Mediamatic Magazine vol 4#4 Niet Bekend 1 Jan 1990

Karen Finley

The Artists

Bom in Chicago USA 1956, Lives and works in New York

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Karen Finnley -

Finleys performances work through impersonation, bordering on possession. She evokes a range of different people - aggressors and victims alike • and does to herself what she says is being done to others. The overall effect is very similar to homeopathic medicine: cure the ailment urith its cause. Finley’s abuses literally cleanse. (Jeff Smith, San Diego Reader.)

Edge 90 commission: A new solo performance, Wé Keep Our Victims Ready, which is about the abused and abusers of society. The style of her delivery ranges from the assumed intimacy of a television talk-show host to the incantatory fervor of an evangelist.