Modern Literature & Culture Research Centre & Gallery

 

Queer Sisters: Berenice Abbott and Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven​

 

A Salon Performance
(Immediately following the Berenice Abbott: Photographie conference)
Saturday, May 26, 2012, 5:00pm - 6:00pm

Ryerson University
Modern Literature and Culture (MLC) Research Centre
111 Gerrard Street East, top floor, Room GER 354

One of the most important early influences in the artistic development of Berenice Abbott was the Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1874-1927). A German émigrée Dada poet and early performance artist in New York, the androgynous Baroness famously dressed up in a tomato-can bra. Abbott recalls: "She invented and introduced trousers with pictures and ornaments painted on them. This was an absolute outrage." Sharing similarly difficult family histories, the pair practised their non-conformity by flouting gender and sexual identities, publicly radicalizing portraiture, and becoming fast friends. It was the Baroness who encouraged Abbott to set her sight on Paris in 1921.

In 1923, both women rekindled their friendship in post-war Berlin, when the city was in the throes of violent inflation and social turmoil. Berenice worked as a dance teacher in Berlin, visiting and supporting the Baroness. To thank Abbott, the Baroness dedicated the poem "Pastoral" to her, conjuring up their friendship in fragments of memory. She describes Abbott in Dada fashion as "Strolling/ Over/ From/ Pary / ... / Spotting/ me --/ Her/ Mimicry / ... / Some/ Queer/ Dope/ Sister!" She also painted two remarkable portraits dedicated to Berenice: Forgotten Like This Parapluice and Dada Portrait of Berenice Abbott.

A live performance of poetry from Freytag-Loringhoven's recently published book ,em>Body Sweats: The Uncensored Writings of Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (MIT Press, 2011) immediately follows the Berenice Abbott: Photographs conference. Please come and join us for a salon hour with a cocktail reception, small exhibition, and live performance.
Produced and curated by Irene Gammel with David Jones, choreographed by Emma Doran, performed by Annie Wong, Niomi Anna Cherney, and Coral Aiken.
Refreshments provided. All welcome. Free of charge.

 

Recent News

Attention Students — Call for Student Volunteer Docents

Attention Students — Call for Student Volunteer ...

Become a docent at the MLCRC exhibition Threads of History: Repatriating World War II Quilts at Toronto City Hall.

Payton Knox joins MLC

Payton Knox joins MLC

Payton is involved in providing grading support for the course ENG 240: Contours of Creativity.

MLC Annual Impact Report 2023 - 2024

MLC Annual Impact Report 2023 - 2024

The MLC Research Centre is proud to present a summary of its annual achievements.

Call for Papers for Routledge Book: Life Writing in a Pandemic

Call for Papers for Routledge Book: Life Writing in a ...

We welcome papers that engage with any aspect of life writing during the pandemic.

The Great War in Literature and Visual Culture

MLC Themes

The Great War in Literature and Visual Culture

Amid the unprecedented social change of World War I, women renegotiated their identities by dramatically changing the way they engaged with the arts. But how did they do so? And how did everyday citizens engage with the war?

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

MLC Themes

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, considered by many to be the mother of Dada, was a daringly innovative poet and an early creator of junk sculpture. “The Baroness” was best known for her sexually charged, often controversial performances.

Modernism in the World

MLC Themes

Modernism in the World

Recent research has departed from the Euro-centric and national view of Modernism to include approaches and methods studying Modernism across national boundaries and across different art forms to include fashion, dance, performance, technology, and visual culture.

Lucy Maud Montgomery

MLC Themes

Lucy Maud Montgomery

L.M. Montgomery is perhaps Canada's most important literary export. She was prolific writer of over 500 short stories and poems, and twenty novels, including the beloved Anne of Green Gables.

Canadian Modernism

MLC Themes

Canadian Modernism

The works of numerous Canadian authors who lived during the modernist era may well constitute the most central and experimental articulation of Canadian modernism in prose, allowing authors to stage cross-cultural, controversial, and even conflicted identities.

Modernist Biography and Life Writing

MLC Themes

Modernist Biography and Life Writing

Life writing, including autobiographical accounts, diaries, letters and testimonials written or told by women and men whose political, literary or philosophical purposes are central to their lives, has become a standard tool for communication and the dissemination of information.