Warm Up, Shook Up, Kalup Linzy

This summer, Kalup Linzy’s work will be featured in almost every musuem in New York. His videos are in the MoMA’s contemporary show and the Whitney’s historical exhibition of performance work, “Off the Wall”; new videos and gouaches are on view in PS1/MoMA’s survey of artists of the last five year the metropolitan area, “Greater New York.” All of these show

Linzy in his signature stripped-down drag, acting and providing voiceovers for the other characters in a complicated set of narratives about tragic ambition, dictated as if over the phone. In Conversations Wit de Churen III: Da Young and da Mess (2005), one of Linzy’s favorite fictional characters, Taiwan, faced a sequence of emotional struggles: “He turned down a marriage proposal from his boyfriend because of the fear of being rejected by his family. After which, he experienced a series of relationships that were filled with nothing but drama.”

We’ll get to see Taiwan in the flesh as Linzy takes the PS1 courtyard stage for this weekend’s installment of the Warm-Up series. He’ll role-play as the heartbroken Taiwan and perform music from his two albums, Sweetberry Sonnet (2008) and Sampled, and LeftOva (2009). Linzy says that, “The performance is something that can stand alone,” outside the videos, so if you couldn’t catch up on the material or unpack its many overlapping narratives, don’t worry. If you’re concerned by MIA’s recent half-hearted performance at the museum, rest assured that Linzy’s bringing a six-to-seven piece band. Later in the night he’ll DJ dance, disco and gospel house, and finally perform an original song he recorded with DJ Rupture.

PS1 is a bit of home for Linzy, who was given a studio in the museum last year. “I shot the first four episodes of my video series ‘Melody Set Me Free’ there,” he says, referring to the videos now on view in the museum as part of “Greater New York.” But he didn’t need a reason like that to get involved with Warm-Up: “I love music and I love to dance!”

WARM-UP IS SATURDAY, JULY 24, 2–9 PM. PS1/MOMA IS LOCATED AT 5601 21ST STREET, LONG ISLAND CITY, NEW YORK.