Opening of exhibition

Dame Darcy - victorian girlishness, charming dolls and sea shanties

Dame Darcy is very productive and universal American artists, with work ranging from comics, painting and illustration, film (short live-action and animated films), performance, doll-making and musical creations. She achieved international recognition with her naively drawn baroque/gothic comic book series Meat Cake, which she began publishing in 1989 (at first on her own, but in 1991, the series was picked up by Fantagraphics Books, the leading publisher of alternative comic books). Twelve issues of Meat Cake have appeared so far. The rich imaginative world she created over the years in her comic books also served her well in film and stage performances in the nineties, in which she combines the activist attitude of a modern suffragette with her naive narration of gothic fairy tales, most of which originate in dream.
Dame Darcy grew up as Darcy Megan Stanger in the conservative atmosphere of Idaho, which has the greatest concentration of Mormons in the United States. She was raised by her parents as a Roman Catholic, but in the freethinking spirit of hippies. Her father was a painter and, even as a young child, Dame would help him mix his colours. He taught her to play the banjo when she was nine. She began writing and illustrating stories and poems as a teenager, as well as developing her psychic abilities by reading palms. Her father was the first to support her decision, at the age of sixteen, to become an artist. She won a scholarship in 1989 and enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute, where she received a degree in film with a specialisation in animation. Inspired by the work of the American Winsor McCay, a pioneer in comics and animated film, Dame's biggest wish was to make her own feature-length animated film, but unfortunately, this wish hasn't yet come true. Financial concerns led her to become a professional illustrator with most of her illustrations and comics commissioned for magazines (Rollerderby, Alice, Bananafish, Bust, L.A. Weekly, Visionaire Fashion Magazine, Index Magazine) and newspapers (New York Press, The Village Voice, The Stranger, and others), as well as fanzines, book series and music album covers, and miniature handcrafted dolls. (Cult British author Alan Moore once offered her one of his stories in exchange for two dolls. His story was published in the ninth edition of Meat Cake series.) She redeemed the surplus of her creativity by producing her comic book Meat Cake, which she at first published by photocopying it and colouring the covers by hand. She realised that her comic books had achieved success when in 1995 her work was chosen to be published in Twisted Sisters, the well-respected comic-book anthology of women authors. During the same period, she tested her skills as an actor in various independent productions (including collaborating with cult film director George Kuchar).
Dame Darcy's musical journey is as heterogeneous and interesting as her acting and comics career. She has worked as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist-the banjo, tambourine, singing saw, electric harp and electric bass are among her favourite instruments-and published numerous recordings of murderer ballads and sea shanties mixed with experimental "bluegrass folk/death-rock", independently and in compilations, in cabaret performances and with such groups as Aye Aye Captain, Gem in Eye, Black Strap Molasses Family, and Cabin Fever. Not surprisingly, Dame designed and drew all the covers for her albums, which only adds to their originality. At KUD France Prešeren, Dame will be performing nineteenth-century sea shanties accompanied by her guitar player, Skippy.
Dame acquired additional acting experience by performing on stage. In 1992 and 1998, she performed in America and Europe with a company of chaotic musicians and improvisers under the name Suckdog (among them was Lisa Carver, editor of the cult fanzine Rollerderby). In 2000, Dame adapted several works from her Meat Cake comic books for the theatre and organised EZ Bake Coven, a group cabaret performance of independent working women, for the opening of the first Ladyfest Festival (www.ladyfest.org).
The recently published Frightful Fairytales, a collection of illustrated short stories (they have been compared to Brothers Grimm tales with an extra-violent gothic/Victorian touch) offers further proof that Dame Darcy's creativity knows no bounds. Dame's illustrations in the book pay homage to the masters who inspired her, Granville, Aubrey Beardsley and Edward Gorey.
Finally, let us consider her film experience. From 1996 to 1999, Dame hosted and co-produced a half-hour weekly show called Turn of the Century for a New York cable TV station. The show was directed by Lisa Hammer, the New York queen of the short horror film, and shot with a super 8 camera. Many short films starring Dame were produced for the show. In addition to Dame Darcy's own three animated films, the City of Women Festival will also feature a selection of her short films.
Igor Prassel

Programme:
KUD France Prešeren:
Oct. 10, 21.00: opening of exhibition
Oct. 10, 21.00: short and animated films
Oct. 10, 23.00: concert

Vocals, banjo: Dame Darcy
Guitar: Skippy
Oct. 13 -16 from 15.00 to 19.00. Hand-crafted dolls workshop
Exhibition in KUD: Oct. 11-19, 12.00-24.00

Klub Gromka, AKC Metelkova mesto
Oct. 12, midnight
Dame Darcy
Films

DAME DARCY ON TOUR:
Oct. 14 - Klub Močvara, Trnjaski nasip bb., Zagreb, (exhibition and Dame Darcy concert)
Oct. 19 - Festival GRRR Pančevo, exhibition and concert

Organised by: City of Women
Project co-ordinator: Igor Prassel
In co-operation with: KUD France Prešeren, Stripburger