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--></style><title>KAREN FINLEY at UNSW</title></head><body>
<div align="center"><tt><font color="#0000FF">UNSW Media Film and
Theatre Special Event</font></tt></div>
<div align="center"><tt><font color="#0000FF">Friday 26 May 2006 11.30
a.m.</font></tt></div>
<div align="center"><tt><font color="#0000FF">Webster Cinema (Room
327)</font></tt></div>
<div align="center"><tt><br></tt></div>
<div align="center"><tt><font size="+3" color="#FF0000">George &
Martha</font></tt></div>
<div align="center"><tt><font size="+2" color="#FF0000"><i>politics
and performance</i></font></tt></div>
<div align="center"><tt><font size="+3" color="#FF0000"><b>Karen
Finley</b></font></tt></div>
<div><tt><br></tt></div>
<div><tt><font size="+1" color="#0000FF">Karen Finley is a New
York-based visual and performing artist, a writer, a musician, an
actor and much else. Her visceral, transgressive
performances and installations have been exhibited internationally.
Her books include<i> Shock Treatment</i>,<i> Enough is Enough</i>,<i>
Living It Up</i>,<i> Pooh Unplugged</i>,<i> A Different Kind of
Intimacy</i>, and Aroused. Her must recent publication is<i>
George and Martha</i> (Verso 2006), an illustrated novella about a
romance between George Bush and Martha Stewart. Finley has
recorded dance and techno beat music with seething lyrics, and taken
part in musical collaborations, theatrical productions and film and
television appearances. She has been involved in various American
institutions: the 1998 Supreme Court case, NEA VS Finley with 3 other
artist plaintiffs, a pictorial for<i> Playboy</i>, and an award as<i>
Ms</i> Woman of the Year. She has been awarded a Guggenheim, and many
other fellowships. Kaern Finley is an Arts Professor in Art and
Public Policy at Tisch School for the Arts at New York
University.</font></tt></div>
<div><tt><font size="+1" color="#0000FF"> </font></tt></div>
<div><tt><font size="+1" color="#0000FF">At UNSW Karen Finley will be
presenting a performance/lecture based on<i> George and Martha</i>.
The story is about a mythic, illicit, sexual, love-hate affair between
George Bush and Martha Stewart. They meet in a seedy motel room
on the night before the Republican National Convention. Their affair
goes way back, before George stole the election, before Martha built
an empire on fascist domesticity. As usual, George numbs his pain over
waging perpetual war with cocaine and the promise of kinky sex. Martha
is forced to take a long view of her life as she suffers the public
humiliation of corporate scandal, on the brink of going to
prison.</font></tt></div>
<div><tt><font size="+1" color="#0000FF"><br></font></tt></div>
<div><tt><font size="+1" color="#0000FF">'I will perform selected
texts with the illustrations of their rendezvous projected. The
novella will be discussed in terms of a nation during war, a
post-modern text, the relationship to the original George and Martha
Washington, an appropriation of George and Martha from Edward
Albee's<i> Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf</i>. But for
further contemplation I consider how America lives through the legend
of George and Martha, and how their relationship becomes a national
narrative. I will also discuss the concept of parody, the
appropriation of a collective knowledge for influencing critique of a
disastrous presidency. There will be a discussion and Q and
A.'</font></tt></div>
<div><tt><font size="-1" color="#000000"><br></font></tt></div>
<div><tt><font size="+3" color="#FF0000">'Scarily hilarious...
Nobody's mind works like Karen Finley's.'</font></tt></div>
<div align="right"><tt><font size="+1" color="#FF0000">- Amy
Heckerling, director of<i> Clueless</i></font></tt></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font size="+1">PS </font></div>
<div><font size="+1">Dennis del Favero's presentation<i>
Nachtraglichkeit: an aesthetics of immanence and trauma</i>,
previously scheduled on 17 May, will now take place at 5 p.m. on
Wednesday 24 May in Webster 327.</font></div>
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<div><tt><font size="-1" color="#000000">Dr James Donald<br>
Associate Dean (Education), Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences<br>
Professor of Film Studies, School of Media, Film and Theatre<br>
University of New South Wales<br>
Sydney<br>
NSW 2052<br>
Australia<br>
<br>
Telephone<x-tab> </x-tab>(02)9385 4858<br>
Mobile<x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab> </x-tab>0433
126445</font></tt></div>
<div><tt><font size="-1"
color="#000000">Facsimile<x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab> </x-tab>(02)
9385 6812<br>
<br>
International<br>
Telephone<x-tab> </x-tab>+612 9385 4858<br>
Mobile<x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab>+61433 126445</font></tt></div>
<div><tt><font size="-1"
color="#000000">Facsimile<x-tab>
</x-tab><x-tab> </x-tab>+612
9385 6812</font></tt></div>
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