Hot Mess! highlights moments of co-creation and gives the artists and the audience a play-space to meet each other across time, genre, cultures, perspective, experience.. it demonstrates the power of working together in the unknown, possibilities for Queering space, and the beauty in transformation while making art! All ages are invited, especially the 4:20pm show that has many kids in attendance!

Episode 9: Saturday, July 29
Two sets: 4:20pm & 8:00pm Central Standard Time

Esteemed artists: Vanessa Skantze (Seattle) Wannapa P-Eubanks (Chi/Thailand) Michael Zerang (Chi) Carolyn Carney (Chi)
Muso (Chi) Juliann Wang (Chi) Anna Oxygen (Ithaca, NY) 
D Jean-Baptiste (Chi) Jinlu Luo (Chi)

$15 Elastic Arts, 3429 W. Diversey Ave. #208 Chicago, IL 60647
Streaming: https://elasticarts.org/streaming
No advance ticket sales. Debit/Cash accepted at the door

Episode 10: Saturday, October 28
Two sets: 4:20pm & 8:00pm Central Standard Time
Esteemed artists: Mabel Kwan, Aurora Tabar, Iván Espinosa, Hereaclitus, Karyna Herrera, more TBA

Hot Mess! Curious?? Find out more

Artist bios:
Muso is a storyteller whose goal is to create immersive worlds that center characters birthed from different aspects of her human experience. She focuses mainly on womanhood, sex, power and culture, ultimately as part of an identity which seeks to deconstruct and challenge hegemonic principles. Muso released her first EP Ache: Demos in 2022, which highlights a turbulent and defining arc of her life, where she spent time working in the sex industry, and the archetypes she encountered which gave her a visceral perspective into her relationship with the patriarchy. Muso uses poetry and prose as the baseline of her work, which she expresses through music and visual elements, with the goal of building worlds that reflect society back to itself, with the purpose of provoking an awareness that can be ushered into healing. 

GoldGrrl (she/her) is a queer Afro-Panamanian singer and dancer who specializes in metal scream vocals and performs Old Way Vogue with the House of Alain Mikli. She has a background in jazz choir and participated in the Georgia District Honor Choir. GoldGrrl led volunteer vocal workshops for G!RLs Rock camp and received an Awesome Foundation award in 2018 to teach adults how to scream safely. She was the lead vocalist for Chicago metal band ERZULIE from 2014-2019, which also raised funds for Chicago Women’s Coalition and Puerto Rican Relief Fund. Currently, GoldGrrl pursues a solo career that combines pop, metal and rap while also acting as frontwoman for three Chicago bands: psychedelic rock band Electric Mothership, acoustic folk duo Las Quintanas, and metal music collective Reko & Tha PurseSnatchers. Follow up with her on Instagram @goldgrrlchi and find her and her bands’ music on Spotify, Bandcamp, YouTube and SoundCloud.

Juliann Wang is an interdisciplinary artist, sound sculpture, and performer. Exploring spaces she has been, these inquiries question perceptions of time, space, and belonging through landscapes both real and imagined. Her creation embraces the intrinsic beauty of difference and unpredictable nature of things. An HCL Artist Fellow, she is currently preparing for her forthcoming album release with shows at Impromptu Fest at Elastic Arts, Harris Fest at Millennium Park, and Listening Event at Experimental Sound Studio.

D Jean-Baptiste: Whether through a budding experimental electro-acoustic group, a blossoming band called Fruitleather, solo audio work, or years of performance study both in and out of Chicago, D is learning to listen.

