On June 23, 2014, Joan Agajanian Quinn interviewed me for her cable access show The Joan Quinn Profiles in advance of my performance, Object of Her Affection at REDCAT in Los Angeles. Object of Her Affection is a solo object and puppet-based performance art piece centered on a woman, who in her search for true love develops intimate relationships with inanimate objects.
Joan Agajanian Quinn has been referred to as the Culture Queen and the Gertrude Stein of her day. Through the 1970s to the 1990s, her Los Angeles home became the nucleus of a pivotal artist interchange. Artists were drawn to capture the enigmatic Joan Quinn; showcasing their singular style in portraiture while embellishing the mythology she had built in the contemporary art world. Joan Quinn’s cultural dedication is never ending and has taken many paths. As West Coast editor of Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine, Joan’s constant snapshot taking for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner of emerging and established artists and her current The Joan Quinn Profiles cable television show has created an ongoing archive of visionaries shifting paradigms in the creative world.
Joan Quinn Profiles (YouTube)
Announcer: Stay tuned for The Joan Quinn Profiles. Joan served the State of California as a member on the Arts Council and on the Film Commission. She was formerly on the Architectural Commission and filled two terms on the Fine Arts Commission for the City of Beverly Hills. As an editor for Andy Warhol’s magazine, Interview, Conde Nast Publications, and the Hearst Corporation, Joan covered the world of fashion, the mysteries of food, the excitement of theatre, and the international art scene. She continues to find people who are on the cutting edge of their professions. Here’s Joan Agajanian Quinn…
Joan Quinn: Hi, I’m Joan Quinn and welcome back to the Joan Quinn Profiles. I’m here with writer, performance artist Marsian De Lellis, who was born and raised in Boston. [They] earned [their] bachelor of fine arts at the Art Institute of Chicago and [their] MFA in puppetry and the arts at the CalArts in Los Angeles – California Institute of the Arts. [Their] work is featured in the 11th annual NOW Festival of original work at REDCAT, which is right next to Disney Hall.
Marsian De Lellis: Yes
Joan Quinn: And what is it called? New –
Both: Original Works
JQ: N.O.W.?
MD: Right – That helps you remember it.
JQ: N.O.W.? Right
MD: And it’s timely.
JQ: So what is new original work? What are the other things going on down there?
MD: Well, I’m doing puppets and performing objects and there’s a lot of people doing dance and video related stuff with performance
JQ: Are they all from CalArts?
MD: […] Well there are some people from CalArts and there are some people from UCLA and there’s some unknown entities.
JQ: So what I want to know is – when you were in Boston
MD: Yes
JQ: Were you into the arts?
MD: I was. I mean I was there until I was in high school and then..
JQ: And what little community did you live in?
MD: I lived just outside of Boston in this little community called Belmont (where Mitt Romney’s from)
JQ: Belmont? My show goes to Belmont
MD: Really?
JQ: Yes
MD: Massachusetts?
JQ: Yes! Belmont. Isn’t that great?
MD: Hi Belmont
JQ: And when I walk on the street they go, “There’s Joan Quinn”
MD: There’s Joan!
JQ: I know – it’s great. Belmont – I love Belmont! So you were into – What were you doing?
MD: […] I was more like your last guest [Lisa Adams], doing visual art and it turned into installation, performances, and then I started making dolls, and I went to the Chicago Art Institute
JQ: Yes, but were you painting at the Chicago Art Institute?
MD: I was doing all of it. Like I went there because they had performance art, film and painting, and it was so well rounded and […]
JQ: And who teaches that?
MD: Well there’s painting teachers and
JQ: And then you integrate them?
MD: Yeah
JQ: Because you have to do the integration
MD: Right
JQ: It’s not a class – I got it – in that… but is there an actual class in puppetry?
MD: There was! There was one taught by Blair Thomas there. He started the Red Moon Theatre and then they had Janie Geiser as a visiting artist and I ended up studying with her here at CalArts.
JQ: Oh, so she taught at CalArts too. There is actually – cause this is pretty interesting – a puppet making class at CalArts?
MD: Yeah
JQ: And this puppet – we have. Did you make the face?
MD: I did. I did. So I sculpted..
JQ: Out of what?
