Sponsor  Contact  About  v-Staff  Mail List   Program  Visual Art  Performance Art  Participate

Karen Moe Performance Art with Visuals Presenting: Lethe: a mock metaphysics On participating in Vagina Festival 2008: Named after the river Lethe that one drinks from in order to instill forgetfulness before descending into Hell, Lethe addresses constructions of reality and cultural memory based upon what hasn’t been remembered. This project emerged from a feminist desire to articulate some of the silences at the core of patriarchal culture. Lethe is also a response to my own rapes and abduction, serving as both a protest against systemic violence and as a testament to the un-killable and un-corruptible spirit. As a 'mock metaphysics’, LETHE grotesques normalized power while addressing the ambivalence of the patriarchal “script” on the feminist. As the project's content is controversial and deals with the contradictory nature of feminist women living within patriarchy who are often, to quote Carolee Schneeman, both ‘complicit and resistant’, Lethe is a provocative space where women can think and talk about how feminists, despite their opposition to patriarchal oppressions, have been (to varying degrees) shaped by it. I would like my performance to stimulate discussion and ideas about how these inscriptions of violence that simultaneously construct and oppress the individual can be dug out and exposed and how this exposure (as opposed to repression), filtered through the irreverence and resistance of a feminist consciousness, subverts cultural tropes and works to strengthen the feminist pursuit of justice. About Karen Moe: I am a political artist. I am a performer and photographer. In all of my work, I am interested in edges, liminal spaces, and subject matter that exist outside of and confound dominant modes of seeing and of being. My work is inspired by feminism as a pursuit of justice and in participating in the politics of representation by contributing alternative performative and photographic ‘evidences.’ Contact: klmoe@telus.net Website: myspace.com/karen_moe_photography   SPONSOR Vagina Festival is presented entirely by volunteers. We keep expenses low and produce the event with the help of generous sponsors. Please join us in creating a space for conversation. VAGINA FESTIVAL UPDATE For news of our plans, please click here.

Vagina Festival 2008 was sponsored by: Haven, Ruth and Shaul Jacoby, Michael Isaacs Maxim Hygiene Products and Erin Michelson. Thank you for your confidence and support!

Sponsor  Contact  About  v-Staff  Mail List   Program  Visual Art  Performance Art  Participate

© Vagina Festival 2006-2009. Vagina Festival is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non profit arts service organization. Contributions on behalf of Vagina Festival may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. Donations can be made by credit card, or by check.