Wikipedia:WikiAfrica/Stubs/Steven Cohen

Steven Cohen (b. 1962) is a South African performance artist who now lives in Lille, France. He often stages interventions in both the public realm and in gallery spaces. His work draws from his own identity as a gay, Jewish man and explores that which is marginalized in society. Cohen left his native South Africa to travel Europe and the United States for more than 10 years, performing in a variety of theatres, galleries, and public space interventions. With elaborate costumes and grand gestures, Cohen's work challenges taboos and the artist's own place in society. Although banned in South African art school curriculums, Cohen is critically acclaimed in European literature. He first became known for his vivid and political silkscreen fabrics.

Exhibitions

 * 2010 Chandelier (video), KZNSA Gallery, Durban
 * 2010 Life is Shot, Art is Long, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town
 * 2008 F*ck Off and Die, Chapelle Fromentin, La Rochelle, France
 * 2006 Dancing Inside Out, Kunsthalle Wien Project Space Karlsplatz, Vienna
 * 2006 Uninvited (with Elu), Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
 * 1999 Nobody Loves a Fairy When She's Forty, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg
 * 1998 Material Boy, Galerie Dudelange-Ville, Luxembourg
 * 1998 But Me, I'm Sitting Pretty, Galerie Mikado, Luxembourg
 * 1997 Camp Concentration, Hänel Gallery, Cape Town
 * 1994 The Toilet of Adventure (installation), Civic Art Gallery, Johannesburg
 * 1993 Uneasy Chairs and Bitter Suites, Everard Read Contemporary, Johannesburg
 * 1989 The Living Room, Gallery on the Market, Johannesburg
 * 1988 Alice in Pretoria, Market Gallery, Johannesburg

Cleaning Time (Vienna)
In this 2007 performance, Cohen crawls around on bare hands and knees, wearing little more than a yellow badge and a gas mask as a codpiece. From his naked posterior protrudes a diamond and he wears tall red heels. Cohen uses a toothbrush to clean the cobblestone street, referencing how the Jews of Vienna were forced to do the same during the Holocaust.

Chandelier
Wearing a chandelier turned tutu, Cohen walks through a squatter camp in Johannesburg as it is being cleared out.

Golgotha
This 2009 production began with Cohen's discovery of two human skulls for sale in a shop in SoHo. He then turned these skulls into shoes. Cohen walks through Manhattan, from Times Square to Ground Zero, teetering and struggling in these 'skulletoes.'