2008 Transmodern Festival Artists February 11, 2008
The 5th Annual Transmodern Festival (Live.Art.Action) will be taking place this year on April 3rd through the 6th. Baltimore’s largest avant performance festival was also named “Baltimore’s Best Art Event” by the City Paper. The 2008 festival will feature over 50 artists and transform all three floors of Load of Fun studios with installations, performance, sound, film, mayhem, ecstasy, and radical culture. The festival will also present a special Sunday event, Pedestrian Services Exquisite (PSE), including a guided walking tour of North Avenue and beyond with site-specific, roaming, uncanny, planned/unplanned, and esoteric actions along the way.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS INCLUDE:
Rahne Alexander (Performance Installation)
Kristen Anchor and Andrea Shearer (PSE)
Adrienne Anemone (Performance)
David James Armacost and April Danielle Lewis (PSE)
Peter Barrickman (Performance)
Kelley Bell (PSE)
Lauren Bender (Performance)
Blevin Blectum / Kevin Blechdom (Performance)
Andrea Bocchio for Louis Vuitton (PSE)
Alessandro Bosetti (PSE)
Hannah Brancato and Alison Mazur (PSE)
Jai Brooks (Performance)
Sarah Buccheri (Performance)
Ingrid Burrington (PSE)
Carpet Baggers (PSE)
Theresa Columbus (Performance)
Dillon de Give (Performance)
DiTolvo (PSE)
Paul Druecke (Performance Installation)
Lara Emerling (PSE)
EPHKLATCHEMERAL (performance)
Lindsay Feldman (PSE)
Chris Ferrera (Performance Installation)
Fluid Movement (PSE)
GOBOLUX (Performance/Installation)
Ilana Goldszer (PSE)
The Good Taste Committee (PSE)
Dynasty Handbag (Performance)
Evans Hankey (Performance)
Nicole Herbert (PSE)
Megan Hildebrandt (PSE)
Bonnie Jones (Performance Installation)
Katastrophe (Music Performance)
Dina Kelberman (Film)
Alice Kemp (Performance Installation)
Xavier Leplae (Performance)
David London (PSE)
Magazine Stand-Baltimore (PSE)
J.W. Mahoney (PSE)
Frankie Martin (Performance/Installation)
Jackie Milad (Installation)
Kim Miller (Performance)
MVA (Performance/Installation)
David NeSmith (Performance Installation)
Ellen Nielsen (PSE)
Thach Thao Nguyen (PSE)
Anna Oxygen (Music Performance)
Natalia Panfile (PSE)
Spoon Popkin (Performance Installation)
Valeska Populoh (PSE)
Carly Ptak (Performance)
DJ Rapid Fire (Music/DJ)
Tyson Reeder (Performance)
Right-Geist Connections, Ltd., Baltimore Street Team (PSE)
Adam Robinson (Performance)
Jinnene Ross (Installation & Performance)
Ric Royer (Performance)
Randy Russell (Performance)
Melissa Scherrer (Performance/DJ)
Snacks (Installation)
Straight Punch to the Crotch
Xavier Schipani (Performance)
Smelling Salt Amusements (PSE)
Shua Group (PSE)
Theft and Rescue Society (PSE)
The Tingle Troupe (Performance)
Renato Umali (Performance Installation)
URBANtells (PSE)
Elisa Urtiaga (Roaming)
Daniel Van Allen (PSE)
Virginia Warwick (Performance)
Kathryn Williamson (PSE)
Erin Womack (Performance Installation - Going through to Saturday)
Alex Worthington (Performance Installation)
Gillian Wylde (Performance Installation)
Shannon Young (PSE)
Andrea Shearer is an accomplished musician with 4 album credits plus a bucket full of 7″ and compilation releases. She is currently drumming with Pariah Piranha (Queer Control Records), and is a guest drummer for Brooklyn-based pop duo NA+AN. Pariah Piranha’s second album “Animus Unanimous” is in production.
Brooklyn-based artist may be best known for her musical theatrics with band the Tuna Helpers described this way by Westword in Denver, Colorado: “Operatic, piano-anchored spells of art rock that imagine Azure Ray taking up residence in a Neil Gaiman graphic novel: all mystery, melody and magic.”
David James Armacost and April Danielle Lewis met in 2006. Since then they’ve exhibited their artwork and curated shows in Baltimore, at Large Glass Project Space; Sub-Basement Gallery, and Spin Alternative Art Space ; in Annapolis, at the Maryland Federation of Art ; in Wilmington DE, at the Lo-Fi Gallery; and at the University of Delaware. Armacost, who received his BFA from the Corcoran College of Art in 2002, is a native resident of Baltimore Lewis recently earned an AA in visual art from Anne Arundel Community College and is pursuing her BFA in printmaking at Towson University. By subscribing to contemporary art on a local, regional, and national level, David James and April Danielle both remain committed to enriching the arts in Baltimore.
