Bike Boys,drag Queens+superstars

Summary: At the confluence of experimental art and the gay subculture of early 1960s New York, Juan Su†rez discovers a postmodern, gay-influenced aesthetic that Ã’recyclesÓ popular culture. Filmmakers Kenneth Anger, Jack Smith, and Andy Warhol epitomize this sensibility, combining the influences of European avant-garde movements, comic books, rock ÔnÔ roll, camp, film cults, drag performance, fashion, and urban street cu...ltures. Su†rez contends that the avant-garde must be understood in relation to dominant modes of artistic and cultural production, including mass culture and the practices and varieties of community. Beginning with the intellectual and institutional history, and the cultural politics, of American underground cinema, Su†rez moves to the filmmakersÕ workÑAngerÕs taste for ornamentation, stylistic excess, and hot-rod and motor-cycle subcultures; SmithÕs interest in 1920s and Ô40s movie glamour and decaying urban landscapes; and WarholÕs explorations of style, fashion, and superstardom. [read more]