After an extended run this spring, America's most (in)famous performance artist Karen Finley returns with COVID Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco, a reflection on our pandemic era traumas, politics and world events, as well as our coping strategies to deal with isolation, loss and a culture overwhelmed by anxiety. Finley looks back at a time of Zoom discos, bingeing on animal videos and pandemic hobbies like baking. This look back while trying to look forward to reimagine a new future creates the framework for this passionate, vulnerable and often comical new work.
During the pandemic, Finley has been creating hand-painted ink script over found book pages as an act of graffiti. Videos and slides of these works intertwine within COVID Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco as a moving montage. The New Yorker's Hilton Als says, “Karen Finley is a profound theater-artist. Her artistry is due in part to her ability to alchemize ‘news’ and make it art… She is irreplaceable.”
