New York City is known for a lot of great cultural landmarks and elements and its theatre and performance scene are one of, if not the most prominent. Guests who may have stayed in one of the top New York hotels in September and/or October may have been lucky enough to attend the limited run of Karen Finley’s new work Karen Finley: The Jackie Look. The show was scheduled to open September 19th at the Off Off Broadway space The Country Club and closed late last month on on October 24th. Finley is well known, and sometimes feared, for her bold depictions of society, private life and her sometimes controversial methods of performance. In The Jackie Look Finley applies her perspective to the iconic look of Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis and analyzes concepts of femininity and the demands being the First Lady can place on a person.
Finley has a long history of solo performance and a somewhat controversial career. She has been hailed as some as a healing social element that exposes archetypal myths and hypocrisies, and others have condemned her as inappropriate and deviant. What an amazing ability to balance between the two and maintain her perspective and performance intentions, without being sucked into the dangers of labels and warped self belief.
One of her most remembered historic moments by the mainstream population is the notorious NEA grant dilemma of 1990. During this year, complaints by Senator Jesse Helms and other political and religious conservatives put pressure on the government supported arts endowment agency. Four active NEA grant receiving artists were declared as creating works that were indecent, and Finley was one of these. The other three artists were Holly Hughes, Tim Miller and John Fleck. Due to the political and social moral pressure, the artists had their grants revoked and have since become known as the NEA four.
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