Peter Barrickman is an artist working in Milwaukee. His videos, sculptures and paintings have been shown in the United States, Mexico and Europe. He studied at The Milton Avery School of the Arts, Bard College, NY.
Kelley Bell is an Artist, Animator, Designer and dilettante extraordinaire living and working in Baltimore city.
Lauren Bender: 5′0″, 110 lbs, Baltimore. Editor, SUCCESS! @ 
Kevin Blechdom, born Kristin Erickson, is an experimental electronic musician/performance artist from San Francisco, California. She attended Mills College in Oakland, California, where she founded Blectum from Blechdom with Blevin Blectum, an experimental electronic group. In 2001, Blectum From Blechdom won an Award of Distinction for digital music at the Prix Ars Electronica.
Andrea Bocchio is a Peruvian artist, graduating from MICA in May with a degree in Fiber and Art History. She studied Fashion Knitwear in London and has been working in knit and print fashion collections. She is interested in the cycle of luxury, the real and the counterfeit, roles of bodies and identity in fashion.
Blevin Blectum is an electronic musician. Recently relocated from the industrial armpit of Oakland, California, to the humid lovecraftian greenery of Providence, Rhode Island, Blevin releases her soon to be classic fourth solo album, GULAR FLUTTER, on an unsuspecting public via the 
Alessandro Bosetti is a composer and sound artist working on the musicality of spoken words and unusual aspects of spoken communication, producing text-sound compositions featured in live performances, radio broadcastings and published recordings. In his work he moves across the line between sound anthropology and composition, often including translation and misunderstanding in the creative process. Field research and interviews build the basis for abstract compositions, along with electro-acoustic and acoustic collages, relational strategies, trained and untrained instrumental practices, vocal explorations and digital manipulations. In 2006 he\’s been living and working in West Africa, China, Taiwan, Holland, Scandinavia, United States , Germany and Italy.
Hannah Brancato is an artist and textile designer who researches how lifestyle is affected by décor. A graduate from the Fiber Department at the MICA, she is based in Baltimore, where her work is currently on view at the Pinkard Gallery. She is the founder of The Doll Project at the House of Ruth and was co-curator of Made Home at the Current Gallery.
Jai Brooks is a comedic poet. With his tongue fully ensconced in her cheek, he will poke fun at all things we revolutionary artists hold dear. Jai is a core member of the Charm City Kitty Club and a grateful performer at We Are Hip Hop Too events. He has been performing for over two decades and is excited to put the “trans” in Transmodern.
Sarah Buccheri was born and raised in suburban Chicago. After living for a stint in New York City, she now resides in Milwaukee, WI. She has a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA in Film from The University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. Aside from her film and video work, Sarah is a performer and collaboratively produces regular performance art evenings at Darling Hall, one of Milwaukee’s finest underground art spaces. She has performed at The Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, Walker’s Point Center for the Arts, and Galapagos Art Space. Her films and videos have screened at The Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Chicago Underground Film Festival and Heaven Gallery in Chicago.
Ingrid Burrington is from California, and has made terrible mistakes. Her website is 
Theresa has a warm and kooky approach to the avant garde. She debuted a short play at the Pussycat Caverns in New Orleans in 1994. She has toured with many many performance pieces and plays, often incorporating “punky synchronized movements and experimental and/or funny singing/music.” She was n.
Dillon de Give grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico and studied film at Northwestern University. He presents elementary school style plays and video pieces. He has shown work at the Center for Contemporary Art Santa Fe, Margaret Thatcher Projects, and Canada galleries NYC among others. Dillon lives in Greenpoint Brooklyn and is writing his first feature length film called “In the Shower Going Over the Waterfall”. 
DiTolvo and her accordion are recent transplants to the Baltimore area from Seattle. DiTolvo was the ringmistress for three years for Carnival Reverie, played percussion for carnies in The Bad Things, and is otherwise associated with several other dark characters.
Paul Druecke resides in Milwaukee where he’s preoccupied, dramatically speaking, with the imminent death of a very dear friend. This friend, it so happens, is the distant relation of Frank Budgen, the Frank Budgen who was a friend of James Joyce’s. And this, tangentially, has given way to thinking that spam would’ve been a great medium for Joyce — the boozed up, near-blind, randy-old-smart alec broadcasting his forcefully playful language onto a public angry at the intrusion.