Vanessa Skantze transitioned from text-based performance to movement in 2001 when she co-created the sound/movement improvisation ensemble Death Posture with Donald Miller and Rob Cambre in New Orleans. Musicians she has worked with include Peter Kowald, Jarboe, and Tatsuya Nakatani. Vanessa became a student of Jinen Butoh founder Atsushi Takenouchi in 2003. She has trained extensively with Mari Osanai; and drawn deep from workshops with Natsu Nakajima, Seisaku, and Yuko Kaseki. Based in Seattle, Vanessa is a co-founder of Teatro de la Psychomachia, a DIY space which has hosted national and international performing artists and musicians since 2010. Her work Writhing Treasure Feast which premiered in Seattle in late February 2020 features a recorded score created by ten musicians and is accompanied by a 72 page book of photography/text. Vanessa performed in the NY Butoh Fest 2020 with her performance Red Flag on the Red Planet. Her film The Unraveling premiered in Unfix NYC 2021 and was screened at the South Sound Experimental Film Fest in Seattle. Vanessa was a highlight artist at Unfix NYC 2022 with her performance night mare, for which she co-created the sound. Vanessa performs and tours with To End It All, a doom/death industrial trio.

Wannapa P-Eubanks is as a Butoh dance performer, Improviser, Choreographer, Movement Coach, and emerging actor, who creates expressive dance/ movement inspired by personal memories. Her performances often stems from a personal experience or a specific memory that grows into a poetic image that she imbues with the memory. 

Michael Zerang was born in Chicago, Illinois and is a first generation American of Assyrian decent. He has been an active musician, composer, and producer since 1976, focusing extensively on improvised music, free jazz, contemporary composition, puppet theater, experimental theater, and international musical forms. http://www.michaelzerang.com/ https://pinkpalace.bandcamp.com

Jinlu Luo: I’m not very good at explaining my work through concepts, but I believe that while a personal history can be cosmetically touched-up, the history of one’s art cannot be changed. Once work is done it is done. My artwork is my soul, my emotions, my feelings, and my heart, displaying my experience of the world. My dramatization of thought is for my own purpose. I’m the audience of my own performance. What I can get a witness is not necessarily the performance product, which is to say the staging of ideas to audience eyes, but rather the dramatization of thought in the creative process itself. The staging of a performer-position gives second life to a personality. For this moment, being the director is not simply a metaphor for the struggle to make decisions but more a creative practical strategy to determine the route of a collaborative body. I consider the importance of casting as an alternative family, and thus my solo is a single-person household. My self-presentation is my own house, a solitary architecture on an open landscape of audience. This building oneself to a particular structure is always a moment of suffering. Here is a person-role.

Anna Oxygen is a multidisciplinary artist working with performance, sound, technology, mixed media and interactivity. .. frequently engaging intersections of body, voice, objects and ritual to reveal social and technological structures that tie individuals to communities…has special interests in interdisciplinary pedagogy, collaboration and community building across digital and hybrid platforms and often engages members of local communities in the work… most recent work explores feminist speculative world building, working between live performance and volumetric 3D/VR landscapes.. released several albums of music under the name Anna Oxygen, with a recent contribution to Kill Rock Stars 30th anniversary covers series.

Hot Mess! cruise director Sara Zalek is a maker of situations and curious objects.They create performances as learning and listening situations to encourage thoughtful interpersonal connections. They enjoy wearing many hats. Zalek skillfully performs in both in person and online situations; in 2022 named an Esteemed Artist by The City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE). They have performed, curated workshops and produced citywide festivals at the Chicago Cultural Center, Elastic Arts, Experimental Sound Studio, High Concept Labs, Links Hall, Japanese Culture Center, CoProsperity Sphere, No Nation, dfbrl8r, Outerspace, and UrbanGuild in Tokyo, LightBox in Detroit, Arts+ Lit Lab in Madison, WI, B74 Raum für Kunst in Lucerne Switzerland, and many more.

Supported in part by Elastic Arts.
Elastic Arts is a non-profit organization that fosters a community of music, art and performance in the Avondale/Logan Square neighborhoods of Chicago and beyond through developing, hosting, producing, and promoting creative, independent, and local music concerts, exhibitions, and multi-arts performances.

Interested to Participate in 2023? Or to find out more specifically: https://forms.gle/JZ5dA6kajuF3un1u5
This is a paid opportunity.