The inimitable antidote to the fashion week, er, cycle (since it’s now moved on to Europe), is none other than the high-theatrics rock ensemble The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black. If you never witnessed the horrifically camp spectacle lead by uber provocateur Kembra Pfahler, a California Girl of the punkest variety who’s cut and kicked her career in New York, you’ve been missing something.
Mme. Pfahler and band, along with friends and fans, celebrated the release of the “Beautalism” book, a Deitch Projects imprint chronicling moments from her 2008 Whitney Biennial project and other notoriously legendary moments—such as stitching up her waxed and painted vagina on stage. Last week’s early bird special presentation at Santo’s in SoHo (we were out of there by 9 p.m.!), erupted without the found props that are so signature to the VOHKB art performance concerts. But as with the Whitney event, the show opened with the dandy theremin artist Armen Ra and left us all equally drained and energized.
And, really, as terrifyingly subversive as Kembra’s caustic blitzing of the female sexuality paradigm is, is it really any weirder than what goes on in the name of fashion?