Lara Emerling is an interdisciplinary artist who produces work in drawing, sculpture and video. Her recent work comments on contemporary cultures constant ability to grow and collapse at the same time. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and will continue her studies there in art education. Emerling has shown her work at Current Gallery, Load of Fun, Maryland Art Place, Not Just Another White Cube, Substation Gallery, and Whartscape.
EPHKLATCHEMERAL is a toxic performance cactus from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They snore a variety of writingand performance bums to come up with peanuts. The headband is suited to the cactus with the salt that the performance wouldn’t be possible without a hippyish approach. In this way the lumps are always
You: Tall, established corporation made of many people sharing a collective identity, manufactures goods or services. Should be personable, secure, outgoing.
Fluid Movement is a Baltimore-based performance art group that juxtaposes complex subject matter with delightful and unexpected mediums. We create art that is accessible, and often educational, for audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Our performances are created for urban spaces, in Baltimore and beyond. For ten years, Fluid Movement has been working hard to share our joy and silliness and we do it all for one reason: we do it for the LOVE!
Gobolux (Andrew Nelson and KimSu Theiler) is an art collaborative that is interested in the meeting of sound and image. Gobolux formed in 2001 and is still active today. Gobolux makes both single channel video and video installations.
Ilana Goldszer formerly of Michigan was raised by wolves. Ilana grew up in an animal-free traveling circus of thieves and magicians. Ilana’s astrological sign is Capricorn.
The Good Taste Committee is dedicated to fostering tastefulness in live human interaction. In an age of media interface, we find that Game structures ease the anxiety many feel in close contact with others.
Dynasty Handbag is the solo music/video/voiceover/
Nicole Herbert resides in Harrisburg, PA where she has worked as an art educator for the past six years. She graduated from Lafayette College with degrees in anthropology and art and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger, West Africa. Nicole is currently working towards her MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art and expects to graduate in the summer of 2009. She has exhibited her work and created outdoor installations in central and eastern Pennsylvania.
Working across a range of media – painting, performance, craft and more – Hildebrandt recently moved into The Creative Alliance at the Patterson as a Resident Artist. Prior to her move to Baltimore, Hildebrandt traveled in a 6-month residency on the Artrain USA, which travels the country with studios and a museum on board. From reimagining Mary Pickersgill and the making of the Star Spangled Banner, to her ongoing correspondence with the Pope, Hildebrandt combines a wicked sense of humor with innocent joy in the act of making things. She appears in the 2008 Mid Atlantic edition of New American Paintings.
Bonnie Jones works with sound, text and performance. Born in 1977 in South Korea she was raised by dairy farmers in New Jersey, and currently resides in Baltimore, MD. In sound performances Bonnie plays the circuit boards of digital delay pedals. Her primary sound collaborators are Joe Foster in Korea (as the duet “English”) and Andy Hayleck. She is also a member of the Performance Thanatology Research Society, a inter-discipinary performance group dedicated to the advancement of a higher histrionics brought on by imminent finalities. Bonnie has performed at the Kim Dae Hwan Museum, the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, the ErstQuake Festival, and the 14 Karat Cabaret.
Katastrophe (aka Rocco Kayiatos) is a genre-busting, emo-hop mc, whose stunning lyrical skills merge with beats that slide from slick to raw to solid to eccentric, creating a sonic otherworld that snags you in a dance-trance while teasing your head with rhymes that snap, pop and educate.
Dina Kelberman, born in 1979, has shown in every major gallery in the United States. She owns 3 houses and lives in all of them at the same time. She is a founding member of the Wham City collective. Her main focus is miniature comic books and illustration, although she has in many other mediums including film, fashion design, and playwriting. She webs at 
Born in England 1972, Kemp has persisted as a self-taught artist-musician, using prepared/bowed guitar, piano, trombone, vocals, electronics, cassettes, field recordings and turntables. Based in deepest darkest Devon UK, she is a member of London sonic performance group Uniform, co-director of online gallery/forum The Lazarus Corporation, Conductor of Poltergasmic Frequencies for the Performance Thanatology Research Society and has collaborated in various forms with Dual, 2nd Gen, Bark Psychosis, DEFEATIST, the Body Cartography Project, Leechwoman, Vatican X-ray Dept, Hilary Jeffery and Ringo Christ. She is also known as Germseed and has performed in Europe and Japan. For more [dis]information about this person please visit:
Xav Leplae considers himself an artist when making art, film maker when making films, performer when performing. he refuses to state much else due to his distrust of it’s affects on his thinking process.
David London was trained as a magician and filmmaker, and much of his recent stage work places an emphasis on the deconstruction of the magic trick. He has toured with four of his own productions- “Cerebral Sorcery, “…Art of Dreams,” “The Adventure to the Imagi Nation,” and most recently, (insert title here), which features excerpts of the three other shows. He has done a handful of site-specific installations and performances. He also paints, wanders, and glues random things together.
