Accompanying Fox Whitney's MELTED RIOT performances
RGB,
CMYK, and
SATURATION are the color swatches found in the slideshow above. Using color codes sourced from isolated and enlarged segments of artworks in the Henry’s print and photography collection, Fox and his Gender Tender collaborators zoom in and out with the intent of unearthing and highlighting the queer and transitional qualities they discover in the artwork as well as in their bodies, minds, and spirits.
By zooming in closely on the artworks, the image begins to break down and lose its identity. It becomes a glitchy abstracted digital color field. Taking this process one step further, the field is then negotiated to its most shared value; a snapshot of a snapshot. This practice of disintegration is inspired by digital processes as well as the way that images and imaginations create space for underrepresented or forgotten people, histories, and perspectives.
Poetic excerpts written by Fox will be gradually added with new images as he meditates and reflects on the experience engaging with the work. Linked within the caption is the Henry's collections entry for the corresponding artwork. Read, research, and dialogue with each piece to bring your own discoveries into the performance experience.
MELTED RIOT uses tactics rooted in dance, durational performance, and visual art to investigate the effects peaceful and violent forms of support and sabotage have on the bodies, minds, and spirits of the transgender and queer community. MELTED RIOT softens the word riot (a violent disturbance of the peace by a crowd) replacing the word VIOLENT with: somatic, satirical, surreal, psychedelic. Inspired by the Stonewall Riots, this performance research project will use an isolated crowd of socially distant voices, bodies, and sculptural interventions to investigate radical extremes inspired by the Henry’s collection and the QTBIPOC viewpoint of artist Fox Whitney. MELTED RIOT is a surreal protest song, a queer meditation, a psychedelic research project, a punk prayer.
