Post-Performance Mylar Selves, 2015 - 2018
A side effect of shooting the calendar and attending live events as Little Miss Cleveland on a regular basis for several years was that I began to detest dressing up in hyper femme drag. This used to be something I adored, but it eventually became a chore I dreaded. In 2015 I began shooting photos of myself late at night after coming home from a performance in which I’d dressed up. Some of these were after attending a live event as LMC, some were after performing a show with my band Glass Traps. At the time I thought that since I’d bothered to glam it up, I should get some more art out of it. But I think I also used the private experience to decompress and process the live performance. Live work is traumatizing...for me at least. And I think most would agree that documentation of live work rarely lives up to the experience of performing it. In fact I’m usually very disappointed with the capture of the work and prefer to recall the way it felt. I think that coming home late at night, exhausted and sucked dry from the live performance, I then got to have this quiet intimate time with myself, my lens and this reflected and refracted drag version of myself. I did this after every performance from 2015 to 2018. It became a solitary ritual of self-love and healing from the self-sacrifice of my psyche prior in the evening. I’ve not done live performance in the past couple of years, but will probably continue making these photographs when and if I resume. The material interest to me here is that the distortions and reflections are happening in real-time with the mylar, a ceiling fan and light from household lamps and video projector blue screen.
Little Miss Cleveland Approved Messages
Little Miss Cleveland Approved Messages are a collection of brief videos crudely modeled after muted social media advertisements. Using re-purposed video footage originally shot in 2012, the addition of revisionist subtitles creates an ambiguity that allows the viewer to imagine the subtext. Despite their absurdity, the messages become eerily pointed in the context of a political system where the disillusionment of American voters had been brewing for years, bubbled over during the recent U.S. Presidential election, and straddled both sides of the political system. Inverting Trump’s documented misogyny and borrowing from the celebrity-turned-politician trend, Little Miss Cleveland reminds us that the promises of a political campaign have come to be as meaningful as gibberish. These videos were released between 2016 and 2018. The original footage was shot by Brandon Miller.
Little Miss Cleveland Calendar, 2011
a pinup calendar for Little Miss Cleveland.
photography by John Meese, Robin Brasington and Anne Marie Akers
design by Arzu Ozkal
concept by Sarah Paul
Goodnight Cleveland, A Little Miss Cleveland Bus Tour
from Spaces Gallery site: On Friday, July 13th, party down with Little Miss Cleveland as she shares her favorite nooks and crannies of Cleveland's near west side neighborhoods. Beginning with a sunset toast to the flaming smokestacks of the steelyards, the party bus will roll through some widely known but lesser celebrated landmarks of the city. Noted stops include Pats in the Flats, and Tina's Nite Club. The evening will culminate at the 2nd Annual Wonderful Fest at Now That's Class.
the closing event for The Cleveland Convention and Visitors Bureau Exhibition at Spaces Gallery in Cleveland
Spaces Gallery Flickr set - Goodnight Cleveland
Little Miss Cleveland Sparkles Around
single channel video with sound
a musical video postcard to Cleveland.
video by Sarah Paul and Brandon Miller.
improvised sound by Sarah Paul and Matt Hallaran.
Little Miss Cleveland & the Flaming Sunset #4
live performance
duet with generator
standing in Buffalo, facing east, Little Miss Cleveland serenades Cleveland and Lake Erie
closing performance of the Beyond in Western NY: Alternating Currents Triennial 2010
Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Ponylove, 2006
single channel video with sound
an exploration of gender identity, play, and the human/pony interface
music by Bob Welch, 1977
The Reversal of Lip-Sync, 2006
live performance
a pre-recorded screen diva becomes the visual manifestation of the beautiful voice of the wretched creature lurking behind the screen
exhibited in conjunction with the video Misappropriation of "Singin' in the Rain"