![]() She adds that over time they tinted the visuals pink in keeping with the look and feel of the party, adding that “the pink lights give the magic touch - of a hot and sweaty dance floor.”īy then Medusa had become a persona in her own right, taking cues from popular parties such as A Club Called Rhonda based out of Los Angeles, which beckons partygoers as “Rhonda” to partake in queer dance culture with a bold, boisterous, yet unified voice. “ We realized that we can give audiences an orgasm just from the visuals.” “Then Michael sent me a pack of vintage gay porn. “At the beginning, the style still not too clear, so we just used a lot of RuPaul’s Drag Race ,” says NY. Steered by resident VJs NY and her partner Zhihao, the visuals employ “the same vocabulary of gay references” that shape the posters, parties, and music, coming together as “a collage of things that make queer people fabulous,” according to Cignarale. While partygoers on the night were once treated to subversive (though, crucially, never explicit) animated collages featuring famous drag queens such as Divine and the homoerotic art of Tom of Finland - a sort of LGBTQ media history lesson, as it were - it has since become more abstract, featuring cheeky iconography drawn from a collective queer visual vocabulary. ![]() ![]() The images dancing across Medusa’s posters and projections have evolved substantially over the years. Since I knew every poster would be different, I wanted some throughline, like a color or graphic style that could make the whole party consistent and identifiable without the logo. “So… pink! It’s such an iconic color for gay people and a perfect fit for Medusa. “I think there is nothing wrong with taking and running with an obvious answer people want to plan their night with some sense of expectation,” says Cignarale. Once a vital source of underground party information throughout the ‘90s and ‘00s, these flyers all but disappeared with the advent of the internet and social media.Ī producer and singer as well as co-founder of a Shanghai-based design studio, Cignarale was careful about the message he wanted to convey with his visuals from the party’s advent. In particular, he refers to the ubiquity of the handmade, sometimes hand-drawn, club flyers that were once wheat-pasted to walls and handed out on New York City streets. Though Cignarale is deliberate in selecting music for a modern audience - “retro is for the museums,” he quips - he says that as far as visuals were concerned “there was a need to clearly reference ‘90s-era New York City, and the power of the dance floor.” Which, who is also co-founder of the Shanghai nightclub Elevator, is a “late blooming house and techno fanboy.” Cignarale’s tastes meanwhile were shaped by ’80s and ’90s-era DJs such as Larry Levan and Junior Vasquez - whose residencies at iconic New York City clubs Paradise Garage and Sound Factory would shape a generation of producers to come - as well as more contemporary selectors such as The Carry Nation (who Medusa brought as guest artists to Shanghai in 2018). Today, Medusa sits pretty in a fabric of similarly gay- and music-driven sister parties, such as Dong Gong Xi Gong in Beijing - with whom they sometimes organize crossover events - and newer party HTTP in Shanghai, which focuses on a queer femme and non-binary audience. Inside, flashing pink animations pulsate in time to a pounding bassline and the vocal stylings of co-founder Michael Cignarale - who is rarely seen at the party not covered in glitter himself.īefore the first Medusa party in summer 2016, both Cignarale and co-founder Sam “Mau Mau” Which observed a gaping void in Shanghai’s LGBTQ nightlife scene, which was restricted to either a handful of clubs that doled out exclusively EDM and Top 40 remixes or parties that were “gay friendly” but not necessarily gay-driven. To reach this point, you’ll have already passed an unusually long line of people, some of whom are wearing imaginative, gender-bending outfits to get past the door. Glitter, sweat, and strobe-lit fog permeate the air as you enter Medusa, one of the most popular queer-centric dance parties in China. Club Seen shines a light on the artists, VJs, and designers providing a visual dimension to after-hours underground culture in urban China.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |