Opening of exhibition

Dame Darcy - victorian girlishness, charming dolls and sea
shanties

Dame Darcy is very productive and
universal American artists, with work ranging from comics, painting and
illustration, film (short live-action and animated films), performance,
doll-making and musical creations. She achieved international recognition with
her naively drawn baroque/gothic comic book series Meat Cake, which she
began publishing in 1989 (at first on her own, but in 1991, the series was
picked up by Fantagraphics Books, the leading publisher of alternative
comic books). Twelve issues of Meat Cake have appeared so far. The rich
imaginative world she created over the years in her comic books also served her
well in film and stage performances in the nineties, in which she combines the
activist attitude of a modern suffragette with her naive narration of gothic
fairy tales, most of which originate in dream.
Dame Darcy grew up as Darcy Megan Stanger in the conservative atmosphere of
Idaho, which has the greatest concentration of Mormons in the United States.
She was raised by her parents as a Roman Catholic, but in the freethinking
spirit of hippies. Her father was a painter and, even as a young child, Dame
would help him mix his colours. He taught her to play the banjo when she was
nine. She began writing and illustrating stories and poems as a teenager, as well
as developing her psychic abilities by reading palms. Her father was the first
to support her decision, at the age of sixteen, to become an artist. She won a
scholarship in 1989 and enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute, where she
received a degree in film with a specialisation in animation. Inspired by the
work of the American Winsor McCay, a pioneer in comics and animated film,
Dame's biggest wish was to make her own feature-length animated film, but
unfortunately, this wish hasn't yet come true. Financial concerns led her to
become a professional illustrator with most of her illustrations and comics
commissioned for magazines (Rollerderby, Alice, Bananafish, Bust, L.A.
Weekly, Visionaire Fashion Magazine, Index Magazine) and newspapers (New
York Press, The Village Voice, The Stranger, and others), as well as
fanzines, book series and music album covers, and miniature handcrafted dolls.
(Cult British author Alan Moore once offered her one of his stories in exchange
for two dolls. His story was published in the ninth edition of Meat Cake
series.) She redeemed the surplus of her creativity by producing her comic book
Meat Cake, which she at first published by photocopying it and colouring
the covers by hand. She realised that her comic books had achieved success when
in 1995 her work was chosen to be published in Twisted Sisters, the
well-respected comic-book anthology of women authors. During the same period,
she tested her skills as an actor in various independent productions (including
collaborating with cult film director George Kuchar).
Dame Darcy's musical journey is as heterogeneous and interesting as her acting
and comics career. She has worked as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist-the
banjo, tambourine, singing saw, electric harp and electric bass are among her
favourite instruments-and published numerous recordings of murderer ballads and
sea shanties mixed with experimental "bluegrass folk/death-rock",
independently and in compilations, in cabaret performances and with such groups
as Aye Aye Captain, Gem in Eye, Black Strap Molasses Family, and Cabin
Fever. Not surprisingly, Dame designed and drew all the covers for her
albums, which only adds to their originality. At KUD France Prešeren, Dame will
be performing nineteenth-century sea shanties accompanied by her guitar player,
Skippy.
Dame acquired additional acting experience by performing on stage. In 1992 and
1998, she performed in America and Europe with a company of chaotic musicians
and improvisers under the name Suckdog (among them was Lisa Carver,
editor of the cult fanzine Rollerderby). In 2000, Dame adapted several
works from her Meat Cake comic books for the theatre and organised EZ
Bake Coven, a group cabaret performance of independent working women, for
the opening of the first Ladyfest Festival (www.ladyfest.org).
The recently published Frightful Fairytales, a collection of illustrated
short stories (they have been compared to Brothers Grimm tales with an
extra-violent gothic/Victorian touch) offers further proof that Dame Darcy's
creativity knows no bounds. Dame's illustrations in the book pay homage to the
masters who inspired her, Granville, Aubrey Beardsley and Edward Gorey.
Finally, let us consider her film experience. From 1996 to 1999, Dame hosted
and co-produced a half-hour weekly show called Turn of the Century for a
New York cable TV station. The show was directed by Lisa Hammer, the New York
queen of the short horror film, and shot with a super 8 camera. Many short
films starring Dame were produced for the show. In addition to Dame Darcy's own
three animated films, the City of Women Festival will also feature a selection
of her short films.
Igor Prassel

Programme:
KUD France Prešeren:
Oct. 10, 21.00: opening of exhibition
Oct. 10, 21.00: short and animated films
Oct. 10, 23.00: concert

Vocals, banjo: Dame Darcy
Guitar: Skippy
Oct. 13 -16 from 15.00 to 19.00. Hand-crafted dolls workshop
Exhibition in KUD: Oct. 11-19, 12.00-24.00

Klub Gromka, AKC Metelkova mesto
Oct. 12, midnight
Dame Darcy
Films

DAME DARCY ON TOUR:
Oct. 14 - Klub Močvara, Trnjaski nasip bb., Zagreb, (exhibition and Dame Darcy
concert)
Oct. 19 - Festival GRRR Pančevo, exhibition and concert

Organised by: City of Women
Project co-ordinator: Igor Prassel
In co-operation with: KUD France Prešeren, Stripburger