arcHitecture, DISPATCHES art, music, arcHitecture, film, sHopping, news and tHings to make and do… art, music, arcHitecture, film, sHopping, news and tHings to make and do…
under tHe influence
kalup linzy on soap operas
portrait elinor carucci
Soap operaS have influenced my practice pretty much the world turns and the young and the restless. as a
acroSS the board. guiding Light was the first one i child, one of my favourite characters in guiding Light
watched - my great grandmother listened to it when it was alexandra spaulding, a character that’s been played
premiered on the radio way back when. i was told stories by numerous different actresses over the years, and is
about how, every day for about 15 minutes, she and my currently played by marj dusay. i like to think that
aunt would gather round the radio to listen to the character’s influence continues in my own videowork, KK
broadcast. then it went to television, and once it Queens Survey [2005] and play wit de Churen [2005]. you
changed format, they continued to watch, and it sort of never actually see kk Queen, you only hear from and about
got passed through the generations. so my interest in her – but i think she would be based on a dragged-out,
doing a radio show (such as the one i currently do for kitschy version of alexandra spaulding. my work deals a
p.s.1) is grounded in that history of my great lot in archetypes and stereotypes, which soap operas
grandmother listening to her stories. i’m intrigued by generate. frequently in my Churen series, you have a
the way that format can capture the imagination. as a matriarch but not a patriarch. a lot of my own characters
small child i remember going from house to house, and are female [portrayed by women or by men in drag], and
those soap operas would be on in almost every household. people often ask why the male characters,
even when they weren’t on, people would still have if there are any, are so passive. but the men in my own
discussions about what was going on in them and talk family never got as excited as the women.
about the characters as if they were real people. and in
a sense they were – they were part of their everyday another thing that interests me about soap operas is the
lives. one thing that really intrigues me about soap longer they go on, the more steeped in irony they become.
operas is the way they have been on for years and years i would love to make my own telenovela production for tv.
and are still going; new ones are very rarely introduced. but the tv format, particularly in america, only shows a
guiding Light, for example, turned seventy last year. very narrow type of experience – operating in the
they can follow the same stories, tell them over and artworld gives you the freedom to be more exploratory.
over, but always in some slightly new format. it’s a a lot of my characters are loosely based on real people,
constant reiteration, but with new departures. there are but ones that you rarely see represented on tv. in the
four soap operas (all cbs productions) that i follow and artworld – at least the one i exist in – people are more
that have influenced certain characters in my own willing to engage in a critical dialogue with them.
videowork: guiding Light, the Bold and the Beautiful, as
kalup linzy is a new york-based video artist and performer. He currently Has work in Laughing
in a Foreign Language, Hayward gallery, london; and in april He will be screening work for tHe
modern mondays film programme, p.s.1, new york, and participating in tHe glasgow international
festival. He also Hosts the KaLup Linzy Variety Show for wp.s.1 radio
ArTrEvIEw 46
Dispatches_K.Linzy.indd 46 6/2/08 16:51:03
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182