Conversations Wit de Churen V: As da Art World Might Turn
2006

Kalup Linzy’s ongoing series Conversations Wit de Churen, begun in 2002, follows members of the fictional Braswell family and their friends through a series of episodic videos that weave together interrelated plots. These involve characters such as Katonya, an emerging artist in New York, and Taiwan, a heartbroken gay man. Like the other works in the series, Conversations Wit de Churen V: As da Art World Might Turn is a send-up of soap opera melodrama that references cultural influences from drag stars and mainstream comics to the workings of the art world. Linzy writes, directs, and stars in his videos, often in drag. In this video, he appears in a blond wig as Katonya, who receives a call from a gallerist, setting in motion a series of events pertaining to an exhibition and an opening reception. Although Linzy’s characters are over-the-top, his lampoons ring true to real-life scenarios and evoke with surprising sincerity the emotional experiences of love, loss, family life, sexuality, and being an artist.