It is one enormous Week for cultural institutions in New York. After Monday with Gala, Frieze New York started in The Shed yesterday with a showcase with around 65 of the IT galleries in the world from more than 20 countries. That is an impressive factoid, although it is the deep cuts, I think that is the most important.
Elusive moonA piece of the New York Legend and Jack of All (usually gay) acts Tabboo! is one of these deep cuts. It can be seen as part of the Showcase of Karma Gallery at the Art Fair. “I have really painted the moon all my life,” says the artist, illustrator, puppet player and former artist over the phone in the weeks before Frieze, tinted his voice with a touch of melancholy. “It is a moon that peaks behind some clouds, abstract but with daring, clear colors,” he explains. “People love blue paintings, they can live with blue.”
Although he was talking about interior design, Tabbooo! has always had a talent for capturing the collective mood in simple terms. It is a Topsy-Turvy world, and most of us can only feel the blues from time to time. But we learn to live with them, just like Tabboo!
Born Stephen Tashjian, Tabboo! Has used this artist name since he was broken into the drag scene in the 1980s. He is now best known for his beautiful emotional site scapes, which are appropriate and eloquently represented by his many seasons and stages. But it is his illustration work, which appeared in influential Indie magazines such as Interview And illustrated album covers for artists like Dee-Lite through the 80s and 90s, which made him a strange icon. That and its versions such as a go-go boy and in drag at legendary locations such as Palladium and Pyramid Club.
At the end of February I spent the weekend in the house of a friend in Hudson, New York, which has become something of a gay enclave north of the city. One evening the “couple gays” that we have come up with is engaged Wigstock: The film. The 1995 film documents, the edition of the previous year of Wigstock, the now extinct annual Drag Festival that was held in Tompkins Square Park through much of the 80s and 90s. The film highlights versions of Rupaul, Dee-Lite, Debbie Harry, Leigh Bowery, Joey Arias and Tabboo!, Among others. It is older than me, whatever so somewhat, which means that most people in my group had never seen it. We decided to turn the evening into a learning moment – Gays My Age tends to have a vague understanding of the lives that the tabboo! S and Rupauls then lived, and this film places both the pleasures and the struggle of Queerness. AIDS had decimated the community by that time. Now we have prepared now and we are apparently not angry or motivated – plenty to respond in the ways in which our rights are threatened.
