The Deportment of Corrections: Performance art by Pat Oleszko, 5 p.m. Thursday, November 1 at the Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty, Ann Arbor as part of the Penny Stamps lecture series. Repeated on November 3, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit. 734-668-8397. Free.
On November 30 she will be appearing at the Opera House for the Center for Maine-ly Contemporary Art in Rockport.
From her Web site:
Pat Oleszko makes a spectacle of herself””and doesn’t mind if you laugh. Known as the Ms Tricks of Dis Guise, she has a large body””of work””which includes many Unnatural Acts. Utilizing elaborate costumes and props, she has created lithe performantzes, films, installations that a-dress trees, knees, breasts, butts, elephants and fingers. There have been notorious spatial events with the cast-off thousands and uttered shenanigans. She has worked from the popular artforms of the street, party, parade and burlesque house, to the Museum of Modern Art, from Sesame Street Magazine to Ms, Playboy, and Artforum. A much decorated artist, literally and figuratively, she has been amply rewarded for her diverse efforts pumping irony and disparately bringing home the beacon. The truth squirts.
Buzz about Oleszko:
Oleszko, a founding force majeure in performance art and video, best known for sensational, ferociously childlike costumes which invoke the Dionysian principle of the 1960’s, while also recalling Oskar Schlemmer’s Bauhaus design,Lewis Carroll and Dr. Seuss. Hers is a raw comic vision, close in spirit to vaudeville
The New York Times Magazine
All the world’s a stooge, Oleszko says, and her role is that of self-appointed jester, making members of what she calls the ‘ruling crass’ laugh which she beats them over the head with her shtick.
Washington Post
With her insouciant costume sculptures, performances, and films, Pat Oleszko burlesques art-world pretension and critiques role-playing in society at large.
Art in America
Combine Gypsy Rose Lee and Jonathon Swift and you’re getting close to the spirit of this bawdy, boisterous, butt-kicking and breast-baring performance artist.
Atlanta Journal
Oleszko is a 3D poet: an eternal punster as she twists and turns every possible syllable, shrinks and expands every image that passes through her complicated mind.
The New Mexican