Otherworldly: Performance, Costume and Difference exhibition opens at Parsons

Otherworldly: Performance, Costume and Difference is opening at Parsons School of Design's Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries at 66 Fifth Avenue. The exhibition is curated by its faculty members Francesca Granata, Associate Professor of Fashion Studies in the School of Art and Design History and Theory and Charlene K. Lau, Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Curatorial Fellow at Performa and Visiting Scholar at the Parsons School of Design.

The artists in this exhibition construct their own worlds where they can realize and negotiate non-normative identities. In this sense, "world-making" is political and presents alternatives and possibilities for new utopias.

Machine Dazzle is an artist known for his creation of elaborate costumes (for genderqueer playwright and performer Taylor Mac, among others). He crosses borders of design, music and performance on and off the stage. His maximalist creations speak to notions of camp and drag queen culture to create a new kind of surrealism.

Narcissister is an artist and performer who troubles fixed identities while engaging her culturally and racially hybrid self through the use of masks and elaborate costumes. Using grotesque humor, she challenges racial and gender archetypes and stereotypes in her graphic performances.

Rammellzee was a prominent figure in the New York Street Art scene in the 1980s alongside Basquiat and Keith Haring. The American artist is known for his graffiti and mixed-media sculptures, as well as a pioneer of early Hip Hop, recording Beat Bop with K-Rob in 1983.

The exhibition officially begins on November 15 with an opening reception to take place on the evening of November 21 at L105 (2 West 13th Street).