Get a backstage sneak peek at CLOWN DOWN 2: CLOWN OUT OF WATER (in streaming video form) before it premiers at next year’s TBA 2022!
Anthony Hudson / Carla Rossi, Arias Hoyle, and Steven Paul Judd
(Portland, OR / Juneau, AK / Oklahoma City, OK)
Streaming Online
Available through the purchase of a pay-what-you-can Festival pass (all access) here
Premiering in 2022, Clown Down 2: Clown Out of Water finds Portland's premier drag clown, Carla Rossi, trapped on a rock in the ocean while the water level rises due to melting ice caps. Alone with a seagull afflicted with IBS, Carla encounters possum pirates, shark TERFs, and the world's last surviving polar bear in this multimedia drag farce that utilizes puppetry, interactive video, and sculpture by David Eckard, and is all about climate disaster and the terror of living on an increasingly distressed planet. Clown Down 2 is being developed by Hudson as a part of the Indigenous Residency Series (IRS).
IRS (Indigenous Residency Series) is a multi-year program with three artists—Anthony Hudson, Arias Hoyle and Steven Paul Judd—working with host organizations PICA, Bunnell Street Arts Center and NM Bodecker Foundation, respectively. In addition to developing their work independently and in collaboration with their host organization, the artists are meeting virtually throughout the process to build connections between their communities, and to share the work with the public.
During the TBA Festival each artist will share a brief video of their work-in-progress, along with a Zoom discussion between the artists, available to view on PICA’s online platform. IRS is managed and supported by the Western Arts Alliance’s Advancing Indigenous Performance (AIP) program, led by Ed Bourgeois, with support from the National Performance Network (NPN), James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, and Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC).
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Anthony Hudson / PICA
Anthony Hudson (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde) is developing a sequel to their recent solo Clown Down: Failed to Mount, called Clown Down 2: Clown Out of Water. While the original, multimedia-based solo showed Anthony’s drag clown character Carla Rossi tasked with performing an evening-length show while trapped under a fallen cabinet as a means of exploring depression and anxiety, this follow-up charts Carla as she finds herself trapped on a rock in the ocean while the water level rises due to melting ice caps, and is concerned with climate disaster and how to navigate an increasingly distressed planet.
---
Arias Hoyle / Bunnell Arts Center
Arias Hoyle (Tlingit) is a solo hip-hop recording artist from Juneau. His stage name is Air Jazz, and he endeavors to bring his ancestry into the public eye. Hoyle will soon release his EP “¢hillout ¢hilkat” and a subsequent 12-track album, “My La$t ¢han¢e ¢hilkat.”
---
Steven Paul Judd / Bodecker Foundation
Steven Paul Judd (Kiowa-Choctaw) will focus on a multi-disciplinary exploration of traditional Native dances, both ceremonial and social, such as the Gourd Dance, Fancy Dance, and Hoop Dance, among others. Steven is creating a series of large paintings that capture the steps of Native dancers in motion, making visible on canvas both the movement of the dancers and the rhythm of the accompanying songs and music. The painting process (“making of”) will be filmed and supplemented with post-painting, on-camera interviews with the dancers in their regalia explaining the history and significance of each of the dances.