Verasphere September 12, 2008

Visual Aid artist MICHAEL JOHNSTONE was born in Scotland and settled in San Francisco in 1980, where he photographed queer theater people, drag queens, and club performers. Ten years later most of those whom he photographed were gone, casualties of the AIDS epidemic. "There was too much loss for one mind's memory," said Johnstone. Meanwhile, his own health was severely compromised.

The character Mrs. Vera was born in this period, created by Johnstone and his partner David Faulk, and named after the popular designer of scarves. Faulk fabricates the costumes from recycled materials and is Mrs. Vera in the photographs. In Johnstone's work, the notion of drag is both deconstructed and celebrated. Mrs. Vera's wild layers of costume embody "fragments of a drag memory tornado," says Johnstone. She wears accessories created from recycled objects, and is also the keeper of wigs and artifacts from Johnstone's "lost culture". In public, Mrs. Vera and Johnstone act as ambassadors at events and festivals to remind people to value difference and celebrate the eccentric aspects of daily life. They often engage friends to participate in group performances.

INQUEERING MINDS: Saturday 10/18, 6:30-8pm, reception featuring wine, chocolate and Obsello absinthe, followed by Panel Discussion with moderator Elizabeth Stephens, and panelists Rudy Lemcke from the Queer Cultural Center, and performance artists Annie Sprinkle and Tina Takemoto. Presented in conjunction with the Queer Bodies in Psychotherapy Conference.

CIIS partnered with VISUAL AID to produce Verasphere and InQueering Minds. Cosponsored by the Drama Therapy Program at CIIS and Queer at CIIS

Made possible by grants from the Zellerbach Family Foundation, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and Horizons Foundation.

Free.

Official Website: http://www.ciis.edu/arts