Wednesday, March 20th
6:30-8:30PM
Art Barn, Classroom/Studio 1
Longsworth Arts Village, Hampshire College
Princess is a performance art duo, a collaboration between Alexis Gideon and Hampshire alum Michael O’Neill that uses music as the backbone of a multi-disciplinary practice. Princess explores queerness and the concept of masculinity. Simultaneously gay, straight, queer, masculine and feminine, Princess embodies the fluidity and coherence between the seemingly contradictory. Princess was formed in 2004 in the Chicago DIY Performance space Texas Ballroom. The duo released a self-titled LP and performed until 2006 when they went on to pursue other paths, reuniting for this project in 2017.
‘Out There’ (2019; 4K video, live performance; 55:20min) is a concept video album and live performance piece by the band Princess. It explores the role men ought to be playing during the current cultural reckoning of misogyny. The video’s science fiction narrative explores the power of the Divine Feminine through collaborations withJD Samson, visual artist Jennifer Meridian, and the band TEEN. Gideon and O’Neill perform the music alongside the projection of the video.
Princess’s ‘Out There’ will be performed at Hampshire College’s Art Barn, followed by a Q&A and reception, as part of a world premiere tour this spring. The tour begins at the Andy Warhol Museum, followed by other institutions including the NYC premiere at New Museum, MCA San Diego, Bass Museum of Art, MOCA Cleveland, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Wexner Center for the Arts, DePaul Art Museum, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Alabama Contemporary Art Center, Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Sarasota Museum of Art, and Contemporary Art Museum Raleigh.
Alexis Gideon has performed and exhibited throughout the world, including at Moderna Museet Stokholm, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Málaga, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Vdrome, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Wexner Center for the Arts, and Time Zones Festival Italia. He has toured internationally and opened for Dan Deacon and tUnE-yArDs.
Michael O’Neill has collaborated with JD Samson of Le Tigre and, with her, formed the acclaimed art/performance band MEN. MEN toured extensively around the world including festival appearances at Coachella (USA) and Sidney Mardi Gras (AUS), at museums such as SF MoMA (USA) and Museo Rufino Tamayo (MX), and with Gossip, Peaches and CSS. Michael has also performed in a long list of queer and indie-pop bands including The Ladybug Transistor, Air Waves, The Ballet and The Aislers Set.
Co-sponsored by Hampshire College Art Gallery and Ethics & the Common Good