Vaginal Davis
Vaginal Davis | |
---|---|
Vaginal Davis as "Bricktop" in 2004.
|
|
Background information | |
Also known as | Dr. Vaginal Davis, Vaginal Creme Davis, Mistress Veronika V'intrest, The Walking Installation Piece, Graciela, Miss Bricktops |
Origin | Los Angeles, California |
Genres | Punk rock, experimental, queercore, performance art |
Occupation(s) | musician, zinester, hostess, gossip columnist, author, performance artist, experimental filmmaker |
Years active | 80s – present |
Labels | Amoeba Records & Filmworks Spectra Sonic Records Mr. Lady Chongo Records Dischord Records |
Website | vaginaldavis.com |
Vaginal Davis is an American intersex-born, genderqueer performing artist, painter, independent curator, composer, and writer.[1] Davis' name is a homage to activist Angela Davis. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Davis became well known in the 1980s in New York City.[2] She currently resides in Berlin.[3]
Contents
Life and career
1970–1989: Career beginnings
Vaginal Davis' band the Afro Sisters released their first seven-inch EP Indigo, Sassafras & Molasses, produced by Geza X, on Amoeba Records in 1978.[4][5] The Afro Sisters opened for the Smiths on their first American tour, as well as the Happy Mondays.[6]
Vaginal Davis is often associated with the formation of the Queercore zine movement.[7] From 1982 to 1991, she self-published the zine Fertile La Toyah Jackson.[8] Bruce LaBruce described the zine as "an underground rag that featured SoCal punk scene gossip, photos of hot Huntington Beach surfers and wistful musings by Miss Davis herself."[9] Davis' job at UCLA's Placement & Career Planning Center allowed her free access to a Xerox machine to publish the zine.[10]
1989–1999: Bands
In 1989, Davis formed the band Pedro, Muriel, and Esther (PME) with Glen Meadmore.[11] Davis had previously sung backup vocals for Meadmore along with RuPaul. PME disbanded after releasing a four-song EP on Amoeba records.[12][13]
Davis formed the band Black Fag in 1992 with Bibbe Hansen. Black Fag's album Passover Satyr was released on Dischord Records that same year and was produced by Kim Gordon.[7] The band's 1995 album 11 Harrow House was produced by Hansen's son Beck.[4]
In 1995, Pedro, Muriel, and Esther reformed to perform at the Queercore '95 festival in Chicago.[13] The band later released their first full-length album The White to Be Angry, produced by Steve Albini in 1998 on Spectra Sonic Records.[4]
2000–2009: Move to Germany
In Los Angeles, Davis is also known for hosting and DJing a range of performance and music events. One of the most prominent was "Bricktops" (2002–2005), a weekly salon/speak-easy inspired by vaudevillian Ada "Bricktop" Smith.[9] She also hosted and DJed a Sunday afternoon music event called "Sucker" (1994–2000). Davis and artist Ron Athey curated and hosted GIMP (2000–2001), a monthly night of performance art.
In 2007, Vaginal Davis moved from Los Angeles to Berlin, Germany.
In 2009, Pedro, Muriel and Esther reunited in a 20th-anniversary show presented in New York City by Participant Inc. as part of Performa 09.[11]
2010–present: Performance and visual art
Davis' performance piece "Speaking from the Diaphragm" ran from May 15 to 27, 2010, at Performance Space 122. The show parodied television talk shows and featured interviews by Carole Pope, Jamie Stewart, Joel Gibb, and Glen Meadmore.[14][15] Carmelita Tropicana and Jennifer Miller were co-hostesses for Davis' show.[16]
In January 2012 Davis participated in the J. Paul Getty's "Pacific Standard Time Performance Festival, with "My Pussy Is Still in Los Angeles (I Only Live in Berlin)"[17] at Southwestern Law School, Louis XVI-style Tea Room (originally Bullocks Wilshire Department Store). April 2012, Davis debuted live her band Tenderloin as part of the festival "Camp/Anti-Camp: A Queer Guide to Everyday Life" at Hebbel am Ufer. Tenderloin's line-up consisted of Felix Knoke, Jan Klesse, Joel Gibb, and Vaginal Davis performing under the alias "Dagmar Hofpfisterei.".[18] In August 2012 the band was invited by curator Anthony Hegarty to perform at this year's Meltdown Festival at the Southbank Centre in London with Kembra Pfahler and the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black. After the performances Tenderloin released the music video for "The Golden One" that featured drag queen the Goddess Bunny and was directed by Glen Meadmore.[19]
From November 9 to December 16, 2012, Davis opened her first major solo exhibition of solely visual art (as opposed to performance art), titled "HAG – small, contemporary, haggard" at the Participant Inc. in New York. The name of the show was based on the gallery that Davis hosted in her Los Angeles apartment from 1982–89.[20][21]
Artistry
