Trans.pptx

Trans.pptx is the name of artist duo Lorelei d’Andriole (she/her), Assistant Professor, Electronic Art & Intermedia, MSU Department of Art, Art History, and Design, and Lex Leto (they/them), musician and digital media artist. The pair began collaborating in while in graduate school at the University of Iowa and first performing together in 2020 at the University of Iowa Visual Arts Building for d’Andriole’s MA thesis, Space-Time Space-Lime. Both have been involved in experimental music and DIY art practices for well over a decade and believe in the Do-It-Together ethos of those communities. The duo values fun over facility, pranks over performance, and action over representation. Their Fluxus influenced experimental PowerPoint performance, REALLY Bad Midwestern Art Show: A Graphic Score for Voice and Two Accordions (2023) was described by one audience member as “less of a performance and more of a bunch of friends laughing together.” Two queer and trans musicians, the two do not see the word “bad” as a moral prescription, but instead as an impetus to play, an indication to create something beautiful.

Leto and d’Andriole are both Midwestern transplants from the southern United States. As two transgender artists, all of their work advocates for trans* liberation. As Trans.pptx, they have performed or installed work at Public Space One in Iowa City, IA, the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum in East Lansing, MI, and Oregon State University in Corvalis, OR.

We are currently seeking opportunites to perform and install work, for inquires, please email Lorelei d’Andriole at lorelei.d@proton.me or message either of us on instagram. <3

MAKE BAD ART, Lex Leto & Lorelei d’Andriole, Manifesto/Drawing, 2023

1st Annual Midwestern Really Bad Art Show

A collaborative performance and curated exhibition by Lorelei d’Andriole and Lex Leto and hosted by Public Space One in Iowa City, IA (2023).

the call

Born out of love for dabbling and giggling, the Midwestern Bad Art show is a gallery show and performance curated by Lorelei d’Andriole and Lex Letourneau. Influenced by Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries ART IS A LIE THAT JUST WON’T DIE, No Wave, Bread and Puppet, and the Museum of Bad Art. Lorelei, Lex, and collaborators will challenge the very existence of “bad art,” while celebrating the joy of dabbling in creation. The show will highlight midwestern artists in a way we’ve never seen them, as they’ll be asked to create intentionally bad art in a familiar medium, or create a work in a medium they have no technical facility in.

The works will be housed in the main floor of the PS1 Close House for the duration of the show, closing with performance and reception. This event will be as funny as it is ridiculous, as bad as it is genius, and fun for everyone involved while showcasing local artists and reminding everyone that we are all artists.

“Bad” as low facility: “To be in a band, at least according to the rules of rock in the 1970s, one must know how to play an instrument. But rather than waste time solving that problem, No Wavers ignored it. The point was simply to make music, not to learn how first.” - Lydia Lunch

“Bad” as boring or uninteresting: “If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.” - John Cage

reflection

The following eighteen artists across Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Oklahoma were selected to show work:
Abby Garraty, Anna Kain, Bleakz Blanket Fort, C. Francis Wossom, Charlotte d’Andriole, Clairssia Martin, Eli Bolender, Elsa, Estevan Cornejo, Eva Roethler, HIJIN(X), Kate Doolittle, Levi Moos, Mack Ellis, Mason Esposiot, Matt Magill, Nathan Wegner, Peter Brozene, Zayne Chrysanthemum

“What I noticed as a curator immediately was who resonated with the word, “bad.” This show was made up almost entirely by teenagers, disabled, and trans people. These marginalized artists saw bad not as a moral prescription but as the opportunity to make something beautiful. In the book, “Little Blue Encyclopedia: (for Vivian)” by Hazel Jane Plante, there is a line that defines the trans experience as “turning pain into beauty.” While our motivation was to create a pocket in this world where people could make art and display serious art without care for facility or entertainment, what we unknowingly did was create a space where other Midwestern trans people could find a space of belonging. Nearly every artist in the show had never applied to show work in a gallery before. While we hope that this show sparks conversations on the value of arts institutions, we did this because it was fun. My high school art teacher, Karen Stafford, had one rule in her classroom: “Do art, no problem.” Go make some art and have some fun. Also, I put my mom in the show. Go, mom.”
-Lorelei d’Andriole

the performance

Our contribution to the show is a graphic performance score created entirely in Microsoft PowerPoint, a purely evil and ugly art medium. This performance was done for a live audience at the reception for the show as a score for Accordion and Voice performed by Lex and I.

Click here to watch video documentation of the orginal performance at Public Space One in Iowa City, IA by John Engelbrecht.

Additionally for this exhibition, d’Andriole contributed the found object sculpture “Abandoned Student Sketchbooks” (2023), a pile of about 30 sketchbooks left by students enrolled in her course, “Art, the Visual and Culture: Transgender Studies” class from Spring 2023 - the first course taught at MSU exclusively on the topic of trans studies.

Leto contributed an original song for the exhibition, My Bike/My Wife. Leto writes: “i made this song on August 6, 2023 for The First Annual Midwestern Very Bad Art Show!!!! that took place at Public Space One in Iowa City. The prompt I gave myself was to make a song without listening to it. I did that and the result is Very Bad. Please enjoy this bad art offering. I love my bike.”