“Qreatures” @ Ace/121

in Gallery . LGBTQ . Performance Art
All following photos courtesy of Andrew Adam Caldwell for LA Art Documents

ACE/121 Gallery presents

“QREATURES: The (w)Hole Story”

Saturday, July 13 6pm-9pm

Performance & Closing Reception for glendaleOUT Exhibition

Qreatures began inside the gallery before moving the audiences outside

Ace/121 Gallery hosts the closing night reception for the glendaleOUTexhibition and a special performance of “Qreatures: The (w)Hole Story”, created by multimedia performing artist Jason Jenn. Described as a queer vaudeville show taking inspirations from Julie Taymor, John Waters, and Mister Rogers, the hour-long gallery presentation features the crowd-pleasing barbershop quartet, The Boyfriend, and a variety of other whimsical performers.

glendaleOUT is a multi-venue LGBTQIA-based event in collaboration with local chapters of Gay Straight Alliance in the Glendale Unified School District. Last year Glendale celebrated its first ever Pride, and this year glendaleOUT is about continuing the queer narrative in Glendale with more voices, more generations, and a broader community reach. It utilizes the process of “coming out” as a means of claiming public space as ourselves in Glendale.

After hiding in a hole from bullies, Lex encounters a talking worm, caterpillar, and snake…

Qreatures, the (w)Hole Story follows the adventures of Lex, a non-binary student running away from bullies and taking refuge in what turns out to be a magical hole inside a tree. Alice followed the White Rabbit down a hole into Wonderland, Lex encounters an array of Qreatures, queer spirits of the animal kingdom that have gathered together to address the global threat posed by humans and climate change. It’s a rather humorous exploration of a very present and dire situation that ends on an uplifting note about needing to find common ground and build community.

The members of The Boyfriend “opened” the ceremony for the gathering of Spirit Animals
Dee Weingarden was Lady Owl, who led the roll call of Animals gathered for the meeting
Lady Owl’s assistant Birdie (Mr. Voice Love) helped get audience participation going
A musical song by Paul Manchester as The Mouse talked about how impossible he felt it was to make any difference in the craziness of the world
I appeared again as The Lion King who discussed the importance of bio-diversity, the interconnectedness of all beings, and working together as a community
Finally the caterpillar had something to say…but they were busy transforming into the butterfly because of imaginal cells…
In an apt metaphor for what we are experiencing, the caterpillar only becomes a butterfly after imaginal cells take over the body of the consummate consumer caterpillar. Eventually the imaginal cells work their powers of transformation…
May we encourage the growth of imaginal cells to transform our society and world!

© 2001-2022 Jason Jenn

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