Kampnagel sommerfestival logo anschnitt 4c
Raja Feather Kelly wears a tight-fitting bodysuit that also covers parts of the face, a flowing skirt made of tulle and leans in a freestanding doorway, everything bathed in blue light.
© Karolina Miernik
Raja Feather Kelly wears a tight-fitting bodysuit that also covers parts of the face, a flowing skirt made of tulle and leans in a freestanding doorway, everything bathed in blue light.
© Karolina Miernik

Raja Feather Kelly

Ugly Part 3: Blue

Bright-blue Pop culture collage about being black and queer by a Warhol obsessed choreography-poet.

Tickets:

24 / 14 Euro (conc. from 9 Euro, 50% conc. with Festivalkarte)

Past dates

Archive

Thursday

8/25/22

7:00 PM

Archive

Friday

8/26/22

7:00 PM

Archive

Saturday

8/27/22

7:00 PM

Archive

Sunday

8/28/22

7:00 PM

Raja feather Kelly wears armor, helmet and sword in the manner of a Roman legionnaire, in the background a pale purple projection showing various lines and numbers.
© Karolina Miernik
Raja Feather Kelly looks into the camera lying down, he wears a blue bodysuit and a wide tulle skirt, only his eye area is uncovered, a striking red glittering kissing mouth adorns the fabric at the mouth area.
© Karolina Miernik
Raja Feather Kelly sits in profile at a kind of illuminated dressing table with mirror, everything is bathed in blue light.
© Karolina Miernik
Raja Feather Kelly wears a shimmering, semi-transparent bodysuit and bright yellow trainers. He holds up a poster with the inscription Take me with you. In the background is a projection of the Milky Way.
© Karolina Miernik
Raja Feather Kelly in blue bodysuit and tulle skirt half from behind, standing in front of a projection of a stormy sky.
© Karolina Miernik
Raja Feather Kelly in bodysuit and tulle skirt wrapped lightly around him. His right hand rests against his cheek, his left leg in a stretched pose diagonally forward, all bathed in blue light.
© Karolina Miernik
Raja Feather Kelly again in the armour reminiscent of ancient heroines. He has sunk low to his knees, his left leg stretched far out, his sword held with both hands, like a samurai. In the background, three antique-looking busts.
© Karolina Miernik
Raja Feather Kelly sits on a slightly elevated stage element with his knees drawn to his chest, looking up at a performer in a yellow chicken costume, both in profile, all bathed in blue light.
© Karolina Miernik

Raja Feather Kelly’s awards are in the realms of the superlative: two works with his choreographies, for example, are Pulitzer Prize winners (2019 »Fairview« and 2020 »A Strange Loop«). His own works, which he produces with his company The Feather Theory, are always somehow about the pop art icon Andy Warhol, to whom Gus Van Sant is also dedicating a production in the festival, and who found meaning in questioning popular culture. And that’s exactly what Raja Feather Kelly does in his social commentaries, often bathed in pops of colour. The UGLY trilogy is his response to the lack of nuanced Black queer narratives in the mainstream. After the first two parts negotiated the exclusion (BLACK QUEER ZOO) and the alienation (HYSTERIA) of Black queer subjectivity, BLUE looks at the ambivalence between self-love and that otherness. In a blue cosmos, it rains references from science fiction, comics and Wagner film adaptations, which merge into a visually impressive and atmospheric dreamscape that can also be considered a visual art performance.

TEASER: UGLY Part 3: BLUE

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Concept, Direction & Performance: Raja Feather Kelly Video Design: Laura Snow Light Design: Tuçe Yasak Stage Design: You-Shin Chen Sound: Christoph Mateka Costumes: Brandi Holt Music: Raja Feather Kelly, David Baldwin, Emily Wells

PRODUCED BY ImPulsTanz, Vienna

SUPPORT FROM Mid Atlantic Arts through USArtists International in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Howard Gilman Foundation