{"id":39015,"date":"2019-01-16T11:46:42","date_gmt":"2019-01-16T16:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/?p=39015"},"modified":"2019-01-16T13:11:17","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T18:11:17","slug":"best-of-2018-rufus-tureen-olde-man-essex-flowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/the-bomb\/2019\/01\/16\/best-of-2018-rufus-tureen-olde-man-essex-flowers\/","title":{"rendered":"~BEST of 2018: RUFUS TUREEN, ‘OLDE MAN’ \/ ESSEX FLOWERS – PERFORMANCE & ART"},"content":{"rendered":"

2018<\/strong> . . . was the year I finally<\/strong> caught up with this guy !!!!!!!!
\n& QUELLE FAN-TAS-TICK !!!!!
\nit was.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nRUFUS TUREEN . . . !!!!!
\nsetting up for ‘Olde Man’, a Saturday night solo performance piece he presented, in a stage of his own making,
\nat Essex Flowers \/ in the newly opened, tiny but hey . . it packs punch !! back room.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nthis in fact was Rufus’s first<\/strong> solo show at Essex Flowers . . but, he’d been popping up, in various costumes on Instagram rather intriguingly, & with increased rabid fandom at every new turn.
\nso, even though I’m not normally into ‘performance’ – I was ready to engage at the nearest best opportunity, turns out his first solo show at Essex Flowers, coincided with Jeffrey Tranchell’s \/ Jonathan Hartshorn – ‘Suckers …’ show – so, game on !!!<\/p>\n

the early visuals were also quite enchanting – wtf, Louis the 16th ?
\nI was like: oh oh, I better wear a hat to hide my own unruly white mane. lest I become an unwitting participant, and perhaps up for some ridicule in the process, damn these smart-ass interactive\/performance artists !!
\nbeen there\/done that.<\/p>\n

when I caught that first sight of him, above . . I was, of course !! epiphany. light bulb. this is . . him<\/strong>.
\nthis guy’s got<\/strong> to have that really neutral face, a rubbery, generic, accountant’s face, no great stature either, all on the down low \/ who you’d walk by in the street & you wouldn’t notice \/ the perfect mime face. the blank canvas.
\nit was kind of like an art world ‘blind-date’ meeting of the minds, albeit 2 very, strange, expressive minds !!
\nI had<\/strong> heard of him, but had no idea what to expect \/ except the grin on his face made huge promises.<\/p>\n

It seemed like he had <\/strong>heard of me, but didn’t know who I was or looked like, but he got my number, too.
\n& right away \/ I was taking a million photos, and talking a mile a minute, asking a million questions, and grinning non-stop,
\nhe got me. & he was impressed too, that beyond the normal obsession with info, that precedes me,
\nI actually did<\/strong> my homework.
\nwhat ? had no one asked him before – if he had a famous father ?
\nhe was shocked.
\nwhat, does no one else in this town . . do their homework ?
\nor maybe it’s more like: watch out . . very late night, world wide web ‘stalker’ – on the premises.
\nyou can dish it – I can find it.<\/p>\n

wow, so far . . . the blind date’s doing pretty damn . . . GOOD !!!!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nof course, the tiny back room was like the hugest<\/strong> stage – I knew right then,
\nI was in the hands of a . . magician.
\nan illusionist.
\na painter.
\nbearing . . tales.<\/p>\n

and, of course (!!) it confronted, e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g, that I thought I stood for & had<\/strong> a grip on, namely simple, functional, found, industrial, DIY, hard. conceptual, art. I mean, I had just spent the better part of the afternoon immersed in the brilliant, quietly joking, small-sized \/ art works floating in great white space, offering up Tootsie Roll pops, . . that was Jonathan Hartshorn’s show \/ and I literally, turn<\/strong> a corner, literally, one step in that small storefront space,
\nand, voila: damn. …… whaaaaaaaaaa !! whaaaaaa !! again.
\nin-your-face, BOLD.
\nwild expressionism. wild abandon. hedonism. crazy-driven brush strokes. passionate paint, lyrical imagery, with . . real human ‘figures’. and, historical ones at that.
\npicturesque, poetic & about to bare their porcelain breasts !!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI remembered this hand-painted yellow & blue ‘screen’, from the Essex Flowers ‘Home Edition’ show, but – where it had once been a backdrop, for other people’s fancies, HERE . . EVEN IN THIS TINY, SHALLOW ROOM, IT WAS A-GLOW – WITH A SECRET LIFE.
\nlet the . . PERFORMANCE BEGIN.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nwhat, what ? is that a tease ? is my future true love – a sly romantic, or what !!!
\ndangling a tiny handkerchief, beckoning: come, come, follow me, into my secret world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nmy heart was a-flutter, like a little bird it beat against my chest.
\nI was already powerless at the joy unfolding . . there was no escaping.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nand just in time, for hark: the ‘Olde Man’, looking quite the dashing, young, French, mischief-bearing, elfish . . pied piper, doth handily . . appear. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nRUFUS TUREEN . . ‘OLDE MAN’
\nyou<\/strong>, broke my heart in half, with joy & unsurpassed \/ surprised delight – in 2018.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nYes, world . . I am<\/strong> Rufus Tureen, come to steal you away, tonight.<\/p>\n

oh my fluttering soul, took off, without a thought & into much deep fancy.
\nno wonder, all those court people wore all that make-up, and those huge huge wigs, with waves-of-curls, powerfully descending & twirling in the glory.
\nall the better to transform, my dear.<\/p>\n

RUFUS TUREEN, ‘OLDE MAN’.
\nOCT 13 – Nov 11, 2018
\nESSEX FLOWERS<\/p>\n

PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH. NOV 3, 2018. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2018 . . . was the year I finally caught up with this guy !!!!!!!! & QUELLE FAN-TAS-TICK !!!!! it was. RUFUS TUREEN . . . !!!!! setting up for ‘Olde Man’, a Saturday night solo performance piece he presented, in a stage of his own making, at Essex Flowers \/ in the newly opened, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39015"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39015"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39041,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39015\/revisions\/39041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}