José Esteban Muñoz has identified Davis as a progenitor of "terrorist drag," for Davis was neither "glamour" like New York performers Candis Cayne and Girlina, nor "clown" (camp) like drag queens Varla Jean Merman and Lady Bunny. According to Davis, "I wasn't really trying to alter myself to look like a real woman. I didn't wear false eyelashes or fake breasts. It wasn't about the real-ness of traditional drag – the perfect flawless makeup. I just put on a little lipstick, a little eyeshadow and a wig and went there."[22] Dominic Johnson of frieze said, "Ms Davis consistently refuses to ease conservative tactics within gay and black politics, employing punk music, invented biography, insults, self-mockery, and repeated incitements to group sexual revolt." Davis critiques the co-opting of African, Hispanic, and LGBT culture by the mainstream.[23]
Discography
The Afro Sisters
- Indigo, Sassafras & Molasses (1978)
- Maxis on Melrose (1980)
- So Black I'm Blue (1981)
- Too Black, Too Strong (1982)
- Shoulder Pads, Maxi Pads (1983)
- Magnificent Product (1984)
- Armed & Extremely Dangerous (1985)
- Wet Lesbian (1986)
Black Fag
- Parerga y Paralipomena (1992)
- Atlas Shrugged (1993)
- Passover Satyr (1994)
- 11 Harrow House (1995)
¡Cholita! The Female Menudo
- ¡No Controles! (1987)
- Chicas De Hoy (1989)
- ¡Cholita! (1996)
Pedro, Muriel & Esther
- PME (1991)
- The White to Be Angry (1998)
Solo
- Small Whyte House (Vaginal Davis and Robespierre) (1994)
Other appearances
Title | Year | Album |
---|---|---|
"Well, Well, Well" (Le Tigre featuring Vaginal Davis) | 2004 | Feminist Sweepstakes (2004 re-issue)[24] |
"I Could Have Sex" (Technova featuring Vaginal Davis) | Electrosexual[25] | |
"Mama's Not Dead" (Technova featuring Vaginal Davis) | ||
"My Pussy is a Cactus" (Technova featuring Vaginal Davis) | ||
"Mangina" (Technova featuring Vaginal Davis) | ||
"Bitterest Pill" (Technova featuring Vaginal Davis) | ||
"Girls Like Us" (The Julie Ruin featuring Vaginal Davis) | 2012 | Non-album single[26] |
Filmography
Film
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1994 | Designy Living | ||
1994 | Three Faces of Women | Director- Rick Castro | |
1995 | Super 8½ | ||
1995 | Live Nude Girls | Pool Man | |
1996 | Hustler White | Buster Boote | |
1998 | Hallelujah! Ron Athey: A Story of Deliverance | Herself | |
1999 | The White To Be Angry | Director; short film | |
1999 | Can I Be Your Bratwurst, Please? | Director; short film | |
2001 | The Other Newest One | Director; short film | |
2001 | Le Petite Tonkinoise | Director; short film | |
2001 | Fra unter Einfluss | Director; short film | |
2005 | Beyond Lovely | Bruce B. | Short film |
2006 | The Pikme-Up | Herself | |
2008 | The Lollipop Generation | Beulah Blacktress | |
2010 | The Dream of Norma | Norma | Short film |
2010 | The Bad Breast; or, The Strange Case of Theda Strange | Short film | |
2011 | The Advocate for Fagdom | Herself | |
2012 | Rosas Welt – 70 neue Filme von Rosa von Praunheim | Marta Feuchtwanger |
Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1993 | Tales of the City | Endup Emcee | |
2001 | Gideon's Crossing | Eddie | Episode 9: "Is There a Wise Man in the House?" |
Footnotes
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ My Pussy Is Still in Los Angeles (I Only Live in Berlin) - was produced by West of Rome Public Art for Pacific Standard Time, and curated by Emi Fontana
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Sources
- José Muñoz, Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999) ISBN 0-8166-3015-1
- Jennifer Doyle, Sex Objects: Art and the Dialectics of Desire (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006). ISBN 0-8166-4526-4
External links
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Official website
- Vaginal Davis at Internet Movie Database
- The Zines of Vaginal Davis
- The Cholita! Page
- The Cholita! Family Tree, compiled by Ms. Davis
- Vaginal Davis in The Lollipop Generation
- Bruce LaBruce essay on Davis
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Use mdy dates from August 2013
- Articles with hCards
- Official website not in Wikidata
- 1959 births
- African-American film directors
- American experimental filmmakers
- American people of Creole descent
- American people of German descent
- American people of French descent
- American people of Jewish descent
- American people of Mexican descent
- American punk rock singers
- Date of birth missing (living people)
- American drag queens
- Intersex people
- LGBT musicians from the United States
- Living people
- Queercore musicians
- LGBT African Americans
- Performance art in Los Angeles
- Transgender and transsexual artists
- Transgender and transsexual musicians
- Transgender and transsexual women
- African-American drag queens