Miami artists Pioneer Winter and Jared Sharon's upcoming performance contains partial nudity -- but which part? To find out you have to visit the Bass Museum of Art for 42: A Stonewall Prospective tomorrow. Winter and Sharon looked to the historical Stonewall riots as a focus for 42. "We'll be touching on motifs of struggle and censorship, sexual deviance, non-conformity, and hope," Winter adds.

And in case the arts and social causes aren't enough to bring you out, there's also an open bar sponsored by 42Below vodka to complement the contemporary dance, film, and visual art of 42. The performance will be presented inside the Sol M. Taplin Gallery on the first floor of the Bass alongside paintings from the museum's permanent collection.

On June 28, 1969, police raided a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich

Village called the Stonewall Inn, aiming to complete what then would

have been a routine round-up. In the bar and on the streets, crowds

fought back and resisted arrest, fueling the Stonewall riots that

sparked a turning point in the history of gay culture: the mindset of

many gays and lesbians thus turned away from oppression and toward

freedom of expression.

"The 42 performance has been created by artists who were not around

(some of them were even unaware of the uprising when we began

rehearsing) for the riots of 1969 that sparked the formation of modern

gay civil rights," Winter remarks. The work honors the efforts of

activists who broke the ground from which Winter and Sharon can create

their art.

Researching Stonewall proved educational for the entire cast. While

Winter hopes the audience will come away with heightened awareness of

social issues, he writes by email, "We aren't looking to teach -- only

hint at topics that might need a little further scrutiny."

While Winter works in dance and performance and Sharon specializes in

sculpture and design, the life partners and artistic collaborators both

hold university degrees in the sciences and draw from numerous sources

for inspiration. Sharon's large-scale props include an ornate bathroom

stall (the scene of a tap dance) and a melting bed (also danced upon).

The sculptor helped shape 42 as a work centering on Stonewall among

numerous "key aspects of the grind that has been gay ascension," Winter

writes.

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-- Emily Hite, artburstmiami.com

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