Gargoyle Mechanique
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| Founded | 198? |
|---|---|
| Type | Performing arts collective |
| Focus | Performance and visual arts |
| Location |
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| Origins | Lower East Side, New York, New York |
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Area served
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New York, New York |
Gargoyle Mechanique was originally the name of a group of collaborating art inventors (Steve Jones, Doug "Bert' Kennedy, Matt Crowe, David Landazuri and brother Roberto Landazuri were the principals) in San Francisco in the late 1970s, and later to be the name of an inter-media art space and theater, music, radio, sculpture, art and film collective serially located at various basements and storefronts in New York City's East Village through the 80's into the 1990s.
1980-1988. The Gargoyle Mechanique Laboratory was located initially at Second Ave and 4th st. where musician Steve Jones had moved after leaving San Francisco, but by 1982 had established itself at 69 First Ave in the East Village and was known locally as "The Basement". Principal artistic collaborators: Jones, Jeanne Liotta, Nick Markovich, Carmen Waldorf. Among the creative activities produced during this early fertile period was the Studio Verite Recording studio (6.66 /hr),the kabuki rock n roll band Door of Wigs (Jones, cassette tapes/Chevy guitar, Markovich, vocals, Liotta, percussion/vocals, Carlo Altomare, keyboards, rotating bass players) playing venues of the period such as the Mudd Club, CBGB's, and The Gas Station. Production of Super 8 films/performances, such as Camptown Races and radio plays such as House of Dogs written by Markovich after Stendhal, Shelley, and Artaud, recorded by Jones and featuring Waldorf and Liotta. House of Dogs was excerpted on the Telus audio cassette magazine #11 "The Sound of Radio" and was performed live with food music projections and actors at East Village club 8BC in 1984. This same year Liotta and Jones gave birth to daughter Chloe Liotta-Jones. Her 3rd birthday party at Gargoyle Mechanique's backyard alley was captured in Super8 sound by Markovich and is preserved for posterity on The Center for Home Movies (Living Room Cinema). Markovich also wrote the play CAKE, a cosmic comedy starring Waldorf, Liotta, and Ed Snyder with slide projections by Liotta and original tape score by Jones, and was performed at the New York Theatre Asylum on E. 9th st run by Raquel Shapira and Tri Garrity. Gargoyle Mechanique had a retrospective of this period of music,film, performance, and projected photoglyphs "from the beautiful to the backwards" at the Collective for Living Cinema on White St in NYC in 1987.
From 1989-1993, in NYC, the Gargoyle Mechanique Laboratory was located at 28 Ave B. The thriving art space brought together, and was run by a group of artists, filmmakers and musicians, including Tim Sweet, Loyan Beausoleil, Beth Grim, Kit Krash, Sheila Smyth, Fly, Zero Boy, and Bulk Foodveyor, though led by Steve Jones (now Jones Daughs).
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