According to Greek mythology, the Minotaur is a mythical creature with the head of a bull and the body of a man who dwelt at the center of the Labyrinth, an elaborate maze. As the legend goes, every nine years King Minos of Crete ordered the city of Athens to choose seven men and seven women to be offered as sacrificial victims to the Minotaur as revenge for the death of King Minos’ son.
That legend will be performed in San Francisco by performance artists Cornelius, aka VivvyAnne ForeverMORE! and Gabriele Christian, aka Eartha Kunt, in a new show called “boycow, or The Minotaur, or 10 Acts (1-5) or Bullshit.” The performance, which will be seen at CounterPulse, comes courtesy of Ox and will interpret the Minotaur legend through drag, monologue and dance.
According to Cornelius, one need not be familiar with the Minotaur legend in order to see and enjoy the show.
“I actually think it would be more fun and interesting to know the least,” Cornelius said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “To anyone reading this interview, show up ignorant, and we will take care of you.”
Cornelius insisted that the work isn’t drag.
“Both Gabriele and I work in drag, but we aren’t doing drag,” they said. “We borrow a lot of methods from drag, and examine the modality of drag for useful tools and logic to help us compose the piece. I’m so stoked to be queer. I’ve been saying it a lot recently out loud. Like so glad that I get to be queer.
“But there’s this constant classification of art made by queers as queer art. And it makes me itchy. Why don’t we call art made by straight people straight art? By self-identifying our art as queer, we are kinda saying art is one thing, you know, capital A. Art is one specific thing that doesn’t include queer art, which is like out of step with the history of art. So many famous artists were queer. They may not have been out, but they were queer.”
Star signs
Cornelius describes themself as a white, queer, middle-aged, mentally ill-ish, child and grandchild of immigrants.
“A little about me, Capricorn sun, Capricorn rising, Libra Moon with Venus in Aquarius,” they said. “My bio says Cornelius is a conceptual artist working in poetics, performance, and object making. I know that makes me sound ignorant because conceptual art refers to a few people working a specific time in art history, and I am not from that time. It’s the easiest way to get at how and why I work on art.”
They described their drag persona VivvyAnne Forever MORE! as the daughter of Glamamore and the sister to Juanita MORE! Vivvy came to be because they grew up devoted to both artmaking and nightlife. They started collecting clothes for drag at 17, and finally started doing drag at 27, which is when they met Glamamore.
“I had dabbled before, but it never stuck,” they said. “And once I started, I was on a roll. I was always dressing up, though, that started when I was 16 and sneaking into clubs in Manhattan, living my Lower East Side fantasy.”
Altar and alter ego
Cornelius’ co-star, Gabriele Christian, also explained who they and their drag alter ego are.
“I’m a performance artist working in the Bay Area for the past decade, all over the map, really,” they said. “Co-founder of artist collectives OYSTERKNIFE, Blaqyard, Rupture, and lately co-artistic director of performance and accessibility non-profit Jess Curtis/Gravity. I spend an inordinate amount of time producing and curating work hyperattentive to the peripheries. Eartha Kunt is a seasonal drag possession, truly once in a blue moon, that fills in the gaps of Gabriele’s patchwork schedule, most recently at CounterPulse, for the ROT Festival’s performance marathon.”
When “boycow” is staged, Cornelius and Gabriele will perform in two separate rooms simultaneously. Both will be performing the same solo show at the same time, and the audience will be able to choose which room they want to be in, free to move between the two rooms as they wish.
“I hope the audience gets some giggles,” said Cornelius, “and questions. I hope they have fun. I love being in an audience. It’s like this chance to be with folks and also to passively make meaning out of whatever I’m seeing. I hope we’ve given folks the space to make meaning, while also entertaining them. Come to the show. It’s fun. No one’s gonna make you kiss a cow.”
‘boycow, or the minotaur, or 10 Acts (1-5), or Bullshit,’ April 17 and 18, 8pm; April 19, 3pm, CounterPulse, 80 Turk Street, $25-$50, sliding scale.
www.counterpulse.org
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