The Stench of Rotting Flowers, Exhibition by Curator-in-Residence Danny Orendorff – Opens April 19

   
Opening at la Esquina April 19, 2014, The Stench of Rotting Flowers features 13 contemporary artists from around the nation whose labor-intensive and decorative artworks address and provoke such big feelings as sorrow, grief, and heartbreak. Central to the exhibition’s interests are secular approaches to bereavement by feminist and queer artists, including practices that respond to death and loss through ritual, repetition, nature, and high-camp art practices.

Organized by 2013-14 Charlotte Street Foundation curator-in-residence Danny Orendorff, The Stench of Rotting Flowers is equal parts artifice and ache, as sincere as it is satiric. Harpist Pamela Block of Simply Strings will be performing from 6pm – 7:30pm–don’t miss her rendition of “Stairway to Heaven!” Then at 7:45pm, Chicago-based artist Hope Esser will present a live version of her video work “For Health and Strength” at the exhibition’s opening, a durational performance featuring the artist and her sister consuming copious amounts of red wine in a ritualistic act of remembrance and forgetting.

Opening: Saturday, April 19
Time: 6-9pm (Harpist Pamela Block plays from 6pm-7:30pm; Hope Esser performs “For Health and Strength” at 7:45pm)
Venue: la Esquina | 1000 W. 25th St., Kansas City, MO 64108
Tickets: FREE
Dates: Saturday, April 19—Saturday, June 6, 2014
Gallery hours: Wed, Fri, Sat: noon-5pm, Thurs: 11-6pm

Curator & Artist Talk | Saturday, May 17, 2-4pm at la Esquina
With Marie Bannerot McInerney, Rain Harris, Peregrine Honig, & Jeff Tackett

Additional Programming:
Every Poem is a Coat of Arms | Saturday, May 3, 2-5pm at la Esquina
A melodramatic poetry workshop by Daviel Shy

Featured Artists: Marie Bannerot McInerney (Kansas City, MO); Elijah Burgher (Chicago, IL); Adrain Chesser (Seattle, WA); Hope Esser (Chicago, IL); Edie Fake (Chicago, IL); Rain Harris (Kansas City, MO); Jesse Harrod (Richmond, VA); Peregrine Honig (Kansas City, MO); Jenny Kendler (Chicago, IL); Daviel Shy (Chicago, IL); Jeff Tackett (Kansas City, MO); Ashley Thomas (Chicago, IL); and Michael Velliquette (Madison, WI)

Images from Left: Hope Esser, For Health & Strength video still; Ashley Thomas, Book; Jenny Kendler, New Ways to See I & II.

For more information, see the full Press Release.