Karen Finley:
Unicorn Gratitude Mystery

Karen Finley: Unicorn Gratitude Mystery

Karen Finley’s rave-reviewed solo performance Unicorn Gratitude Mystery explores psychological portrayals of the power that drives American election politics. Set in the recent U.S. political presidential landscape, it takes on citizenship, gender disparity, and abuse of power. The individual cost of public relationships at the expense of privacy becomes divisive with searing psychosexual dynamics of wit and seething revelation. The performance includes magical beings, aggressive thankfulness, and collective intimacy through Shakespearean family nation dramatic traumatics. Playing a unicorn and morphing into a Hillary-like, Trump-like being while enveloping into the blueness of the blue dress worn by Monica Lewinsky, Finley embodies an experimental nonlinear poetic text that creates a jolt of intuition, analysis, and unnatural disaster of the human kind. 

Karen Finley is a pioneering interdisciplinary artist who has performed and exhibited internationally. Her recent work includes Mandala: Reimagined Columbus Circle, an interactive walk that examines the symbols and history of Columbus Circle; Artist Anonymous, a self-help meeting for those addicted to art; Written in Sand, a performance of her writings on AIDS; Open Heart, a Holocaust memorial at Camp Gusen, Austria; and Sext Me If You Can, where Finley creates commissioned portraits inspired by “sexts” received from the public. She is the author of eight books, including her latest, the twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Shock Treatment (City Lights). Grabbing Pussy (OR Books) is forthcoming in 2018. A recipient of many awards and grants, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, she is a professor of Art and Public Policy at New York University. 

Karen Finley: Unicorn Gratitude Mystery is part of Living Together, curated by Rina Carvajal, MOAD’s Executive Director and Chief Curator, and independent curator Joseph R. Wolin. Living Together is made possible by the generous support of Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; and the City of Miami Beach, Cultural Affairs Program, Cultural Arts Council.