#hapiphace

[hapiphace]

Karload of Klowns NOVEMBER 6, 2018 8PM $20 in E R E C T I O N  R E S U L T S one night only!! at Gene Frankel Theatre,  24 Bond St, NYC 24bondartscenter with Special Guest Hitchhiker: EDGAR OLIVER Starring Hapi Phace @hapiphace​ Jorge Clar @jorgeclardiary​ Gail Thacker Nora Burns Colleen O’Neill Thomas Gordon 

[expatmichael]

What would I give to be going to Whispers tonight? Thirty years ago on a Sunday it was everything. Hapi Phace was the funniest host ever. The Pyramid though not the biggest club had the feeling of being in a fabulous cave. Would you believe it still exists! I heart ❤️ The Pyramid club. #hapiphace #whispers #sunday #pyramid #eighties (at Pyramid Club)

[jorgeclardiary]

«33 or Jorge 2» (A Spotify Playlist)

When ducklings are hatched and raised by owls and chickens, we transcend and understand intuition’s clear voice.

Sound is magical, formidable, and transformative. A favorite sound of mine is acid house, faithful companion since 1988. Its electronic, rhythmic, repetitive, textured, rising, ebbing, flowing, expansive sound is an elixir for concentrating on inner space.

The mystical number 33 manifests as the total playing time.

Prince’s seminal ‘Make-Up’ is followed by dear Annie Sama’s ‘Animal’…her scintillating, watershed tour de force. (I was so excited when Annie told me while visiting, ‘I’m doing acid house’…a revelation!)

Fangoria’s futuristic cover of the Hidrogenesse classic ‘Disfraz de tigre’ highlights the mystical quality of the lyrics—being one with machine, rock, plant, animal... «It’s the song I’ve been waiting my whole life to hear,» I told Gail, and Hapi, freshly arrived in town, while riding to Kelly’s in a Lyft.

Also a new release, ‘Skylon’, by 808 State, reminds me of the tower observatory in Niagara Falls, a signifier of comfort and confirmation, which I last saw with Dominic and Tony. (Interestingly, the iron scow that’s been stuck in the rapids of the Horseshoe Falls since 1918 has moved forward 160 feet, during the storm last All Hallows’ Even.)

Alpha Omega’s ‘Ravers Delight’ I heard late at night on my Saba Sandy, while editing to the beat of $mall ¢hange’s brilliant Nickel and Dime Radio broadcast (Thursdays from midnight to 3 a.m. on 90.1 WFMU-FM). The Garden of Eden’s eponymous anthem from 1988 is medicine music; the Super Version of ‘Left to My Own Devices’ is Pet Shop Boys’ acid update of my favorite song of theirs.

I hope you enjoy the benefits of this soundtrack for envisioning.

In the photo, I’m wearing an extra-tall tapR-mâché top hat and papier-mâché chihuahua wand by Hapi Phace, Land’s End Sail Rigger Oxford, vintage cape from Friends in Bushwick, and Levi’s Iconic 501 jeans.

Photo by Hapi Phace

[jorgeclardiary]

VESTAL (A Spotify Playlist)

In honor of the Winter Solstice, the Yule Mule (yours truly) is in Arlington, MA, visiting Hapi to partake in setting intentions.

The occasion certainly merits a playlist…so dance to favorite songs by Donna Summer, Odyssey, Silver Convention, KC & The Sunshine Band, Sister Sledge, MFSB, The Love Unlimited Orchestra, Grandmaster Flash, Malcolm McLaren & The World Famous Supreme Team, and Kraftwerk.

Our cover star is Hapi, in full shamanic makeup within his ceremony space, next to the Masonic cabinet.

Photo by Hapi Phace

[jorgeclardiary]

Celebrating 100 Years of Bauhaus Visiting Gropius House on the Equinox

The integration of art into all aspects of life is an ideal situation.

