Posts from the “Document Journal” Category

Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi: Gymnasium

Posted on November 8, 2019

Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, from the Gymnasium series, 2019.

When Simone Biles made history at the 2019 World Championships by becoming the most decorated gymnast of any gender, she single-handedly redefined one of the world’s most elite sports. As a Black woman in a traditionally white space, she surpassed all expectations, becoming an icon in the process.

For Johannesburg-based multimedia artist Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, Biles’ success is a testament to Black power in the face of an establishment determined to undermine it. Earlier this summer Biles invented new skills and the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), the sport’s governing body, penalized her for the groundbreaking performance. The FIG reduced the degree of Biles’ signature‘double double’ dismount (two twists, two flips) from the beam—out of concern, they claimed, about the safety of lesser gymnasts who might harm themselves while attempting it.

“That felt so personal,” Nkosi says. “Simone Biles is flying and they have to find ways to hem her in. It’s like so many moments in my own life. Throughout my artistic career, people would say things like, ‘Oh, you will never be William Kentridge.’” The ill-fitting comparison to a third-generation South African man of Lithuanian-Jewish heritage smacks of misogynoir and is just one of the various ways people have tried to undermine Nkosi’s extraordinary life. But now, with the success of her new seriesGymnasium, the artist is having her moment—just like Biles.

Read the Full Story at Document Journal

Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, from the Gymnasium series, 2019.

Categories: Africa, Art, Document Journal, Painting, Women

Cammie Toloui: Five Dollars for Three Minutes

Posted on November 6, 2019

Cammie Toloui. Outside, 1992.

In the early 1970s, the Lusty Lady Theatre made its debut on Kearney Street in San Francisco, providing 16mm peep show films for a newly burgeoning pornography market. Recognizing the increasing demand, in 1983, the club began showcasing live nude dancers, known as the Lusties, which quickly became the primary focus of the 24-hour business.

From 11am to 2am, customers could pull up a stool, drop quarters into a slot, and watch a bevy of women perform for them on the main stage in a scene reminiscent of Madonna’s famed “Open Your Heart” video. Should patrons desire something more intimate, the Lusty Lady graciously obliged with the Private Pleasures booth. Here you could indulge in one-on-one shows—separated by a mere a sheet of glass—that started at $5 for three minutes, with add-ons for extras like a dildo show, role playing, or whatever peccadillo the client might request.

“Everything was whorehouse red: red velvet curtain, red carpet, and black painted walls. It was dark and smelled like cum. You could always hear the jukebox playing with songs chosen by the dancers,” says native San Franciscan Cammie Toloui, who worked at the Lusty Lady in the early ‘90s to pay her way through San Francisco State University, where she was studying photography.

Read the Full Story at Document Journal

Cammie Toloui. Private Pleasires, 1992.

Cammie Toloui. Time is Money, 1992.

Categories: 1990s, Art, Document Journal, Exhibitions, Photography

Luke Jenner & Justine D. Look Back at the Last Era of Underdog New York

Posted on October 15, 2019

Courtesy of Justine D.

Now that we are living in a landscape fueled by the 24/7 flow of digital content from every corner of the globe, the recent past seems very long ago. The rapid-fire pace dictated by extremely online culture is mirrored by the sweeping transformation of the American landscape, where once-battered cities like New York are being gentrified at a dizzying rate.

In retrospect, the turn of the millennium seems positively quaint, with its dial-up modems, payphones, film cameras, and fax machines in wide use—but the seeds of our present era were being spread far and wide. New York in the 00s was a crossroads between two realms: the past and the future squaring off against one another—perhaps best illustrated by the explosion of rock ‘n’ roll that emerged this decade.

In her vibrant oral history, Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001–2011, author Lizzy Goodman takes us back to the last era of underdog New York, when bands like The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem, Interpol, and Vampire Weekend brought rock ‘n’ roll back to the forefront. Goodman recently teamed up with Hala Matar to curate Meet Me in the Bathroom: The Art Show, a group exhibition organized by UTA Artist Space and The Hole. Now, in an exclusive conversation for Document Journal,Luke Jenner of The Rapture and DJ Justine D. take us back to this transformative era in New York nightlife.

