Nov. 3, 2009
Contact:
Liz Babiarz, 404-413-1356
University Relations
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| Performance artist Karen Finley |
The performance starts at 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 5 at Georgia State's Rialto Center for the Arts. It is funded by support from the Center for Collaborative and International Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences, and is free and open to the public.
Finley as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis will imagine the former first lady looking at the nation's past, present and future. She will ponder on President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, Marilyn Monroe, Caroline Kennedy's run for the U.S. Senate, the art world, Michael Jackson and the lasting impact of that fateful day on the grassy knoll in Dallas.
"In performance, Finley seems at turns humorous, sarcastic, lighthearted, demonic, anguished, and confrontational," said Matthew Roudané, Regents' professor and chair of the Department of English at Georgia State. "Sometimes performing in a trance-like state, she unleashes a stage language that animates her ever-changing and provocative personas."
Currently a professor of art and public policy at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, Finley is best known for her controversial performance art career.
Finley has also published several books of prose and poetry, displayed collections of visual art, acted in several films, including Philadelphia with Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, and recorded albums of poetic musings with dance-based backing tracks. Finley is the recipient of both an Obie Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
GSU Professor Roudané and Finley have organized a special session at this year's South Atlantic Modern Language Association annual convention on Nov. 6. It will discuss the Georgia Loyalty Oath, human rights, censorship and the role of the artist. For more information on the convention, visit www.samla.gsu.edu.
For more information on Finley's performance, visit http://arts.gsu.edu/7505.html.