April 12, 2019 was the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus school’s founding in Weimar, Germany. Established by Walter Gropius, the institution’s Proclamation described a utopian craft guild that combined architecture, sculpture, and painting into a single creative expression.

After immersion in a theory of materials, color, and formal relationships, Bauhaus students would enter specialized workshops, which included metalworking, cabinetmaking, weaving, pottery, typography, wall painting, music, and theater.

I am fortunate to be surrounded by friends who are living examples of this Gesamtkunstwerk (“all-embracing art form”) aesthetic. Envisioning life as a cross-pollinating, living work of art, our community of artist-makers fills life with beauty and function.

For instance, I went to visit Hapi in Arlington, MA, during the spring equinox, and he suggested taking a tour of the Gropius’ home in nearby Lincoln. 

A recent article, “The 80-Year-Old Gropius House in Lincoln Is a Modernist Marvel,” published in Boston magazine explains the locale’s history:

Lured by a post at Harvard, Gropius had relocated to Massachusetts in 1937 with his wife, Ise, and daughter, Ati, renting a house in Lincoln while they planned for a home of their own. At the request of a mutual friend, philanthropist Helen Osborne Storrow provided land for and financed the construction of the new abode—a boon for a family that had been forced to abandon assets when they fled Nazi Germany for London in 1934. While Gropius and his partner Marcel Breuer were the official architects, the design was discussed nightly around the dinner table. Ise was the chief landscaper, and 12-year-old Ati offered input, too, requesting her own private entrance. Dad obliged with an outdoor spiral staircase, a curvy counterpoint to the clean-lined exterior that, he later wrote, “proved to be very practical because children could enter there directly without carrying dirt through the house.”

Admiring the inviting house, full of soulful, practical, and whimsical objects, beautiful as they sit frozen in time—as well as the largest collection of Bauhaus furniture outside of Germany—Hapi and I walked around and admired details like pre-Columbian statues gifted by Frida Kahlo, art by Joan Miró and Josef Albers on the walls, an early Marimekko dress neatly placed on the bed, and a theatrical light fixture that illuminate the dining room circle exactly to its edge.

On this day we visited—the 23rd of March—I wore an Agnes de Garron hat, St. John’s Bay corduroy shirt, Levi’s Iconic 501 jeans, and protective booties furnished by the house. Hapi wore a maroon bandanna, black Tasso Elba jacket, and maroon slacks and blue belt from Macy’s.

[jorgeclardiary]

Pulling a Rabbit Out of the Hat (…and a Spotify Playlist)

Focus is everything. The world is a veritable array of contrast; the human environs based in duality.

The choice is ours. Like the proverbial rose-colored glasses, we focus on aspects we prefer to manifest. Words, thoughts, and feelings generate ‘reality’ in synchronous tandem.

“Pulling a rabbit out of the hat”—magic—is a matter of intention:

As a playlist, I have strung together tunes from the pop landscape, mining notions of magic. Memories of choruses, feelings arising out of melodies, and references to dear performance moments abound. (You can hear the playlist by clicking HERE. Play the songs in order for maximum effect.)

As a photo, I’ve combined Aloysius, a rabbit doll by Scooter LaForge, with a tapr-mâché top hat, by Hapi Phace for KoK. I’m wearing an apron by Kelly Bugden, Hapi’s pearls, and a vintage Brooks Brothers pink Oxford shirt.

Photo by Goor Studio

jorgeclar.com

[jorgeclardiary]

Solstice Blessings

On this day of the Winter Solstice, which in the Eastern U.S. happens at 5:23 p.m., I’d like to wish everyone a happy return to the light.

On this shortest of days and darkest of nights, I am listening to a record at Hapi’s place, where I have been visiting for a few days.

I am wearing a Gay Liberation Front t-shirt (a gift from Jim Fouratt), vintage Smith American painter’s paints (like the ones Willem De Kooning wore), and a cashmere paisley blanket from Amma’s bazaar (a gift from Dominic). It is t-shirt weather after all; the temperature in New England is 61º F!

Blessings, everyone!

Photos by Hapi Phace

[jorgeclardiary]

«Egg Emoticon» Spotify Playlist

For the first day of Standard Time—and the unveiling of new emojis—HERE is a musical elixir for adjustment into winter.

Hapi Phace and I use the egg emoji as a mutually-decided-upon symbol that can mean “received,” “just woke up,” or sundry accord. It is a key element in the creation of digital cartouches on iMessage.

This emphasis on the egg emoji came to be because I love eggs—which I eat constantly in good health—in keeping with their implication as a symbol of birth, emergence, and creative possibility.

For our Karload of Klowns performance troupe—which will be presenting its new show, Erection Day, this Tuesday, November 6th, at 8 p.m. in the Gene Frankel Theatre at 24 Bond Street—Klown ringleader Hapi created the Egg Emoticon staff, a tapR mâché sculpture that my character, Palimpsesto, uses to indicate approval during segments.

Emoticons are a representation of human facial expression using keyboard characters: this playlist represents stages of human emotion balanced by a focus on wellness. Each song represents a character.

In keeping with the spirit of the latest Karload of Klowns show—which features apropos samples from the seminal British pop group The KLF (a name that can alternatively mean “Kopyright Liberation Front” or “Kings of Low Frequency”)—the playlist starts with “Justified & Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)”, featuring Tammy Wynette on vocals.

This song starts with the chant “All bound for Mu Mu Land,” a place synonymous in KLF lore with their Trancentral recording studio, a forum for spiritual realization. As the song “Last Train to Trancentral” explains in its LP version: “I’m going into Trancentral where I can, you understand, liberate and free the psyche, balance my mind and my body���.”

On the cover photo, I am wearing a homemade KLF hat José Joaquín and I found years ago at the Urban Jungle on Knickerbocker Avenue, a Johnson buffalo plaid zip-up flannel jacket, Levi’s Engineered jeans, and ‘be happy’ frames by Sabine Be, outfitted by Artsee.

Karload of Klowns Erection Day stars Hapi Phace, Gail Thacker, Colleen O’Neill, Nora Burns, R. Thomas Gordon, guest hitchhiker Edgar Oliver, and yours truly. 

Photo by Goor Studio

[jorgeclardiary]

Activating the Portal

For my recent Prismatic performance at the closing of the Kelly Bugden + Van Wifvat show Prism this past 15 August at Ivy Brown Gallery, events and objects aligned to facilitate the activation of a portal.

While being at the studio throughout the making of the pieces, I absorbed the energy of their fabrication—the soul infused into the resulting sculptures.

As the opening of the show neared, chopine bases as counterweights were being made for a sculpture comprising charred wood columns and a water gilt pole. I thought of the gold and black of Egyptian tombs—and the kernel of the performance emerged.

We planned to have the performance on the closing day of the show as a celebration.

Part of the allure of the Prism was the transformation of notions of functional objects into objects of art inhabiting a different area of functionality—both mental and oneiric.

As Rafael Sánchez and I were discussing one day, the one object that could be activated to go between the physical dimension and others is the Portal.

This conversation crystallized the performance for me; it would be a salute to spirit in three parts. Rule of Threes!

After my introductory call to an invisible friend and a salute to an imaginary catalpa tree, I walked past the Ladder towards the Portal holding papier-mâché branches—which Hapi Phace had made for the Karload of Klowns troupe I belong to—and an antique wagon wheel with eight spokes Van procured as a prop. I invoked the Buddhist levels of consciousness, represented by the spokes of the wheel: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mental, awareness, and all-encompassing foundation consciousness.

Then it was on to the Stage Set installation of the show, where I stood in front of its silhouettes of morphed building-shoes and recited poems about my love of New York buildings since childhood. Revealing the poet as an avatar, an age of wellness is ushered in.

From there I went to the altar-like installation of sculpted lambs with crystals and petit fours on the water gilt mirror. I sang an ícaro to the ancestors in Spanish and saluted all those present. I used a piece of pipe Van had found on Bond Street, near the Gene Frankel Theatre, as a cowbell.

