Live Stream Connections: Alex Tatarsky + River L. Ramirez

Curated by Adrienne Truscott

February 18, 8:00 PM EDT
Live Stream with Live Talk Back

February 19, 8:00 PM EDT
Recorded Live Stream and Talk Back

BUTTPLUG GNOME

by Alex Tatarsky
Leaning into the sorrow of an entertainer in an empty theater, Alex Tatarsky will attempt a new piece at the edges of dance and giving up. Inspired by the figures of the tramp clown and the garden gnome, they consider choreographies of failure in the space between dunce and dance. Bad clown, bad sex, bad dance, bad gnome.

The garden gnome is based on a real man, contracted to sit in front of the property of the wealthy and look wise and mournful, and sometimes to entertain or tidy up. Questions include: how does one entertain while grieving? What is the dance of an object? And how do we subvert relationships that make us feel small — with lovers, teachers, institutions — or between a gnome and the landowner who makes him sweep the grounds?

I… don’t…know…(let’s see what happens)

by River L. Ramirez
River L. Ramirez, comedian, interdisciplinary artist, will be presenting “I… don’t…know…(let’s see what happens)” a piece exploring how they don’t know what to present. Still neck deep in the era of a pandemic, where the stop and start of culture brings us into repeated instances of isolation, artist fatigue is real and reigns supreme. How do you make art when nothing is happening around you? How do you survive through your work when life is at a standstill? How do you explore what it is to live if there is little living to do? How do you make art for live audiences through a livestream? And most importantly how do you find freedom in an age of constant restriction? Ramirez explores the current climate by exploring these very idea’s through movement, sound, readings, drawing, and more; “a beautiful mess” if you will. Exploring what it is to be in the now, the process, moments of reflection and moments of some kind of transcendence or lunacy. To be honest, you will get what you get, let’s see what happens.

About Alex Tatarsky

Alex Tatarsky makes performances in the uncomfortable in-between zone of comedy, dance-theater, performance art, and deluded rant–sometimes with songs. Called “a hilarious, finely tuned absurdist” (Theatre Jones) and “one of the most exciting and hilarious performance artists around” (ArtSpace), Tatarsky experienced fleeting fame as Andy Kaufman’s daughter and used to perform as a mound of dirt. Venues include La MaMa, MoMA PS1, Abrons Arts Center, Judson Church, The Kitchen and many bars and basements. Their writings on counterfeit poetics and grotesque politics have appeared in publications including The New Inquiry, Hypocrite Reader, ArtReview Asia, Folder, Viscose, and Vulture. They teach workshops on masks, rot, and mistranslation and are honored to have been a Movement Research Artist in Residence, Abrons Artist in Residence, Poetry Project Curatorial Fellow, Independence Fellow, and Pew Fellow. Together with Ming Lin they form one half of Shanzhai Lyric, and recently founded the fictional entity Canal Street Research Association. Research interests include bootlegs, hellscapes, and compost. @tartar.biz

About River L. Ramirez

River L. Ramirez (they/them) is a Brooklyn-based artist, comedian and writer who wrote, produced and directed the comedy special program Pervert Everything for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. Ramirez has appeared on the HBO comedy series Random Acts of Flyness and in the final season of Comedy Central’s Broad City.

Ramirez has written for High Maintenance and The National Lampoon Radio Hour. Ramirez can be seen in a recurring role in the HBO comedy series Los Espookys opposite Fred Armisen and, opposite Glenn Close, in John Cameron Mitchell’s musical anthology podcast Anthem and featured as Charly in BIRDGIRL. Named one of Comedy Central’s Up Next Comedians for 2018, Ramirez was featured in the San Francisco Cluster Fest comedy festival, and performed at the Public Theater in New York as part of the January 2019, Under the Radar Festival. A regular correspondent on the Viceland channel, Ramirez has performed at Caroline’s, UCB, Ars Nova, The Chris Gethard Show, and the Brooklyn Comedy Festival and many more.

Connections celebrates the many ways rising dance and performance artists have been supported and influenced by other artists they respect as past or present teachers, mentors or exemplars of the best in their field. Each program features a look at new or developing work as well as conversation or storytelling about the human connections that drive the creative spirit.

Image Description: Collage of two photos. Photo 1: Alex Tatarsky wears a purple clown collar and striped shirt. They stare into the camera with a vague smirk. Photo 2: River L. Ramirez with a guitar.

Photo (left) of Alex Tatarsky by Ryan Collerd. Photo (right) of River L. Ramirez Photo by bridget bador.