Spooky Valentine

Spooky Valentine

Secret Love Collective

USA 2018

During the month of October 2018, Secret Love Collective will take residency in Understudy, creating costumes and interactive works of art that will day by day turn the space into an alternative haunted house, a dreamscape, an interactive home for weirdos and lovers. The installation will be composed of sculpture, video projection, and an interactive costume closet. The concept of this overflowing costume assortment will be ‘spooky valentine’.

A spooky valentine subverts consumer ideas of Valentine’s Day by being unashamedly real, playful, or different from a ‘traditional (consumer) valentine’. A spooky valentine can include the haunted, vulnerable, and painful aspects of love and desire. It could be a valentine to a part of ourself or our lives that we have lost or given up. It could be a valentine to a world that does not yet exist. Just as Halloween gives permission to embody lives, spirits, and bodies that we may not otherwise get to explore, a spooky valentine allows for the exploration of love, longing and admiration apart from hetero/traditional/consumerist notions of American Valentines Day.

For the duration of Secret Love’s residency at Understudy visitors will be welcome and encouraged to participate in many parts of the immersive installation. Come explore the spooky and vulnerable parts of yourself in our costume closet, take an authentic-selfie, and hang out in our self-smooch tunnel.

Spooky Valentine will premiere at Understudy on October 3rd, 2018. Open installation hours are Monday, Wednesday and Friday through October 29th from 11:00am – 6:00pm. Understudy is free-to-visit.

Biography

Secret Love Collective was born in early 2017 out of a desire to connect and create worlds that do not yet exist. Through gatherings, events, performances, and exhibitions, we hope to engage friends and strangers in questioning the status quo, rigid categories of identity, dominant social structures, and art world hierarchies. By creating, we re-envision our lives and gain agency. We see this work as inherently political and intentionally liberating.

https://www.secretlovecollective.com

https://www.facebook.com/secretlovecollective/

Understudy is located at the Colorado Convention Center / Theatre District light rail stop near 14th and Stout. Look for the B-Cycle station next to the light rail tracks or Shantell Martin’s art bench.