MICHAEL DUDECK WITCH DOCTOR

UPCOMING

NEWS

Thursday, Feb. 9, Pari Nadimi Gallery, 254 Niagara St. Toronto, 5 - 8pm

MESSIAH is Michael Dudeck’s second solo exhibition at Pari Nadimi Gallery, and centers around a fictive prophet in an elaborate queer mythology Dudeck has spent the last 3 years developing. Focusing on the moment of Death of the Prophet, Dudeck explores the loss of subjectivity involved in being iconic. The Messianic figure must accept the projections of it’s public and correspond to, or retaliate against the invention that accompanies his/her own existence. MESSIAH explores the propaganda, the consecration and ceremonial aftermath of the life of the messianic figure through the lens of a queer science-fiction/fantasy blurring prehistory and futurity in a hybrid museological installation.

The exhibition includes large-scale photographic prints on ragpaper, which Dudeck has carved into, maimed, and painted over, a stylized video of the prophets death ceremony, excerpts from an invented sacred text displayed on the walls of the gallery as didactic information, as well as the mummified prophet encased in a plexiglass tomb.

MESSIAH is the sixth installment of Michael Dudeck’s RELIGION project following Parthenogenesis (Pari Nadimi Gallery, Toronto, 2009), Cathexis (PLATFORM Center for Photographic and Digital Arts, Winnipeg, 2010), WombTomb (Center for Performance Research, New York, 2011), Amygdala (ace art inc., Winnipeg, 2011), and Pharmakos (The Glasshouse, Tel Aviv, 2012). In addition to these projects, Dudeck has delivered performances, group and solo exhibitions and launched publications nationally and internationally including John Connelly Presents (NYC), The Watermill Center (New York), Art Metropole (Toronto), and Gallery Connexion (Fredericton, New Brunswick). His work has been featured in the New York Times, the Village Voice, View on Canadian Art, Fuse Magazine, and he was one of 500 young artists featured in the New Museum’s Younger than Jesus Artist Directory by Phaidon Press. In fall of 2012, Dudeck is one of 12 artists selected to participate in The Winnipeg Art Gallery’s banner exhibition Winnipeg Now, which will feature the seventh installment of Dudeck’s Religion project : The Baculum Cosmogony, curated by Robert Enright and Meeka Walsh.

PHARMAKOS

PHARMAKOS
performance by Shaman in Residence
Michael Dudeck
Saturday, 28 January, 7pm
The Glasshouse, Tel Aviv
17 Allenby street

Michael Dudeck is participating in PLUG IN ICA's Summer Institute with assume vivid astro focus, Natalie Kovacs and Philip Pocock

http://plugin.org/news/201107/summer-institute-public-programs-and-events

MICHAEL DUDECK WITCHDOCTOR featured on PerformanceRitual.com

http://performanceritual.com/2011/04/26/michael-dudeck-witchdoctor/

THE ARTIST IS PRESENT

View Michael Dudeck featured in documentary trailer about Marina Abramovic ARTIST IS PRESENT : http://marinafilm.com.

WOMBTOMB

WOMBTOMB: is the third performance/installation in Michael Dudeck Witch Doctor's RELIGION project, which involves the invention of a queer religion and prehistory which radically re-imagines the nature of human origins. This performance is a meditation upon the Death and Sex rituals of one of the factions of Dudeck's mythology, which involves the invention of a multiplicity of genitalia and hybird genders (and invented sexual acts to accomodate modified genders) as well as elaborate ritual sacrifice and mummification procedures. Separated into three movements, the work features a cast of five performers, including Dudeck, as well as live sound by Composer/Sound Artist Andy Rudolph, is roughly 40 minutes and features nudity.

Performers : Ryan Brewer (NYC), Andrea Von Wichert (Winnipeg), Mia Van Leeuwen (Winnipeg), Kristen Andrews (Winnipeg)

FREE TO THE PUBLIC (Donations accepted)

WOMBTOMB is the Second in the New Voices In Live Performance Series at CPR, curated by The Watermill Center.

Center for Performance Research, 361 Manhattan Ave, Unit 1 Brooklyn, NY May 2, 2011 7:30pm

http://www.watermillcenter.org/events/wombtomb
http://www.cprnyc.org/eventcalendar

AMYGDALA

Performance
Opens 7:00pm, begins 8:00pm
Friday, January 14

Exhibition
January 14 - February 17, 2011

aceartinc
2nd Floor, 290 McDermot Avenue
Winnipeg, MB

Performance Artist and Cultural Engineer MICHAEL DUDECK WITCH DOCTOR and Sound Artist/Composer ANDY RUDOLPH present an electro-acoustic ritual performance featuring a cast of 13 performers.

A residual/contextual aftermath, merging drawings, sound, sculpture, video and photography will remain on display from 14th January to 17th February 2011. The exhibition features collaborations with artist Larry Glawson.

Amygdala is the second performance/exhibition in a 10-year project where Dudeck is inventing a Queer Prehistory and Religion which radically re-imagines the nature of human origins. In this cosomogony humanity separates into all male and all female homo-normative tribes, and this division eventually leads to a devastating war between the genders.

