, 13 by 19 in.]
Media
Schedule
from June 03, 2010 to August 05, 2010
Opening Reception on 2010-06-03 from 19:00 to 21:00