Kalup Linzy is not your average video artist.
Linzey uses his low-budget video productions (think r. kelly operettas, but better) to draw attention to the ways in which ideas about race, gender, and class have been shaped by modern video mediums like soap operas, music videos, and film. Using gender-bending techniques such as characters in drag, male characters dubbed with female voices, and dubbed voices sped up or slowed down, Kalup challenges ideas about gender, while simultanously mocking the ways in which gender roles are so defined in mainstream media. Using humor and wit, Linzey’s characters make the viewer realize not only the absurdity of the imagery in mainstream media, but also the drama, and stereotypes as well. And in this presentation, we can’t help but take note of the ways in which people are greatly affected by these images on a daily basis.
mad props to kalup linzy-
check his work out online, on youtube, or at the studio museum in harlem.
