"Ladies and gentlemen, there's a surprise substitute on the dessert cart this evening. Chocolate is no longer on the menu. Instead, it's gold, gleaming honey that is being served, by the gallon and on the skin. It is of course for external use only. And it will be worn, in a thorough scalp-to-toe coating, by your host, Karen Finley, the performance artist and specialist in the imaginative use of foodstuffs."
-Ben Brantlee, The New York Times
Karen Finley is an American performance artist, whose theatrical pieces and recordings have often been labelled "obscene" due to their graphic depictions of sexuality, abuse, and disenfranchisement. Finley received her education at the San Francisco Art Institute and after moved to New York where she quickly became apart of the art scene there and met her future husband. In 1995 she divorced her first husband and moved to LA. In July of 1999 Finley appeared in Playboy and received Ms.Magazine Women of the Year. Among Finley's books are Shock Treatment, Enough is Enough: Weekly Meditations for Living Dysfunctionally, the Martha Stewart satire Living it Up: Humorous Adventures in Hyper domesticity, Pooh Unplugged (detailing the eating and psychological disorders of Winnie the Pooh and his friends), and A Different Kind of Intimacy. Her poem "The Black Sheep" is among her best-known works, and has been immortalized on a sculpture in New York City. Finley has been dramatically influenced by her father's suicide in 1979. And you will often times she how her father's suicide has impacted her through her work.
Many of her works deal with the issues of violence against women, emotional despair, a sense of loss, and abuse. Some of her pieces deal with her upbringing and dysfunctional family situation. According to her book, "A Different Kind of Intimacy," her father used to put Karen in a refrigerator. During her performances she often goes into a trance like voice and verbally juggles different characters and voices. At the end of her shows, she often takes off her clothes and smears herself with chocolate or other substances. In "A Different Kind of Intimacy," Finely said that she smeared herself in chocolate to commemorate Tawana Brawley, a young woman who alleged that some police officers raped her and smeared her with feces. When she rants at the audience in different voices during the show it seems more like spirit channeling or possession than acting. The show features a series of gritty, sardonic dialogues about people trying to find sex. It features disco dancing, altered scenes from Winnie the Poo, a deconstructed lap dance and a nude dance in honey. In her current show, she rolls around in honey. She has said that this is both a parody of mud wrestling and homage to Winnie the Poo. She caused a big controversy when she made the cover of The Village Voice and she ignited a stampede with “POO POO AND PEE PEE,” her parody of Hitler and Eva Braun. She has collaborated with many other artists including Sinead O’ Conner and Tales of Taboo. Finely recently returned to Chicago, the town she was born in. She ended a triumphant show at the Apollo Theater in early April called” Shut Up and Love Me.” In her own words, the show is a “post feminist illustrative performance of a woman’s journey, of dysfunctional companionship, and psycho social lust without apology.”
Finley has often times referred to a women's body as a loaded gun. And when asked why she makes this comparison she said, "I had a good reason when i said it- it is difficult to bring up the past comments and then have to qualify of explain something said in the past. I think it is rather clear- maybe women would understand it, without needing to explain because womens' bodies are looked at as dangerous, taboo, and that the feelings of looking at a female body -sexual- desiring - sex." When Finley says this its a strong comment made about women. After researching about Finley its interesting to see and read about all her work. A lot of what she does is very sexual and surrounding her body. I agree with her about the women's body being a loaded gun, a women's body is a very powerful weapon that can be used to destroy a man. Through her work she brings awareness to women issue, she is a obvious feminist.
-Ben Brantlee, The New York Times
Karen Finley is an American performance artist, whose theatrical pieces and recordings have often been labelled "obscene" due to their graphic depictions of sexuality, abuse, and disenfranchisement. Finley received her education at the San Francisco Art Institute and after moved to New York where she quickly became apart of the art scene there and met her future husband. In 1995 she divorced her first husband and moved to LA. In July of 1999 Finley appeared in Playboy and received Ms.Magazine Women of the Year. Among Finley's books are Shock Treatment, Enough is Enough: Weekly Meditations for Living Dysfunctionally, the Martha Stewart satire Living it Up: Humorous Adventures in Hyper domesticity, Pooh Unplugged (detailing the eating and psychological disorders of Winnie the Pooh and his friends), and A Different Kind of Intimacy. Her poem "The Black Sheep" is among her best-known works, and has been immortalized on a sculpture in New York City. Finley has been dramatically influenced by her father's suicide in 1979. And you will often times she how her father's suicide has impacted her through her work.
Many of her works deal with the issues of violence against women, emotional despair, a sense of loss, and abuse. Some of her pieces deal with her upbringing and dysfunctional family situation. According to her book, "A Different Kind of Intimacy," her father used to put Karen in a refrigerator. During her performances she often goes into a trance like voice and verbally juggles different characters and voices. At the end of her shows, she often takes off her clothes and smears herself with chocolate or other substances. In "A Different Kind of Intimacy," Finely said that she smeared herself in chocolate to commemorate Tawana Brawley, a young woman who alleged that some police officers raped her and smeared her with feces. When she rants at the audience in different voices during the show it seems more like spirit channeling or possession than acting. The show features a series of gritty, sardonic dialogues about people trying to find sex. It features disco dancing, altered scenes from Winnie the Poo, a deconstructed lap dance and a nude dance in honey. In her current show, she rolls around in honey. She has said that this is both a parody of mud wrestling and homage to Winnie the Poo. She caused a big controversy when she made the cover of The Village Voice and she ignited a stampede with “POO POO AND PEE PEE,” her parody of Hitler and Eva Braun. She has collaborated with many other artists including Sinead O’ Conner and Tales of Taboo. Finely recently returned to Chicago, the town she was born in. She ended a triumphant show at the Apollo Theater in early April called” Shut Up and Love Me.” In her own words, the show is a “post feminist illustrative performance of a woman’s journey, of dysfunctional companionship, and psycho social lust without apology.”
Finley has often times referred to a women's body as a loaded gun. And when asked why she makes this comparison she said, "I had a good reason when i said it- it is difficult to bring up the past comments and then have to qualify of explain something said in the past. I think it is rather clear- maybe women would understand it, without needing to explain because womens' bodies are looked at as dangerous, taboo, and that the feelings of looking at a female body -sexual- desiring - sex." When Finley says this its a strong comment made about women. After researching about Finley its interesting to see and read about all her work. A lot of what she does is very sexual and surrounding her body. I agree with her about the women's body being a loaded gun, a women's body is a very powerful weapon that can be used to destroy a man. Through her work she brings awareness to women issue, she is a obvious feminist.
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