Heather Green, Rachel Blackwell and Jesse Gelaznik, ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS, La MaMa Galleria, NYC, 2019.
Alexandra Jacob and Jesse Gelaznik, ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS, La MaMa Galleria, NYC, 2019.
DIRTY CHURCHES
“Dirty Churches manipulates the boundaries of theater, installation, and sculpture, orchestrating characters as they travel through layered compositions that utilize mysticism and speculative fiction to articulate conditions of our current times and ways of being”. - La MaMa Galleria
Dirty Churches is a collaborative, New York based performance art collective that explores the intersections of myth, ritual, and music through theatrical performances with live scores. Music by Jesse Gelaznik and H. Leon Harris, art direction and live performance by Rachel Blackwell and choreography and dance by Alexandra Jacob and Constantine Alexis.
Music Director - Jesse Gelaznik is a composer, visual artist, and music director of the New York based performance art collective Dirty Churches. His music has been commissioned by the HUB new music, Experiments in Opera, the Sembrich Opera Museum, the Mattress Factory, Whitebox, and Brooklyn Arts Council. His music for film has been screened at Sundance and MoMA and his music for theater has premiered at La MaMa. He currently studies modal counterpoint with Judith Berkson and has extensive experience collaborating with musicians, artists, and poets. Jesse also played alto guitar for Glenn Branca’s 100 guitar symphony “Hallucination City”.
Costumes and Art Direction - Rachel Blackwell creates, constructs and performs as the creatures that inhabit Dirty Churches. The collaboration began when Gelaznik organized a live score to play during a screening for Blackwell’s video Meditations on Death. Both became interested in expanding the spectacle, and Rachel decided to introduce a performance element. She has shown independently and in collaboration at White Box, the 92Y Tribeca, Theater Lab, The Chelsea Hotel and many other galleries, festivals, clubs, theaters and music venues.
Choreography - Alexandra Jacob and Constantine Alexis come together to explore new forms of expression in movement by combining technical ballet with their mutual love of punk, goth and cyberpunk aesthetics. They have collaborated with Beacon’s Closet, MÚSED clothing brand, Wide Rainbow nonprofit organization, Revolver Requeen Venexia luxury shoe brand, Leg Avenue hosiery, The End Lingerie, Alice Kass Lingerie,Vie Activewear, Brass Arrow and DirtyChurches.
Instagram @dirtychurches
Inquiries at dirtychurches@gmail.com
DIRTY CHURCHES performing SIREN, live score by Jesse Gelaznik and Aaron Edgecomb, Whitebox, NYC, 2023.
DIRTY CHURCHES performing RUMPLES, at the Mattress Factory Museum, 2021
Opera
2021 RUMPLES (video opera), Mattress Factory Museum, Pittsburgh, PA.
2019 ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS, La MaMa Galleria, New York, NY.
Performance Art
2023 SIREN, Eldon Garnet: Saved and Drowned, Whitebox, New York, NY.
2022 The RAVEN, Ballots not Bullets, Whitebox, New York, NY.
2021 RUMPLES (a Dirty Churches video opera), Mattress Factory Museum, Pittsburgh, PA.
2020 RUMPLES, Songs for Presidents, Brooklyn, NY.
2019 EXTERMINATOR’S METAMORPHOSIS, Picasso Machinery, Brooklyn, NY.
2018 SECOND INCARNATION, La MaMa Galleria, New York, NY.
EATER OF HEARTS, The Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY.
BAD GENIE, Picasso Machinery, Brooklyn, NY.
2017 THE VISITATION, West Beth, New York, NY.
SILVER SUITE, Main Drag Music, Brooklyn, NY.
2016 NIGHT DIVINER, South Street Seaport, New York, NY.
2015 BE GONE / REBIRTH, White Box, New York, NY.
TRANS-WORLD HOLIDAY, Art Helix, 2015, Brooklyn, NY.
2013 AN ORCHARD OF ECHOES, Soho 20 Chelsea Gallery, New York, NY.
A GUEST IN THE CAVERN, Northside Townhall Community and Cultural Center, Brooklyn, NY.
2010 DIRTY CHURCHES – live at BPA, BPA, Brooklyn, NY.
DIRTY CHURCHES - Alive in Texas, Diverse Works, Houston, TX.
2009 RITUALS, 92Y Tribeca, New York, NY.
SAINT DEATH, Pete’s Candy Store, Brooklyn, NY.
2007 DIRTY CHURCHES – Live at Pianos, New York NY.
Video Art
2021 EYES IN THE SKY
EVERYTHING BURNS / PAPER SOUNDS
2015 HEARTS ARE DUST
2014 BACCHUS' SKELETON
2010 CASTING OUT 9s’
SPUN NUN / SPUN PREACHER
2009 RITUALS
MEDITATIONS ON DEATH (Symbols)
MEDITATIONS ON DEATH (Ceremonies)
YES! WITCHES
2007 DEATH FOR SALE
Press
“The result is a remix that can’t quite be downloaded.”
- Monica Drake, At Cinema 16, Music and a Happening in Brooklyn, The New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/arts/09bspare.html
“There is the sense of being trapped, but also the chance to meditate the contours of that trap.”
- Leo Goldsmith, Women of NY Cinema, Not Coming to a Theater Near You.
http://www.notcoming.com/features/womenofnyccinema/
“[T]he works evoke a narrative world particularly unsettling in that it may or may not be a dream.”
- Rufus Lusk, Short Film, Live Score, Huffington Post.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/short-films-live-score_b_305775