For the performance, I wore a papier-mâché hat Joel Handorff made especially for the performance, ‘be happy’ frames by Sabine Be (outfitted by Artsee), military camo cape from Uncle Sam and vintage painter pants by Smith’s—both of which Scooter LaForge turned me on to—and Adidas Stan Smith sneakers hand-painted by Halla Moda/The Old Black.

Photos: 1. Rafael Sánchez. 2, 3. Jorge Clar. 4. Van Wifvat

[jorgeclardiary]

Full Moon Show — The Thunder and Buck Moon Edition

I am honored to be playing Serge the French waiter in tonight’s Full Moon Show at Howl! Happening, alongside legendary performance personality Hapi Phace. There will be two shows: one at 4 p.m. featuring a sound poem by Hapi, and a 7 p.m. homage to the United Nations. 

As the press release from Howl! prays: 

CELEBRATE TWO TIMES (!) with this eclipse-season edition of the Full Moon Show, in bifurcated presentations by McCardboard Genius Award-Winning Performance Person Hapi Phace. The good news is the lunar eclipse will be the longest of the 21st century. From start to finish, the moon will take nearly four hours to cross the Earth's dark umbral shadow. The bad news? People in the U.S. won't get to experience the eclipse—unless they come to Howl!  

4 PM—On the Sidewalk Outside Howl

I Have Heard the Garden Gnomes Sing

Partly poetic, partly prophetic, partly pathetic, your host Hapi Phace presents a stream-of-consciousness sound poem, as taught to him by the mythical elf and gnome vaudeville team Thunder & Buck.

7 PM—Inside the Gallery

A yet Untitled NSFW Tribute to the United Nations

Coinciding with this full moon is a full lunar eclipse—or Blood Moon—which will be visible in other parts of the globe. To mark the occasion, planetary citizen and lunar advocate Hapi Phace will ruminate on both the architectural and archetypical wonder that is the United Nations.

The Full Moon Show is made possible in part with public funds from Creative Engagement/Creative Learning, supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. LMCC.net

The image above is from the Cream-Pie-In-The-Phace Full Moon Show last April. I’m wearing Hapi’s ‘Philly’ cat-eye glasses, vintage Lee denim jacket, Levi's Iconic 501s, and vintage Gucci loafers. Hapi is wearing his own designs head to toe.

[hapiphace]

From performance at Participant, NYC for “The Gordon Kurti Project” exhibition. circa 2014 (?) Hapi Phace with Agosto Machado. Photos ©Ves Pitts

.......

Karload of Klowns NOVEMBER 6, 2018 8PM $20 in E R E C T I O N  R E S U L T S one night only!! at Gene Frankel Theatre,  24 Bond St, NYC 24bondartscenter with Special Guest Hitchhiker: EDGAR OLIVER Starring Hapi Phace @hapiphace​ Jorge Clar @jorgeclardiary​ Gail Thacker Nora Burns Colleen O’Neill Thomas Gordon 

[hapiphace]

I, gardener.

[jorgeclardiary]

The form is stone, the dress is rain at AMP Gallery, Provincetown

Connection abounds….

Last winter, I had presented a performance titled Show and Tell at Gail’s Gene Frankel Theatre fundraiser, which led to Rafael and I engaging in a conversation about symbols—a point of convergence in our work.

For the performance, I had used one of the Magic Mirror notebooks we use for drawing at Joel’s. In this particular one, I had made a series of 33 drawings using Posca markers Bubi gave me. The drawings represent memories of my childhood and metaphysical musings. Some of them nod to Bubi’s Hologram video, in which I play a character called “Lord”.

For Show and Tell, as I flipped through those drawings, I recited the lines of a poem I wrote specifically for the performance, this after singing a few lines from Sara Montiel’s “Maniquí parisien”. Rafael, who had also participated in the Gene Frankel fundraiser by reading a poem, asked me if I would like to do the performance in a show he was organizing in Provincetown.

