KISSING ASS

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More About

• Karen Black
• Whitney Museum of American Art

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If you checked out last year's Art Parade or the stage performances at this year's Whitney Biennial, surely the band The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black was seared into your memory like a really bad nightmare. (If the name doesn't ring a bell, think of an all-female KISS dipped in neon colors.) Aside from performing with her lady horrors, lead band member Kembra Pfahler keeps herself busy by sitting on her ass: Sit-Ins, her latest project at Deitch, is, basically, her butt prints on paper. Using the same body paint as worn in her band, she presses her bootay thrice—one on top of the other—to form a "V" shape, which is supposed to resemble a vagina. (Way to double your pleasure.) Her exploration in "body work" was inspired by the 1960s Vienna Actionists, forceful artists who used the body as the surface of their art. Deitch's Beautalism, a book based on Pfahler's recent works, will also be available.
Oct. 23-Nov. 1, 2008