MD: I used foam and styrofoam and masking tape from Staples – but then I put all art supplies on it…
JQ: But did you learn that in class?
MD: Yeah, I mean – you learn lots of different techniques. I also study at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center every year and they have a puppetry festival – and – I mean there’s lots of techniques, but you have to decide what works best for your show.
JQ: So there’s a puppet on a hand
MD: There’s a Muppety style
JQ: Yes
MD: There’s American Theatre Table Top style
JQ: That’s this
MD: That’s sort of an offshoot of Bunraku, which is the Japanese style..
JQ: Oh – Bunraku
MD: where six people..
JQ: And then there’s the other
MD: There’s rod puppetry, shadow puppetry, there’s kites
JQ: strings?
MD: There’s theatrical things. There’s…
JQ: What about those old fashioned puppets..
MD: Marionettes.. Yes! Yes!
JQ: What about those? Are they anywhere anymore?
MD: Yes! They are. At the O’Neill Center, I actually studied with the maker of Howdy Doody’s son,
JQ: Ohhh ohh
MD: Jim Rose and Philip Huber who did the girl in the Wizard of Oz movie that just came out. But it’s a very old art form and very few people do it now, cause it’s so precise and it’s kind of the opposite of computers
JQ: How did you choose?
MD: It kind of chose me.
JQ: It loves you
MD: It loves me! I was making dolls and people were like, “Well what are their stories about? They seem pretty far out. What do they…”
JQ: You mean the little doll like this?
MD: Yeah, little stitchier and they wanted to know what their stories were about. And so this one – the performance I’m going to be doing at the NOW Festival is called Object of Her Affection, and it’s about a woman who falls in love with inanimate objects – so I thought it would be a good topic for a puppet show
JQ: And so you wrote it?
MD: Yeah – I wrote it –
JQ: So what’s the story?
MD: It’s about Andrea Lowe –
JQ: Andrea
MD: and she
JQ: Does she just sit there?
MD: She moves around and there’s different versions of her like a baby – we find her after she’s just fallen off a building and the whole thing’s in flashback
JQ: Is she all flattened out falling off the building?
MD: She’s a little disheveled and bones and stuff out of place
JQ: And then how do you make her talk?
MD: Well I move her head when I’m talking as her
JQ: Do you just leave her on the table like this and have her talk?
MD: Grandma’s a little easier,
JQ: Show me how you do that
MD: She lives in a chair and she can..
JQ: Oh, you use this stick
MD: Yeah and so
JQ: And so when grandma talks, what does she do?
MD: “I’m going to stitch up your pretty little face in no time”… She’s kind of a hoarder. Like she’s got a Raggedy Anne and a lot of abandoned dolls that she likes to repair
JQ: Is she part of the show?
MD: She is – She’s Andrea’s grandmother
JQ: So what does she tell Andrea?
MD: Well – so Andrea comes to live with her after her mom dies and she volunteers as a church organist and she works at a doll hospital and that’s when we discover that Andrea has an infatuation with her blanket, Blankey –
JQ: I like that
MD: She has a lot of other relationships – like with a hunting rifle
JQ: Oh – those are the kind of inanimate objects she loves?
MD: She has a lust for the Berlin Wall, but she never gets to meet him cause we all know what happens – SPOILER ALERT – and then the World Trade Towers – that’s kind of edgy
JQ: So you tell stories about all this? And how long is your show?
MD: It’s an hour
JQ: Oh wow!
MD: I’m workshopping the full hour right before the NOW Festival at this place called Automata in Chinatown – so we’re rough drafting it – and then at the RECAT, I’m going to put up the best, most polished twenty minutes of it
JQ: Oh I see – Oh
MD: Yeah
JQ: So they take portions – so there’ll be several people performing the same night? You’ll be doing puppetry – and somebody else will do..
MD: Yeah – there’s three people that night. Carole Kim will and another man [d. Sabela grimes] who does dance and poetry
JQ: Oh that’s fabulous – Isn’t it?
MD: Yeah so you’ll get a little of everything
JQ: But so – you know – like Christo – wrapped buildings
MD: Right – the flags
JQ: and he did drawings. How do you document what you do?
MD: I take video. And I do a lot of pictures
JQ: Draw?
