A friend grabbed a quick image of me at my MFA exhibition last night. It’s so very fitting…

This is a still from a new video piece, “Affecting the Blank Expression of Truly Contemporary Beauty”, 2012.

THE INFORMATION FOR THE MFA EXHIBITION IS LIVE! THE OPENING ON MAY 12TH IS SURE TO BE AN AMAZING SPECTACLE.

http://ccagradthesis.com/fine-arts/

Photos from my lecture, The Female Entertainer, given at the SPE West conference in Fall, 2011.

Still from a new video titled “Her New Fertalization”, 2012. Shot in San Francisco, CA.

This is an image that will never be printed or, essentially, considered in any critical way. I love these works…they are often the loosest, weirdest, least expected images, no matter the success of how they materialize.

AN EXCERPT FROM MY MFA THESIS:

“I sigh and settle into my fur.

I love myself when I am still.

To you this love is a cow chewing cud, planted stubbornly to the ground, eyes glazed, groans echoing, udders dripping, stinking of shit, demolishing flies, neither black nor white nor brown nor beige, filthy grey gums, symbol in flesh, fearful of touch, resigned to be dense, asking to be tipped.

You invite your imagination to the feast it will become with a bullet through the brain.”

Over the past few months, I have made a habit of wiring noteworthy thoughts, names, or even simple reminders, on bright orange post-its. These little mental notes have started to accumulate on my studio wall.

A few months back I did a performance wherein I stood on a busy corner along the ocean in San Francisco and allowed pedestrians to pie me in the face.

I don’t yet have the video (record) of this performance up on my site, so I thought I would post a still image here.

Amazing how many people can so readily take part in a violent act without questioning the representation. In total, 18 pies were thrown, 15 of which were thrown by men.

Aside from the aftertaste of sugar, to get hit in the face with a pie is really no different than being slapped. That said, I did have moments of laughter…perhaps a response to the humiliation and confusion of having an object land in my face, no matter its material form.

(NOTE: For roughly 3 days after the performance, I smelled graham crackers…)