Life of a Craphead will talk about their relationship to movies. This includes watching a lot of them, through their specific lenses of race, gender, and class. They will also talk about their experience making their first feature-film Bugs, which took five years and premiered in 2016, as well as their next film project, coming soon!Part of Entertaining Every Second: a new body of performance and sculptural work by Life of a Craphead that engages with experiences and representations western imperialism in Asia.
Visiting artist lecture: “If I hear another filmmaker say ‘I’m just trying to tell a good story’ I will shave my head:” A talk about DIY filmmaking | Friday, September 28, 2018 —10:00am – 11:30am | University of Calgary, Department of Art – Room AB 672
Life of a Craphead is the collaboration of Amy Lam and Jon McCurley. Their work spans performance art, film, and curation. The name Life of a Craphead comes from the opening joke of the very first live comedy routine they performed together in 2006. Their work investigates, through the central principle of humour, the different ways in which power and authority are deployed. Projects include King Edward Equestrian Statue Floating Down the Don (2017), a public art project where they floated a replica of a colonial statue down a river in Toronto; Bugs (2016), a feature-length film about a bug society; and The Life of a Craphead Fifty-Year Retrospective, 2006-2056, a fake museum exhibition of all of the work they will ever make (2013). They also organized and hosted the performance art show Doored from 2012-2017. Life of a Craphead has exhibited across Canada and the U.S. and has been featured in Art in America, Canadian Art, Washington Post, CBC, VICE, and others. Amy is Chinese and Jon is Vietnamese-Irish, and they live and work in Toronto, Canada.
Life of a Craphead est un duo d’artistes formé de Jon McCurley et Amy Lam. Leur travail couvre la performance, le film et le commissariat. Le nom Life of a Craphead provient de la blague d’ouverture de leur toute première présentation humoristique en 2006. Leur travail examine, à partir du principe central de l’humour, les différentes façons dont le pouvoir et l’autorité exercent leur influence. Parmi leurs projets, notons King Edward Equestrian Statue Floating Down the Don (2017), un projet d’art public pour lequel ils ont fait descendre une réplique d’une statue coloniale dans une rivière de Toronto, Bugs (2016), un long-métrage à propos d’une société d’insectes et The Life of a Craphead Fifty-Year Retrospective, 2006-2056, une fausse exposition de musée de toutes les œuvres qu’ils feront au cours de leur carrière. Ils ont aussi organisé et animé l’événement de performance Doored, de 2012 à 2017. Life of a Craphead a présenté ses œuvres partout au Canada et aux États-Unis et est apparu dans Art in America, Canadian Art, le Washington Post, CBC et Vice, entre autres. Amy est Chinoise et Jon est Vietnamien et Irlandais. Ils vivent et travaillent à Toronto, au Canada.
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Community Partners
"If I hear another filmmaker say ‘I’m just trying to tell a good story’ I will shave my head”: A talk about DIY filmmaking
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