Read the Full Story at Document Journal

Courtesy of Justine D.

Categories: Document Journal, Music

Simon Doonan: Drag – The Complete Story

Posted on October 1, 2019

Vaginal Davis, Courtesy of CHEAP

Although drag has existed on the world stage throughout human history, it was only in the early decades of the new millennium—under the care of ‘Supermodel’ singer-turned-reality television sensation RuPaul, no less—that it truly went mainstream.

Aesthete Simon Doonan, author of the richly illustrated history Drag: The Complete Story (Laurence King), gives Ru the nod as the most influential drag in a culture replete with legends. “RuPaul is the one,” Doonan tells Document, speaking on the phone from his home in New York. “Some of the drag kings and queens of the early 19th century, like Julian Eltinge and Vesta Tilley, took it very far and were internationally known, but RuPaul eclipses them. In 100 million years, no one could have ever envisioned the breadth of his impact. He’s on a Madonna-level of impact on the culture.”

Read the Full Story at Document Journal

L/ Drag queens reading Variety. Credit: Author’s own collection R/Wayne County poster. Credit: Courtesy Wayne County

Categories: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, Art, Books, Document Journal, Photography

Antoinette “Tony” Sales on Designing Costumes for Rock Stars

Posted on September 27, 2019

Antoinette “Tony” Sales at Norman Seeff’s studio on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles, 1977 © Phil Fewsmith.

Over the past 50 years, American artist Antoinette “Tony” Sales has traveled through the rarefied world of rock royalty, designing and making stage clothes for icons including Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Stephen Tyler, and Exene Cervenka. The mastermind behind Freddie Mercury’s iconic rhinestone fingernail gloves and Nick Lowe’s legendary Riddler suit has always believed that, “Each of us inherently has within us the ability to create the life of our dreams.”

Though shy and demure, the willowy blonde Texan has always been possessed by a fearless streak. “If I wanted to do something, I would,” Tony tells Document Journal from her home in Los Angeles, where she continues to create stage clothes for film, television, and music videos. It was a lesson gleaned as a child when her father, science-fiction writer and US military personnel Keith Laumer received an assignment to move to London in the early 1960s, and brought his family along.

“My older brother, Tom Wright, was Mr. Cool American with real Levis and all the good records. He went to Ealing Tech Art College, where he met Pete Townsend and they became lifelong friends,” Tony says. “Tom had walked into the lunchroom and this real shy guy was sitting alone, strumming his guitar, and all of a sudden, he went, ‘schwaaang!’ Tom said, ‘Oh my God. Do that again!’ Pete has said, ‘If it wasn’t for Tom coming into my life, there would never have been a Who.’”

Read the Full Story at Document Journal

Drawing of Dolly Parton © Antoinette “Tony” Sales.

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, Art, Document Journal, Fashion, Music

Marc H. Miller & Barry Blinderman on the Explosive Rise and Inevitable Fall of the East Village Art Scene

Posted on September 26, 2019

Raymond Pettibon, A&P Gallery Closing Party, Announcement Card, 1986 – Courtesy online Gallery 98.

The late 1970s through mid-1980s in New York marked a major turning point in both the city’s political history and the art world. Fueled by the policies of the Reagan White House, money began to flood the nearly bankrupt city, heightening the stratification between the haves and have-nots, while the specter of gentrification began to sink its teeth into the downtown firmament.

In this brief window, the last vestiges of bohemian life staked their claim in the outposts of the East Village and the Lower East Side, where a new anti-authoritarian art scene emerged. With the launch of galleries like FUN, Gracie Mansion, ABC No Rio, and Civilian Warfare, the downtown scene was primed for new talents like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and David Wojnarowicz that would take the world by storm.

