“Suzanne Bocanegra’s art is an antidote to the history-free, prepackaged world that threatens every day to overwhelm us. Her work is also beautiful.” – The New Yorker
“An illuminating theatrical portrait of the mind of an artist at work.” –New York Times
Visual artist Suzanne Bocanegra uses theater to interrogate the history and practice of visual art. Part performance, part memoir, and part gleefully rambling cultural essay, her “Artist Lectures” are intensely personal, exhaustively researched, and kaleidoscopically wide-ranging, exploring not only how and why she became an artist, but also general meditations on art-making, history, popular culture and our shifting ideals of human beauty.
The first performance in a four part series taking stage at NYU Skirball this season, Farmhouse/Whorehouse begins by exploring the lives of Bocanegra’s grandparents on their small farm in Texas, across the road from the legendary Chicken Ranch, better known as “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.” Using text, video, film, costumes and an original song by Shara Nova written just for this performance, she manages to fuse French Impressionism, land rights, Star Trek, survivalism, Rajneesh and Dolly Parton into a single coherent story, about herself, about art, and about the world we live in.
Starring actress Lili Taylor and directed by Lee Sunday Evans.