DoYou: Memoirs of Promethean Sisters
“DoYou: Memoirs of Promethean Sisters” is a Multi-Media Site-Specific Performance Art Project interwoven with Music based storytelling, immersive theater, and wearable art installation, print and video exhibition which is programmed during the One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival in West Hollywood, CA. The theme for 2018 is "I Remember" which celebrates our shared history and the people and events that paved the way for the rights we hold dear today.
Yozmit will create a wearable art installation as a performance shrine in Plummer Park's, Long Hall, one of the historic LGBTQ places in West Hollywood. It will be an altar/sacred space in remembrance of legendary Leigh Bowery. Bowery was a costume designer, performance artist and a club promoter who pioneered transgender performance with the main inspiration of Tranimal drag movement, which emphasized an animalistic and postmodern take on drag.
Bowery influenced many artists and designers such as Alexander McQueen, Lucian Freud, Boy George, Lady Gaga, John Galliano, David LaChapelle and myself.
"Just like every child has its mother, every inspiration comes from a source. The family tree has its roots." -Yozmit
Inspired by the mythological story of Prometheus (Yang) stealing fire from gods in an effort to help humanity and the brightest Seven Sisters star constellation of Pleiades (Yin), I propose to reinterpret the performance, music, visual costume work, stylistic imagery, and video of Leigh Bowery as a constellation of stars, I connect the dots between my personal journey as an LGBTQ artist migrated from Korea inspired by Bowery, with the songs and stories of DoYou. With ritualistic performances in an immersive style of theater inside the exhibition space along with my signature WALK performance in specially designed wearable art combining Leigh/Yozmit aesthetics, related video, and an exhibition of prints, I evoke the spirit and struggle of Bowery and performance art that transcends gender.
I want to celebrate and remember Bowery’s gloriously colorful legacy and courageous Promethean heart which sparked the fire of inspiration in artists and contemporaries of the next generation such as myself. In a period of human history when his way of being was still a taboo in the society, Bowery truly added hope by embracing, recognizing, and drawing attention to what was going on with multi-sexual people and communities.
When I encountered Bowery's work for the first time, it exploded and expanded my world as a trans-identified person because of similarities in our interests and art mediums - performance art, nightlife work, music, fashion, I truly feel a strong bond with Bowery as my art mother or art sister to explore deeply about breaking boundaries around gender and identity, creating new connections between art and advocacy in LGBTQ communities.
Leigh Bowery is a true LGBTQ hero and a heroine for humanity, a bearer of Promethean fire which will never extinguish in our Pleiadian souls.
*Exhibition Dates: June 25 - 29, 1-5pm
Location: Plummer Park’s Long Hall. 7377 Santa Monica Blvd West Hollywood
**Special Performance June 28 7:30pm
Location: Plummer Park’s Long Hall Court Yard 7377 Santa Monica Blvd West Hollywood
https://www.weho.org/residents/weho-arts-and-culture/2018-one-city-one-pride-lgbtq-arts-festival
*This project is presented with the support of the City of West Hollywood's WeHo Arts Program, For more information, Please visit www.weho.org/arts or follow via social media @WeHoArts.
**Additional Sponsors ( Thank you for your generous support! )
Noel Solutions LLC, Mina Park
Vendome 420
Matthew Mandel and Melissa Gentry
YT Wong