In an exclusive conversation with Document Journal, journalist and archivist Marc H. Miller and art historian and Semaphore gallerist Barry Blinderman discuss this pivotal era of New York City history, spotlighting how artists and galleries used work as a call to action, rather than a commodity for status and profit. Yet the scene’s explosion would ultimately cause its downfall, as efforts to label and package that which defied the system would crash and burn. Today, while countless East Village storefronts sit empty because small businesses cannot afford the rent, we look back at a time when the neighborhood was a playground for anyone who dared to follow their dreams.

Read the Full Story at Document Journal

Tom Warren, Portrait Studio: No Rio Locals, Photo Composite, 1981 – Courtesy online Gallery 98.

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, Art, Document Journal, Manhattan, Painting, Photography

Michele Saunders Old School Rules for Nightclubbing

Posted on August 22, 2019

“My life lead me to the Garage,” Michele Saunders tells Document Journal. Growing up in France, her father would play jazz records, nurturing a lifelong passion for music that took shape when she moved to America to attend Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. On Wednesday nights, she’d road trip down to New York to catch the world famous Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

In 1979, she met her soon-to-be husband Andre Saunders, who was producing Billy Nichols’s disco classic, “Give Your Body Up to the Music,” mixed by Larry Levan, resident DJ at the Paradise Garage. Andre invited her to see Nichols perform—an experience that would change her life.

“The very first time I went, I was backstage, dressed in a Norma Kamali outfit with high heels and a fur coat,” Saunders recalls. “I was like, ‘Oh my God! I am going to be back next week by myself, no husband, no high heels, no fur coat. This is where my new home is going to be.’”

Read the Full Story at Document Journal

Categories: 1980s, Document Journal, Manhattan, Music, Photography

Kohei Yoshiyuki: The Park

Posted on August 22, 2019

Under the cover of darkness, Japanese photographer Kohei Yoshiyuki crept through Tokyo’s Shinjuku, Yoyogi, and Aoyama Parks during the 1970s, in search of an illicit world known to a select few. Moving like a hunter on the prowl, Yoshiyuki used infrared film and flash to capture public displays of sex between heterosexual and homosexual couples—and, perhaps more shockingly, the voyeurs who gathered to watch.

“One day I stumbled on the scene—and [an] incredible scene [Laughs]. That was when I was still an amateur,” Yoshiyuki tells Nobouyoshi Araki in a conversation titled “Tiptoeing into the Darkness…With Love,” featured in the new book Kohei Yoshiyuki: The Park.

“I was shocked. They were actually fucking,” Yoshiyuki says. “When I saw them I knew this was something I had to photograph.”

Read the Full Story at Document Journal

Categories: 1970s, Art, Books, Document Journal, Japan, Photography

Michele Saunders & Tina Paul: The Last Nights at Paradise Garage

Posted on August 19, 2019

From 1977 to 1987, Paradise Garage reigned supreme over New York’s downtown nightclub scene. Located at 84 King Street, the Garage was home base for resident DJ Larry Levan (1954-1992), whose signature style of dance music became the definitive sound of New York—popularized by West End Records founder Mel Cheren (1933-2007), who financially backed the club.

Over a customized sound system designed by Richard Long, Levan would weave spellbinding tapestries of house, disco, rock, and pop tracks that kept revelers coming back for more. The Garage regularly hosted live performances by the hottest artists of the era, featuring everyone from Grace Jones to Whitney Houston, Sylvester to Divine, Klaus Nomi to New Order, Gwen Guthrie to The Clash.

Modeled on David Mancuso’s legendary invitation-only parties at The Loft, where no liquor was served, the Garage was a members-only club that curated its attendees as carefully as Levan selected his records. The three decades after the club closed, it remains an icon of New York’s nightlife hey-day, living on as the annual Paradise Garage Reunion, to be held this August 30 and 31 at Elsewhere in Brooklyn. In advance of the festivities, Garage members Michele Saunders and Tina Paul look back at the last weekend at the legendary club.