I told him I would be honored to do so. Rafael explained to me the idea for the show stemmed from conversations he and Hapi Phace had about rocks, and also talked about how Kathleen would use pentagram lines to write series of cryptograms. I remember the first time I had seen Kathleen’s work was at Wild Project in February 2016—I was drawn to her pieces because of her use of symbols and typewriter keys to create iconographs, all of it very dear to me….

The title of the show, “The form is stone/the dress is rain”, is a line from a poem by May Swenson, hailed poet of the 20th century who would write in an iconographic style. Artist friends, poetry, iconography—it all started coming together. Rafael mentioned I could also show a portrait I drew of Gail on New Year’s Day at Joel’s...he was also there that night and remembered it. I loved the idea of showing a drawing from our dear Magic Mirror circle.

I was so thrilled to be in such great company…the show would also include works by Kathleen White, Robert Appleton, Dietmar Busse, Elisabeth Kley, Hapi Phace, Rafael Sánchez, Gail Thacker and Conrad Ventur…all artists whom I admire tremendously. I was also elated to be in a show that would also be Hapi’s first gallery exhibition since 1986, when he exhibited at Edgar Oliver’s Pompeii Gallery in the East Village. What a thrill to get to know him better, really a full circle of dreams coming true as when I first moved to New York in 1987, my favorite thing in the world was the Whispers drag nights at the Pyramid, where I was especially fond of Hapi’s freewheeling, perfectly-cadenced and dazzlingly imaginative MCing.

A couple of weeks before the show, Scooter had sent me a photo of a pair of Dutch klomps he had painted, and I thought I would give him the ones Mom and Dad bought during a trip to Volendam, Holland, in 1978. He mentioned I should give them a coat of gesso, which my roommate Michael prepared and strained for me and I then applied lovingly to the shoes. Rafael stopped by the ranch and saw how the shoes looked—to me, they are like bisque porcelain—and mentioned we should take them to the show. Every time I saw how they now looked, I was in awe of the sense of something so familiar being transformed into an archetype. The unfinished piece was suddenly finished.

So there they were…the klomps, the drawing of Gail, the performance notebook hanging on the wall from a dowel—across from one of Kathleen’s late notebooks 2012-2013—all the objects coming together, morphing into something new.

Dietmar and I, on the suggestion of Gene Fedorko, made arrangements to stay overnight with Ms. Meade, who was most kind and welcomed us in her guest apartment. Later on, we found out while visiting that the converted garage we stayed in was used by Yves Klein as a studio! We had bought tickets to go to Boston on the Megabus to then connect with the ferry to Provincetown, but on our travel day, which was the day of the opening, September 22, hurricane José was whirling in the Atlantic near the area and so we knew beforehand we would have to take a bus provided by the Bay State Cruise Company.

We got to the Megabus terminal at 7:15 a.m., grabbed a bite at a deli and got on the bus. The bus got delayed and we got to Boston at 1:18 instead of 12:30. So, we missed our bus connection and stopped at the South Street Diner and had shrimp and chips.

An Uber took us to the ferry terminal, and we had to wait an hour for the next bus out, which was at 5 p.m. We waited at a Dunkin Donuts as the vernal equinox happened, to the tune of songs by Katy Perry and Selena Gómez being piped in. Dietmar did some drawings while I did some writing.

Back on the bus, we knew we were going to arrive close to 9…the climate was windy, gray and blustery…and the clock ticked on. We called Miss Meade and told her our whereabouts; she offered to pick us up at the ferry terminal. I was also in touch with Rafael to let him know where we were on the road, people were at the opening waiting for the performance. Something inside of me told me we would get there in the nick of time.

