Revel in New York
A look at the city through its people
Ann Liv Young
Performer
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On stage, Ann Liv Young has rolled around in her dog’s ashes, had sex with her co-stars, covered herself in blood, drank urine and attacked a PETA activist. Off stage, she has given the audience lap dances and ridiculed her own cast for fucking up during a performance.
As a graduate of the prestigious Hollins University dance program, as well as a former resident of the FUSED program in France and the Laban Centre in London, Ann Liv’s work has been presented at some of the most notable venues and festivals around America and Europe. Her shows, which she writes, performs, costume designs, stage designs and produces herself, are over-the-top performances that genre-bend elements of music video, porn, and fine art that really do go there.
Art & Inspiration
ART & PERFORMANCE SPACES
Sanctuary of Hope - "This is a little teeny-tiny church that was converted in to a performance space in Ridgewood, Queens. They were doing a show and they called me and asked if I would do a performance about masturbation and at the end sacrifice a chicken. I told them I would do it, knowing that I really wasn't going to sacrifice the chicken, so I came up with a plan. I kept my station wagon idling outside and I went on stage to do the masturbation show with all this fruit. During the show they hand me the chicken and this girl in audience, who thinks I'm going to kill it, freaks out and jumps on stage to try and save it. So Michael (her parnter) knocks her over and she shatters this vase that was on stage. I grab the chicken back and run naked to the car, with this chicken dangling from my arms. The next day we drove the chicken to this animal farm upstate near Saugerties."
SOURCE
Rush Arts - "Rush Arts is this Chelsea Gallery run by Derrick Adams. He's a nephew of Russell Simons and just an amazing guy with a cool space."
"Sometimes I'm not really sure why I’m attracted to performance. I’ve sort of tried to do other things like making clothes and it doesn’t really work for me that well. I think there is just a huge part of me that really likes making things that don’t exist after you show it."
INSPIRATION & INFLUENCE
The A-Team - "I love Mr. T. We're both afraid to fly. I think this show was a beautiful example of human nature."
Wonder Woman - "I love the original Wonder Woman show. I'm obsessed with how it was filmed and the film stock they used. I wish I knew what that stock was. Wonder Woman is crazy tough and lives on the island of women, which I just think is great. I don't like the episodes with Super Girl though."
SOURCE
Todd Solondz - "I think he's a really smart guy. He sheds light on things that really exist and his movies are nice."
Ingmar Bergman - "I'm obsessed with social interactions and I love the people he chose to work with. His women are fascinating and I love their look. I feel like the way his films look are the way they make me feel. The dynamics between his women are amazing and it's really nice that someone in world was alive and made things like these."
SOURCE
"Pop culture and pop music have always been a pretty big part of my life, especially when I was little. I was totally in love with Madonna, like I’m sure every eight year old girl was, and I choose a lot of pop songs for my work by just searching the most popular songs on ITunes. A lot of people find this annoying because people are always like ‘why does she use this crappy music in her work?', but I think it helps people relate to the work when they know the music."
Ann Liv's New York
SHOPS
Goodwill - "Being from North Carolina, it's hard to really go thrift shopping in New York because everything here is just so expensive but the Goodwill on Kings Highway in Brooklyn is great. It's kind of in a poor area and there's so much stuff. I use this one a lot when I'm looking for costumes or props and when I'm looking for ideas to help with my aesthetic."
B&J Fabrics - "They have really high end stuff. They're horrible about giving samples but their fabrics are really really beautiful."
SOURCE: Flickr
Atlantis Antique Shop - "The Atlantis Antique Shop is one of my favorite antique shops. This super sweet lady runs it and she has awesome stuff. It's a bit overpriced though."
SOURCE: Flickr
"I went to Hollins University, which is an all women's college in Virgina and there was a lot of competition and cattiness amongst the women - which I'm sure you can only imagine. All the women there are all trying to be choreographers and a lot of these women now live in the city and come see my shows and say mean things about me. They don’t really even know me, but I can address them through my work, which is very nice even though I'm not very nice when I address them."
RESTAURANTS
Tai Thai - "Tai Thai on Bedford Ave in Williamsburg is one of my favorite restaurants. They have great Thai food."
SOURCE: Flickr
St. Alps Tea House - "The St. Alps Tea House is absolutely my favorite place in New York City for Bubble Tea."
"One time I did a show in Scotland and I think I pissed some people off because Isabelle actually urinated in a bucket and I drank it. That’s gross, isn’t it? And then it went on the audience by accident. That was bad too. I actually shocked myself and I thought for sure that I was going to be arrested but I wasn't. Actually, the lady that it really hit the hardest was sleeping. How she was sleeping I have no idea."
NEIGHBORHOODS & PARKS
McCarren Park - "I love McCarren Park, especially their dog park, which is one of my favorite dog parks in the city."
SOURCE: Flickr
Red Hook - "I love the gardens in Red Hook. I really like neighborhoods that don't feel yuppie, and to me, Red Hook doesn't feel like that at all. It's one of the few neighborhoods I go to that makes you really feel like you're on the water."
What do you think?
Posted by Anonymous
a performer of color
Being a person of color who has and is currently performing with Ann Liv, I can inform you that she is in fact not a racist. Ann Liv has and continues to work with performers of color and her partner is a person of color. Don't be so quick to judge and call people and their work racist when you do not have proper background information to support your statements. She is an extremely kind, accepting, and open human being. Plus I don't remember the last time she worked with a BACK person.
Posted by Anonymous
Hatchet In Hand
Ann Liv, you must be confused. You were not asked to sacrifice the chicken at the Sanctuary of Hope show, because I was supposed to..
But thank you for turning the tables that night. I will never forget it!
Posted by Ben Dover
Anne is swimming in a sea of signifiers
I want to like her work. Really, I do. The think is, she suffers from a classic sickness that infects most middle class artist: boredom. Yes, she is bored with her idea of "white-middle-class-normal" and she has to invent a surreal shit soup and make everyone else come along for the ride down that putrid river. I mean, since when were a pair of tits and a hairy vagina transcendent, or a replacement for critically designed chaos. Ann may think that those who refuse to play along in her anti-carnivalesque mayhem are just not smart enough to understand her genius, but nothing could be farther form the truth. Most people are smart enough to read the pasty soup of empty signifier she serves her audience and, honestly, there is mostly art school gristle in that soup and not much in the way of transgression in Anne Liv's bitter soup.
Posted by merv lefkowitz
triumph of the will
Eeek!
It looks like poor Ann is suffering from a condition called fetal alcohol syndrome. It's a type of irreparable brain damage that results from your pregnant mama being a drunk. The tip off is the abnormally small eyes.
Well at least she's found a way to stay off the disability rolls. Bravo Ann.
Posted by Jaime Carrera
LOVE HER!
I wish she'd come here and shake up the boring performance art scene in Minneapolis that likes to think is on the cusp... Starting with the Walker Art Center, which freak out that I was merely nude in one my pieces I performed there.
Keep doing what you're doing Ann!
Posted by Anonymous
hmmm
Whatever it takes to get attention seems good enough for Ann.
Does she enjoy what she does?
Wow, human species will never stop to amaze me.
Four sentences out of my life for this... much to much.
Posted by Anonymous
What a futile and desperate
What a futile and desperate attempt to convey any kind of progressive thought.
Posted by Peter Vernon
Art?
Pretentious and frivolous. Do people really care about creating art now, or is the real motivation only to get noticed? It seems that shock value trumps innovation in art circles these days. Not that it doesn't have it's place, but it has been done to death. Art is about innovation of expression not plagiarism. Is it so hard to create something new? Or is this edifice of art culture only a venue to build up a generation of self imposed low self-esteem junkies?
Posted by Anonymous
It doesn't sound like Ann is
It doesn't sound like Ann is sure of what she's doing.
Posted by Samantha
ANN LIVE YOUNG ROCKS
like the set, script, music, make up and down right authentic raw uncontrolled unpretentious out of your fucking mind performance?.... MAybe not.
Posted by Anonymous
edgy racism
i think ann liv young is a racist and should be disgusted with herself for ridiculing back people in crowd to make white fags laugh...what a disgusting piece of trash she is. She is not funny or edgy just lame and ignorant and a racist who has no creativity.