Read the Full Story at Document Journal

Categories: 1980s, Document Journal, Manhattan, Music, Photography

The Life and Times of Alvin Baltrop

Posted on August 8, 2019

Alvin Baltrop. The Piers (male couple), n.d. (1975-1986)

In the brief window between the Stonewall Rebellion and the advent of AIDS, New York City became a wonderland for the sexually adventurous. As the city teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, the spirit of anarchy arose among the dilapidated ruins of the bustling metropolis. Raised on free love, a new gay underground emerged in the bars and clubs, as well as on Manhattan’s West Side Piers where encounters with rough trade in derelict warehouses flourished in broad daylight.

From 1975 to 1986, African-American artist and Bronx native Alvin Baltrop (1948-2004) dedicated his life to documenting this little-known chapter of gay history, amassing a singular archive of work that preserves the era perfectly. At a time when the nearby Meatpacking District still ran red with fresh blood, Baltrop captured the grit, grime, and humanity that thrived in an enclave of illicit pleasures of the flesh.

Largely excluded from the art world during his life, Baltrop is finally receiving his due with a major exhibition, The Life and Times of Alvin Baltrop, opening August 7 at the Bronx Museum of the Arts. The museum is home to the Baltrop Archive, a trove of personal documents, photographs, and ephemera that provides a first-hand account of the challenges he faced throughout his life.

Read the Full Story at Feature Shoot

Alvin Baltrop. The Piers (male portrait), n.d. (1975-1986)

Bottom: Alvin Baltrop. The Piers (sunbathing platform with Tava mural), n.d. (1975-1986)

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, Art, Books, Document Journal, Exhibitions, Manhattan, Photography

Guzman: Scenes from a Pivotal Era in Louis Vuitton History

Posted on July 10, 2019

Photo: Guzman. Louis Vuitton Centennial Collection. Helmut Lang Record Album Case. Grandmaster Flash styled by Basia Zamorska. Hair Danilo Dixo. Make Up Mathu Andersen. Art Direction Maurice Betite at Euro RSCG Paris. Art Buyer Catherine Mahe. French Photo Agent Veronique Peres Domergue.

When Tom Ford joined Gucci in 1990, a new era was born: one that brought luxury goods to the forefront of popular culture. As the return of the double Gs took the globe by storm, in 1997, LVMH’s Bernard Arnault appointed Marc Jacobs as Creative Director of Louis Vuitton to design the company’s first ready-to-wear clothing line.

To prime the public for this pivotal moment in the esteemed fashion house’s 143-year history, Vuitton’s French advertising agency, Euro RSCG Paris, hired Guzman, the American husband-and-wife photography team of Russell Peacock and Constance Hansen, to shoot the 1996 campaign for the Louis Vuitton Centennial Collection—a celebration of the iconic Monogram Canvas print featuring original clothing designs by Vivienne Westwood, Manolo Blahnik, Azzedine Alaïa, Helmut Lang, Romeo Gigli, Isaac Mizrahi, and Sybilla.

“Vuitton’s past campaigns were focused on travel. This was a big departure for them,” Peacock says. “They were conservative and traditional. Wealthy people would buy Vuitton but it wasn’t a fashion statement. They wanted to be hip.”

By the mid-90s, Guzman had achieved recognition creating unconventional advertising campaigns for companies like KOOKAÏ and Tag Heuer as well as shooting album covers artists like Janet Jackson, Jody Watley, and Total. But, as Hansen explains, “We were outside the fashion box. We weren’t reverential. We didn’t understand the respect of the couture. We were working in hip hop culture, and went with what we knew.”

Read the Full Story at Document Journal

Guzman. Louis Vuitton Damier Collection. Styled by Basia Zamorska. Hair Danilo Dixo. Make Up Mathu Andersen. Manicures by Bernadette Thompson. Art Direction Maurice Betite at Euro RSCG Paris. Art Buyer Catherine Mahe. French Photo Agent Veronique Peres Domergue.

Categories: 1990s, Art, Document Journal, Fashion, Photography