MD: I draw – yeah
JQ: Because the only way for an artist to get his work out other than that one performance is to have this string of something that shows what you did – right?
MD: Right – and that’s the cool thing about puppet theatre too – is that it’s intimate and people are all on their cell phones now and it’s digital.
JQ: You mean they’re taking pictures of it?
MD: No I mean it’s the way we communicate now. But with this, you get to be in the same room. And you get to see the person creating it and it’s tactile – so
JQ: Do you perform in other kinds of venues than like on a stage?
MD: Yeah – I’ve performed in galleries
JQ: I wondered about that – art galleries…
MD: installations – I would like to do that a little bit more if there’s any curators watching the show
JQ: Because a gallery would be great – wouldn’t it? And then you could have your drawings on the wall
MD: Right –
JQ: I mean you could sell your art
MD: Objects to sell
JQ: Objects
MD: That sounds great – that’s a great idea
JQ: But I think it’s wonderful because it gets what you’re doing out there and it’s a different art form – totally different art form. We’re not used to that. And you just talk – right there while Grandma’s sitting on your lap?
MD: I have a bunch of tables and I’m performing behind them and
JQ: You’re performing behind them so you would be just like Grandma right there on your lap?
MD: Yeah
JQ: And what would Grandma say? And then how do you go to Andrea?
MD: Well this version of Andrea has a nice stand, so I can leave one and then move to the other. The other ones – we’re like figuring it out right now. Putting velcro in places and planning it out so that somebody’s sitting on a sofa while somebody’s standing.
JQ: What about lighting?
MD: We’re working with a fabulous lighting designer at REDCAT and then there’s also some practical lights that are on the stage that are on the stage or in – yesterday I was experimenting with a head lamp and then a
JQ: Oh really…
MD: I was like – Oh I look too much like that seven dwarf – Doc or whatever
JQ: That’s good – Why do you need a director if you’ve written it all? And you’ve done it all?
MD: I really need an outside eye, cause you can’t really see yourself. Like you could see yourself in a monitor but it’s backwards or the mirror, but I love –
JQ: Who is your director?
MD: Michele Spears and she’s wonderful. I know her from working on another show called “Wake Up Your Weird”
JQ: Same thing with puppets?
MD: It’s puppets. It was our friend Leslie Carrara[-Rudolph] who had a children’s show and I know her from the improv world and she’s a director and choreographer, so it’s just great to have an outside eye and she’s also on continuity like she let’s me know if..
JQ: So you do need
MD: like if we said Andrea came there at three o’clock – like you know – she’s good at that
JQ: Oh I see
MD: She’s helping clarify the story a little bit
JQ: I see. I see. So you really do need somebody to help you. I didn’t think you would need it since you wrote it all and perform it – that you wouldn’t need an outside eye. Do you do performances without your puppets?
MD: I do – I just did a fun show called “To Whom It May Concern” and it’s when you read letters from people or people you wish you could write letters to
JQ: Did you write a letter?
MD: I did!
JQ: Who did you wish you could write to?
MD: I wrote to a twenty years ago boyfriend
JQ: You did?
MD: Yeah – I didn’t actually send the letter, but I was like “What happened to you?”
JQ: You didn’t use puppets for that?
MD: No. And the last show I did was called Bride of Wildenstein – The Musical and it was about the cat woman, perhaps you’re friends with her? Jocelyn Wildenstein? No? Good.
JQ: Wildenstein?
MD: Yeah, it was about – who transforms
JQ: Fifty face lifts
MD: So for that one it seemed like masks was a good move
JQ: Did you use?
MD: I used puppets
JQ: Fantastic – did you make them like that?
MD: Well I was her – and I did a live makeup change on stage. I did a song about plastic surgery and did a face change on stage
JQ: Fantastic
MD: And I had other characters be puppets
JQ: So you research all of the things you do
MD: I do – that’s a really big part of it like for this, I looked up every clip on object sexuals – they’re people who fall in love with buildings and statues
JQ: Oh
MD: And other structures
JQ: Big psychosis – huh?
MD: I guess so – but they would say it’s more of a lifestyle or that kind of thing
JQ: Thank you so much
MD: Thank you
JQ: Thanks for watching the Joan Quinn Profiles and Grandma says “bye”. Keep writing to jaquinn1@aol.com