Putting the Disco Back into Discourse

How my artwork blazes against the dying light!

The low slant of winter light coming through the western windows of my art studio, at just the right angle and at just the right time, sets my studio ablaze, turning it into a wonderland of iridescence and reflected light! Brighten your screen, turn up the volume, and watch the video above.

I have been a contemporary artist my entire adult life, starting as a performance artist in New York’s East Village in the early ’80s. I created some of the earliest gender-fuck performances at venues such as PS1 MoMA, The Kitchen, and St. Marks Church Danspace. By the ’90s, my work developed into a studio practice, though the performance DNA is still discernable. Below is today’s iteration of my ongoing written exploration of my formal, political, and conceptual ideas. For me, the dialogue between making and writing is essential to my progress and understanding.

The body of work I call DISCOurse is a non-medium-specific practice combining painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, and photographic digital imaging into larger works/installations. The work formally manipulates the glitz and glam aesthetic of early queer disco, reimagining its diverse site as a rehearsal for…