Liberaceón

2011, 16 minutes, three channel video installation

Liberaceón, the second in a series of biographical pieces, renarrates portions of the biography of Liberace—the flamboyant, yet closeted, apolitical pop pianist who died in 1987—in order to insert him into a queer history of radical AIDS/HIV activism. The central component of the video installation is a short narrative in which Vargas performs as Liberace, embellishing details from his life and spinning them into a mythic origin story of the in/famous direct-action group, ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power).

Selected Screenings/Exhibitions:

  • Inarguably Uncertain: The 41st Annual UC Berkeley MFA Graduate Exhibition, Berkeley Art Museum May – June 2011 Berkeley, CA

  • Artist Television Access, May 2011 San Francisco, CA

  • Bay Area Currents 2011, Pro Arts Gallery, July – September 2011 Oakland, CA

  • Illegitimate and Herstorical, A.I.R. gallery, January 2012 Brooklyn, NY curated by Emily Roysdon.

  • Yesterday Once More - a Dirty Looks program, White Columns, June 2012 NYC, NY

  • Yesterday Once More - a Dirty Looks program, LA Film Form - Egyptian Theater February 2013 Los Angeles, CA

  • Yesterday Once More - a Dirty Looks program, SFMOMA February 2013 San Francisco, CA

  • Out Night: History, Glamor, Magic | Ann Arbor Film Festival, March 2013 Ann Arbor, MI

  • INFRARED 4 | Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, October 2013 Seattle, WA

  • Cell Count, La MaMa Galleria, May – June, 2018 New York, NY

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