As we passed Shrewsbury, I started getting ready for the performance. To me, it had already started right there, on the bus. We got to the terminal and looked for Miss Meade, who dropped us off at the entrance of the AMP Gallery at 8:50—the opening would be over at 9. Dietmar and I walked in; I greeted Rafael and he almost jumped out of the sofa. We had been talking on the phone, braving an intermittent phone signal to figure out an ETA.

I said hello to Hapi, Tony Stinkmetal and Bobby Miller and checked in with gallerist Debbie Nadolney. She mentioned Louis, a benefactor who had arrived from Amherst, was going to take us out to dinner at The Muse and the reservation was about to run out.

I put my bag down and got ready. Rafael introduced me and I grabbed the notebook from the wall and did the performance; Bobby videoed.

Much excitement abounded after the suspense of the performance to arrive, I caught my breath and we all headed on to The Muse. Tony was commenting how he had found the performance inspirational; I was so grateful for this. It was a dreamlike meal.

After dinner, Dietmar went with Bobby in his car to be dropped off at Miss Meade’s. Hapi and Tony called it a night and Rafael and I walked around Commercial Street for a while, reeling with happiness. We went to listen to Scream Along with Billy at the amazing basement Grotta Bar doing an astounding concert of Brian Eno covers. We stopped in front of a store called Kmoe and took a selfie; the store was full of amazing industrial lamps and we took more photos. We stood in the parking lot and called Gail, who was in Grand Central Terminal back in New York…hearts jumping with joy.

We stood by the water near the parking lot and listened to the wind and saw the distant lights of nearby towns through the fog.

Rafael drove me back to Miss Meade’s and I lay down to sleep. The next day Bobby would take our portraits! Hooray! (Dietmar took my photo next to Klumpen and in front of Rafael’s The Story of the 1st Painting (part one, number one) at the gallery. I was wearing a Jim Teeny Shadow-Camo shirt, Wrangler jeans, and Ferragamo boat shoes.)

As Rafael put it later on Facebook, it was a magical night:

Thank you, the universe, the artists, everyone that helped make this a reality and all who supported our efforts. We set up and opened through the horizontal rain of tropical storm José. The opening settled upon a perfectly misty, New England fog. Meanwhile, ferries were suspended for two days due to the choppy waters as the provided shuttle bus lumbered up the cape with Dietmar and Jorge Clar just in time for Jorge to inaugurate the show with his stunning visual poem! It was amazing. And if that wasn't enough, an unassuming patron arrived miraculously out of the foggy night to toast us and take us all out to dinner by the sea. The following day renowned photographer Bobby Miller further inaugurated the event with beautiful studio portraits of the artists that were able to attend; Hapi, Tony, Dietmar and of course Jorge marking the proceedings with a truly regal quality. Sun came on Sunday in time for a swim in the ocean, my first and probably last for the year. I feel humbled and blessed. I've not posted anything here since leaving NYC last week. Happy Fall everyone, Cape Cod is extraordinary this time of year. Exhibition continues through October 15.

[hapiphace]

Karload of Klowns NOVEMBER 6, 2018 8PM $20 in E R E C T I O N  R E S U L T S  one night only!! at Gene Frankel Theatre,  24 Bond St, NYC  24bondartscenter with Special Guest Hitchhiker: EDGAR OLIVER Starring Hapi Phace @hapiphace Jorge Clar @jorgeclardiary Gail Thacker Nora Burns Colleen O’Neill Thomas Gordon 

[hapiphace]

From Huck Snyder’s “Circus” live performance with a film by Anthony Chase. Sometime in the 1990s. Performed at La Mama E.T.C., NYC and in the anchorage of the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn NYC.

..........

Karload of Klowns NOVEMBER 6, 2018 8PM $20 in E R E C T I O N  R E S U L T S one night only!! at Gene Frankel Theatre,  24 Bond St, NYC 24bondartscenter with Special Guest Hitchhiker: EDGAR OLIVER Starring Hapi Phace @hapiphace​ Jorge Clar @jorgeclardiary​ Gail Thacker Nora Burns Colleen O’Neill Thomas Gordon