Vaginal Davis’ new site specific piece My Pussy Is Still in Los Angeles (I Only Live in Berlin) is a Lesbian Separatist tea party loosely based on the fascinating Terry Wolverton tome Insurgent Muse: Life and Art at the Woman’s Building. The performance will entrap and swing the visitor in a poetic meditation on feminist whimsy and gender queerness. In it, Miss Davis will combine recorded music, spoken-word narratives, and live performance to explore the utopian promise of Los Angeles and the dystopia of the late 1970s through the lens of the Woman’s Building, gender issues, and her own career as a performance artist. The event will also feature a special tea reception and the publication of a zine—a special signed artist’s book that chronicles and supplements Miss Davis’ performance.

In the unique setting of the Louis XVI-style Southwestern Law School, originally Bullocks Department Store,  home to the first Chanel boutique on the West Coast, Miss Davis’ tea party will unfold through the reading of letters (fictional and not) and the spinning of records that reflect upon the history of Los Angeles and the counterculture performance scene, especially that of gay and transgender performers and the activities of the Woman’s Building. Designed as an homage to the pioneering work of such culture workers, Davis’ performance seeks, in part, to fill the gaps in the performance history of the city by creating narratives for figures that are frequently overlooked.

The performance is one in a series curated by Emi Fontana of new works inspired by the influential Los Angeles-based Woman’s Building. The curatorial aim of the series is to highlight the tremendous impact of the Woman’s Building and feminist practices on contemporary art production.

No minors admitted.