Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble:
The Art of Luv (Part 1): Elliot
Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble: The Art of Luv (Part 5): Swipe Right / ROKÉ Cupid. Photo by Maria Baranova.
About
On May 23, 2014, in Santa Barbara, CA, Elliot Rodger killed 6 people and injured 13, in a rampage motivated by his lack of success with women. In Elliot - Part 1 of their multi-media series The Art of Luv, Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble seeks to treat this wound to the body of Love with a group meditation on masculinity, insecurity, and longing – performing humanity's common search for Love as we misunderstand it. Elliot is a found collection of love stories, a ritual-performance incorporating meditation and modern-day love rituals such as self-sacrifice, sunglasses, best friends, sexually potent bodies, and compulsive shopping. As the foundation for The Art of Luv, it begins an exhaustive piling of objects, videos, rituals, songs, and other physical and psychic pieces for the project.
Credits
Created by: Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble
Management: Alexandra Rosenberg
The Art of Luv (Part 1): Elliot is created with support from The Public Theater’s Devised Theater Working Group, Gibney Dance Center, The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and a residency at CUNY City Tech. Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble is supported by Immediate Medium’s AGENCY program, which provides financial, administrative, and equipment support to emerging artists. The Art of Luv is a project of Creative Capital.
Performance History
January 9, 2015 | Under the Radar Festival Incoming! Series | New York, NY (work in progress)
January 7-18, 2016 | Under the Radar Festival | New York, NY (premiere)
September 10-13, 2016 | TBA Festival / Portland Institute for Contemporary Art | Portland, OR
Selected Press
"The Art of Luv (Part 1): Elliot is a conceptually heavy, extraordinarily reflexive, and ultimately mind-expanding piece that questions our contemporary understandings of intimacy and love through our use of the Internet as both a means of communication and a means of reflexivity."
– Amaura Marston-Firmino, Howlround [full article]
“…new, strange and profoundly disquieting … [Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble] envisions a new form of puppetry that doesn’t shy away from and seek nostalgic shelter in traditional allegories, but rather that submits itself to the age we’re in.”
– Moze Halperin, Flavorwire [full article]
"The intimate piece, “a group meditation on masculinity, insecurity and longing,” reveals the magnetic pull between the disaffected and those who claim to know what they want. It’s sly. Mr. Blow and Mr. McElroy, like gurus or mystics in white tunics with gold-painted faces, play videos including Mr. Rodger’s chilling 'Why do girls hate me so much?'"
– Gia Kourlas, The New York Times [full article]
“ROKE's stated aim--take it as sincere or, given the hokey costumes, decor and projections, ironic or possibly both--is to heal the world, particularly where masculine insecurity is concerned. Maybe everything seen and heard here shares a certain underlying pathology. And maybe, through the wizardry of highlighting those toxic interconnections, these dedicated karaoke masters are among the best healers going.”
– Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody [full article]
More info
download the tour dossier.
for booking inquiries, contact Alexandra Rosenberg at RosieManagement@gmail.com