Karaoke
I have an ongoing obsession with karaoke. It’s participatory and fun and there are so many different ways to go about it. Here are two examples of karaoke projects that I’ve done over the years.
Red Sock
This interactive karaoke video was premiered in a live performance at Concrete Cabaret’s OBJECTO Festival in Toronto in October, 2023. The video was projected onstage, and I performed it wearing a life-size red sock puppet costume similar to the ones in the video. The audience sang along to the lyrics, which are a remix of Paula Abdul’s song “Rush, Rush.” The video editing is inspired by Michael Bolton’s music video aesthetic, particularly for the song “I Said I Loved You But I Lied.”
OBJECTO Festival, Tranzac Club, Toronto, October 2023
Isabel Jukes’ Karaoke Extravaganza Stage
This is the first gallery show that I did as a first-year graduate student in the Studio Art MFA program at University of Michigan Stamps School of Art & Design (in 2010!). I had been playing around with a character of mine, “Isabel Jukes,” who was awkward and creative and just wanted to make stuff. Isabel was who I turned to when I was feeling stuck with art-making. When I didn’t know what to do, or I felt too self-conscious to do it, I did it as Isabel. The character was freeing and fun, and she allowed me to host my first-ever gallery karaoke extravaganza stage! The interactive stage was installed in the gallery for viewers to participate. It featured a series of instructions for participants to follow, which included wearing a pair of homemade paper-mache glasses, choosing a song from a selection of cd’s, and singing it through the microphone by following the prompts on the karaoke screen. The video performance below shows Isabel’s introduction to the stage on opening night.
Warren Robbins Gallery, Stamps School of Art & Design, Ann Arbor MI 2010
