Dynasty Handbag. Courtesy the artist. Photo by Emily Berl.
Spring 2023 Technical Resident Dynasty Handbag aka Jibz Cameron will work in the Large Studio for one uninterrupted week with access to CPR’s robust inventory of a/v equipment and technical support.
The residency will support the final stages of production design and rehearsal for their new work Titanic Depression, which will premiere in May 2023 at Pioneer Works, co-presented by New York Live Arts as part of the Live Ideas Festival.
Using the 1997 film Titanic as a departure point, Titanic Depression by Dynasty Handbag, alter-ego of artist Jibz Cameron in collaboration with video artist SUE-C, addresses issues of class, gender roles, gratuitous wealth, and the environmental impact of climate change. The event – more so a live, multimedia experience than solely performance – features the artist moving deftly in and out of characters, using her outrageous physicality and unique improvisational skills in the retelling of Titanic as an allegory for our present environmental and humanitarian crisis.
Titanic Depression is presented by New York Live Arts' Live Ideas Festival and Pioneer Works, and has received support from Creative Capital, a Guggenheim Fellowship, Ballroom Marfa, MacDowell, Chorus Foundation, + generous donor contributions, in addition to a Technical Residency at CPR – Center for Performance Research.
About the artists
Jibz Cameron is a performer, visual artist, actor and writer. Her multi-media performance work as alter ego Dynasty Handbag has spanned over 20 years and has been presented at arts venues such as The New Museum of Contemporary Art, The Broad Museum, The Hammer Museum, REDCAT, BAM, Centre Pompidou, among others. She has been heralded by The New York Times as “the funniest and most pitch perfect performance seen in years” and “outrageously smart, grotesque and innovative” by The New Yorker. Jibz is a 2022 Guggenheim fellow, a 2021 United States Artist Award recipient, and a 2020 Creative Capital Grant awardee. Jibz produces and hosts Weirdo Night, a monthly comedy and performance event in Los Angeles + New York. Her film Weirdo Night is an official 2020 Sundance Film Festival selection. dynastyhandbag.com
Sue Slagle (SUE-C) is an award-winning artist, engineer and educator whose work in “real time cinema” presents a new, imaginative perspective on live performance. Her evolution as a new media artist began in late-90s San Francisco where she was an influential member of the electronic music scene, owning the experimental record label Orthlorng Musork, organizing audio-visual cultural events and teaching the first creative coding classes in Max Software. After finishing her masters degree in engineering at UC Berkeley she moved to Oakland where she became co-owner of the Ego Park gallery and helped launch the First Friday art walks. Sue is a Creative Capital awardee and MacDowell Fellow and has been covered in The Wire magazine, BoingBoing and the MIT Press book Programming Media. She has performed at the Library of Congress, REDCAT, Ars Electronica, MUTEK, SONAR, Ann Arbor Film Festival, NPR’s Tiny Desk and Transmediale, collaborating with musicians such as Morton Subotnick, Luc Ferrari, Laetitia Sonami, AGF, Paul DeMarinis, Wobbly, Ava Mendoza and Negativland. www.sue-c.net
Chloe Alexandra Thompson is a Cree, Canadian, interdisciplinary artist and sound designer. Thompson approaches sound as a mode of connection—embracing the kinesthetic agency of sound to compose abstract feats of spatialized audio recording and synthesis. Her work engages tactics of material minimalism to create site-specific installations that sculpt droning, maximalist experiences out of space and sound. Using audio programming software, computational processing, and acoustic instruments, Thompson’s work seeks to create connection by guiding audience participants through these augmented experiences. In January 2021, Cycling ‘74, announced Thompson as one of the first Max Certified Trainers. Her sound design has been featured in the works of artists across the fields of music, performance, TV and film. She is presently part of the Working Consortium in developing First Nations Performing Arts. chloealexandra.info
Sacha Yanow (born in Williamstown, MA/ Mohican Land) is a NYC/Lenapehoking based performance artist, actor and organizer. Their recent solo performances are experimental and embodied portraits of the inner lives of archetypal family figures—the father in Dad Band, (2015), the grandmother in Cherie Dre (2018) and currently the uncle —as a way to connect to estranged personal and cultural histories. Drawing from theater and performance art, these intimate works use humor and physicality to explore aging, gender, desire, and Ashkenazi Jewish assimilation. Sacha is also currently working on two collaborative projects: a community-based film series Grey Matter with organizer Bilal Ansari, a creative intervention into settler colonial mythologies of their hometown of Williamstown, MA (Mohican Land); And an embodied dialogue Thank You for the Fire Between Us with Johannesburg-based performing artist Tshego Khutsoane. Sacha's work has been presented by venues including MoMA PS1, Danspace Project, Joe's Pub, and the New Museum in NYC; PICA’s TBA Festival/Cooley Gallery at Reed College in Portland, OR; and Festival Theaterformen in Hanover, Germany. They have received residency support from Baryshnikov Arts Center, Denniston Hill, LIFT Festival UK, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Mass MoCA, SOMA Mexico City, and Yaddo. Sacha served as Director of Art Matters Foundation for 12 years, and previously worked at The Kitchen as Director of Operations. They received a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and are a graduate of the William Esper Studio Actor Training Program. sachayanow.com