Project Name: Your Favorite Celebrity Drawing Survey
J.W. Mahoney is a Washington, D.C.-based artist, critic, and independent curator who serves as Washington’s Corresponding Editor for Art in America. He is currently a Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and has been writing and curating on the idea of transmodernity since 1992. His most recent nationally published piece on this subject was “Transmodern Yoko,” which appeared in Art in America in February 2002. His latest one-person show, “Stella Maris,” was on exhibit in January 2007, at Curator’s Office in Washington, D.C..
Frankie Martin is a multi media artist living in Brooklyn, NY whose work utilizes video,music, painting, sculpture, mobiles and human interaction. Frankie’s work is an intersection of culture, fantasy, craft, music, and color all contained within a conceptual framework that varies on a per-project basis. In 2007, Frankie recently exhibited her full length motivational DVD entitled “A Beautiful You”, along side of rorschach facescapes paintings at her solo show at CANADA in New York City. Frankie is currently working on a series of performances called Freakout, performed either alone or with friends.
Jackie Milad is an artist who works with drawing, performance art and installation, and often creates projects that brings these disciplines together. Her projects explore the awkward moments shared between people.
As an artist Kim Miller moves across the fields of video and performance. Employing forms borrowed from performance art, modern dance, theater, and film, multiple forms of address and shifting subject articulations build and collapse. Mapping an intersection or interstices between public space and private, political and social, associative and didactic, questions are structured around a radical democratic model. What is possible within a democratic viewing situation? Does such a thing exist, and what does it look like? What’s at stake is our positions in relation to culture and to one another. These shifting, surfacing and submerging connections are unstable and fleeting, deliciously and infinitely now. Maybe working towards the existence of a democratic subject, hopefully and enthusiastically, without ever reaching this place. Or else, when I say you, I have called a you into being.
Puddin’ and Joseph Young.
Having successfully completed transition from womb life to first life. David NeSmith early on met success in challenging authority through his 2nd grade teacher when she failed to grasp the concept that Pluto had swung closer to the Sun than Neptune during the 1970s. After a lengthy court trial surrounding what became known as Pluto-Gate, David was awarded $4.62 the bulk of which was used to purchase crayons and some paper (the rest used on a Zero candy bar). His art career had begun! Several years later, David has been a musician, playing in such bands as Maximillian Colby, Sleepytime Trio, Men’s Recovery Project, Rah Bras and Bats & Mice. He also has a solo acoustic act based in part on his published cartoons called “EL GREED.” Currently living in Baltimore, Maryland, he has toured many parts of the world bringing his art to Europe, Japan, Mexico, Canada and the USA. His CDs and LPs are produced by Lovitt Records (
Ellen Nielsen is the kind of person who puts new rolls of toilet paper directly into the dispenser as opposed to leaving them on the back of the toilet. She has a habit of forgetting vegetables in the crisper and finding them, weeks later, reduced to bags of black slime. She would like to be remembered as a public intellectual, but so far she has only made a public spectacle of herself. She has a multitude of talents, such as caramelizing onions and dressing to impress. She was born on March 20 (the first day of spring) which makes her a Pisces-Aries cusp.
Thach Thao Nguyen lives for food and adventure. Born in Vietnam and raised in Texas, she grew up chowing down drive-thru hamburgers and slurping up her mom’s pho. Now living in Baltimore as a student, she sometimes makes money selling homemade spring rolls and rice cakes. Recently she re-visited Vietnam, a journey that brought her closer to her food and family. She brings you treats reminiscent of the homeland, prepared in the most home-down manner.
Anna Oxygen is a multi-media artist and musician. She has extensively toured Europe and the United States, performing dance pop recitals and fantasy-science pieces. Her audio and video works often deal with interactivity, movement and semiotics in forms of narrative, performance and installation. She has released several albums of electronic music, most recently “This is an Exercise” on Kill Rock Stars. Her solo work has been presented at The Seattle Art Museum, Telic Arts Exchange (LA), NYU, The Armory Center for the Arts (Pasadena), The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, and the Rohsska Museet in Gothenburg, Sweden. She is also in the multimedia performance group “Cloud Eye Control.” 
Natalia Panfile was born in the Republic of Moldova, and came to the United States when she was 17. She attended the Community College of Baltimore County for 2 years and then transferred to MICA. After graduating from MICA with a BFA she was accepted into the IMDA (Imaging and Digital Arts) Graduate program at UMBC. Panfile is a performance artist and in her performances explores social, cultural and gender issues. She wants to see how all of these issues affect her as an immigrant and as a woman.