24 JUSt OUt • October 21.2005
2 Gyrlz has the last word
with fourth and final festival of freaks
Lisa Newman (left) and Llewyn Maire McCobb plan to revive El-fest in a
new format in 2007.
marks the fourth and final installa
tion of 2 Gyrlz Performative Arts’
Enteractive Language Festival,
a spectrum of live art, media and experience in which
regional and global artists, cultural groups and commu
nities converge for a month dedicated to exploring
identity, bodies, political environments, dreams, trauma,
love and nightmares. This manifestation of El-fest will
consist of pan-genre, interdisciplinary visual and musi
cal events throughout the city, each focusing on a differ
ent creative “language.”
The 2 Gyrlz themselves are Llewyn Maire McCobb
and Lisa Newman, both no slouches in their own artistic
right. Newman is an intermedia performance artist
whose work is an ongoing exploration of languages—
written, verbal, physical and the “undefined.” She
endeavors to create new territories within the “audi-
ence/performer” dynamic, pushing these previously
assigned roles into more interactive ones. During the
past seven years she has written and performed 15 solo
works in addition to participating in several Collabora
tive performances with the Rev. Rafik Legbara, Sardomk
£0 0 5
by J odi
D arby
Grin, the Gyri Grip, Human Sculpture and Technician.
In 1995 Newman began her work as an intern at
Eugene’s Two Girls Review. The experimental arts journal
later branched into a performance-based resource in order
to financially support its publication. Between 1995 and
1997, the group played host to local and international
artists including photographers Joel Peter Witkin and
Andres Serrano, sex guru Annie Sprinkle, queer perform
ance artist/activist Drew Pisarra and rhe late, great novel
ist Kathy Acker.
“This was the first time I had seen performance art,”
says Newman, “and it completely blew my mind.”
In 1996 she performed Experiments in Don Taming at
the 10th annual Cleveland International Performance
Festival. Her work includes paint, photography, video,
text, fire installation and human sculpture.
In 2000 Two Giris Review became 2 Gyrlz LLC, headed
by Newman and McCobb, who had met at several events
and admired each other’s work. “Our visions work well
together,” they agree while rolling their sleeves to reveal
matching 2 Gyrlz tattoos.
McCobb describes hirself as a transsexed (male-to
other) genderqueer Celtic-North American. (“Ze” and
“hir” are McCobb’s preferred pronouns.) Ze also works as
trans/gender resources coordinator at Outside In, serves as
a member of Basic Rights Oregon’s Trans Advocacy
Group and is co-founder of Pan-Zen, a culture-jamming
trans media perfonnance art syndicate. McCobb’s creative
work manifests itself through live art, video and sound,
text-based performance, graphic arts and assemblage
sculpture. Hir work seeks to challenge and explore the
constructs of identity and expose the mediation of socio
cultural experience.
McCobb has been making and exhibiting work
throughout the United States, Canada and overseas for
more than 15 years. Hir most recent actions include the
DJ project Try My Cabbage, the multimedia Gyri Grip
performance Boot Camp, the durational installation Define
Me Where I Pea, visual art exhibits and a developing
score, Surgemoney : Diving the Alien, to be performed in
several international festivals this year.
In January 2001 a fire consumed the 2 Gyrlz office
space, destroying equipment, archives, media and files. All
material was lost, and a large debt was incurred. The set-
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
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