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Lollypop

Artist/Maker (American, b. 1977)
Date2006
MediumDVD, black and white, sound
DimensionsDuration: 3.20 minutes
Credit LineGift of Driek (OC 1965) and Michael (OC 1964) Zirinsky
Edition1/5
Portfolio1/5
Object number2023.1.83
Status
Not on view
Copyright© Kalup LinzyMore Information
Performance artists Kalup Linzy and Shaun Leonardo perform a lip sync of the 1933 blues song “Lollypop,” which was originally written and sung by Coots Grant and Socks Wilson, an opposite-sex married couple who performed as Hunter and Jenkins from the 1910s through the 1930s. Over that heterosexual narrative, Linzy and Leonardo superimpose a fictional queer relationship between two Black men, inhabiting affects that are both masculine and feminine.

Linzy’s video work consciously plays with the low-fidelity aesthetic of the medium. In this video, Linzy transforms a vintage blues song into a queer flirtation, harkening back to histories of popular entertainment, including vaudeville and drag.
Exhibition History
Up Close & Personal: The Body in Contemporary Art
  • Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA (October 30, 2021 - February 27, 2022 )
Video Space: Dara Birnbaum and Kalup Linzy
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 24, 2024 - December 21, 2024 )
Collections
  • Modern & Contemporary