The exhibition at aceartic centers around the female war religion, and the performance on the opening night is a ritual recitation of portions of the Amygdala, the female religion's sacred text. Chanted in Dudeck's invented language and transmitted/altered by Rudolph's elaborate sound system, the performance is roughly one hour and features nudity. Audience is asked to stay for the entire duration of the ritual.

Michael Dudeck Witchdoctor in Conversation
with curator Jovana Stokic

LOCATION ONE, New York, Nov. 4, 2010

AMYGDALA PROTOTYPE

Performance / Installation
6 Nov., 2010
6pm

The Watermill Center
39 Watermill Towd Road
Watermill, New York

On November 6, 2010 Michael Dudeck will present a prototype of a performance and a series of drawings and texts that he has been working on during his residency. VOWS is a durational residency which involves a 28-day vow of silence he has undertaken while developing this body of work.

Dudeck's work centers on an invented religion and Queer prehistory, which radically re-imagines the nature of human origins. Humans separate into all male, and all female homo-normative societies, where heterosexuality is reserved only for the purposes of procreation. Currently Dudeck is in the process of designing and building an exhibition focused on the female tribe and its war rituals. The residency is dedicated to creating a vast cosmogony through text, image, and performance wherein he anthropologically examines an invented female warrior culture.

The performance on November 6 will feature the artist as the multi-breasted AMYGDALA, performing an ancient rite wherein portions of his invented cosmogony are recited whilst under ritual trance.

VOWS

Artist Residency

Watermill Center, New York

www.watermillcenter.org/residency/dudeck

VOWS is a durational residency which hybridizes multiple monastic forms in the creation and execution of new work. For an entire moon cycle (28 days) Dudeck will undergo a vow of silence, and will consume only one meal a day, between 4 and 6pm. He will wake everyday at 8am; begin a series of morning rituals; work on drawings, cartographies, and texts during the day; break for the one meal; and for 3 hours each evening will develop a performance in relation to the drawings and writings created.

Dudeck's work centers on an invented religion and Queer prehistory, which radically re-imagines the nature of human origins. Humans separate into all male, and all female homo-normative societies, where heterosexuality is reserved only for the purposes of pro-creation.

Currently Dudeck is in the process of designing and building an exhibition which focuses on the female tribe and its war rituals. The residency will be dedicated to creating a vast cosmogony through text, image, and performance wherein he anthropologically examines an invented female warrior culture.

At the end of the residency Dudeck will present the performance with a series of drawings and texts in the gallery. The performance will feature the artist as the multi-breasted AMYGDALA, an empress and War Priestess reciting an ancient text which tells of the massacres the female tribes inflicted on the male tribes during their Schism.

RITUALIZ'D

Exhibition
20 May - 26 June 2010

Opening Reception + Performances
Thursday 20 May, 7:30pm

Panel Discussion
Thursday 24 June, 7:30pm

PLATFORM Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts
121-100 Arthur St. Winnipeg, MB

www.platformgallery.org

PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts is pleased to present the exhibition, Ritualiz'd, featuring Winnipeg-based artists: Leah Decter, Michael Dudeck, and Freya Bjorg Olafson.

A three-person exhibit, Ritualiz'd, will act as an investigation into notions of ritual from various starting points. Decter, Dudeck, and Olafson will examine how the medicalization of society, the history of ancient myth, and cyberspace all leave traces on the body in a ritualized manner. To do so, the three artists will stage individual performances opening night, animating and/or creating installation components, the ephemera of which will remain as residue throughout the remainder of the exhibition.

Curated by J.J. Kegan McFadden, this coming together of voices is meant to comment on aspects of the past, present, and future of ritual, its place in contemporary society, and what role, if any, the photographic and digital arts play in its presentation and understanding.

MARINA ABRAMOVIC — ARTIST IS PRESENT

From March 10-May 5th I will be in New York assisting with Marina Abramovic's large-scale performance retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, Artist is Present, curated by Klaus Biesenbach. I was chosen as one of 35 performance artists to re-perform 5 of Marina’s earlier works for the entire duration of the three month exhibition. I attended Marina’s Cleaning the House Workshop in August in upstate New York, where we fasted and underwent four days of endurance training with the other artists under Marina’s tutelage. However due to unexpected VISA issues, I will no longer be performing in the exhibition. Thankfully I have received funding from the Manitoba Arts Council Special Projects Grant to assist my continued involvement in the exhibition. My function will be threefold ; I will be assisting Marina throughout the event, volunteering my services for the Marina Abramovic Institute for the Preservation of Performance, as well as launching my SHAMAN-IN-RESIDENCE project wherein I will be providing shamanistic and energetic support to all of the performers individually throughout the duration of my stay.

The exhibition opens on March 15, 2010 and runs until May 31st, 2010.

More information

THE INSTITUTE FOR ART RELIGION AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

While in New York from March 10-May 5th, in addition to my services towards Marina Abramovic’s exhibition at the MoMA I will be interning two days a week at the Institute for Art Religion and Social Justice. I will be helping to organize a performance art event featuring a number of artists, including myself, in which I will premiere my durational performative opera The Embryonic Chants (more info coming soon). This event will be the second project of the Institute following the success of its first exhibition, Compassion, curated by AA Bronson.

The Institute for Art, Religion, and Social Justice