Availabism, ferralism & Kali 101: Bruce la Bruce talks to Kembra Pfahler.

1. Kembra, you are one of the very few women I've met in my life whom I would truly classify as a goddess. You seem to operate on another plane of existence, in some other dimension which only intersects with our worldly perception of time and space at select intervals. My Muslim boyfriend, who has deeply mystical beliefs, immediately recognized you as a goddess when you met. Do you share this perception, and to what do you attribute your ethereal and otherworldly essence?

NUMBER 1: Hello ... well I am just going to answer your questions via e mail....... never get a chance to sit down and type but I'm forcing myself! Question one's answer would be.... Gosh I'd love to grow up to be a statue. I wish I could become like the monolith in 2001 except in robin's egg blue. I attribute this other dimensioness to low blood sugar and emotional pain. My desire for humility and grace comes off like Rosemarie's boo boo. I feel like I am Glenn Danzig and Henry Rollins living in the body of Howard the Duck.... with a vagina. I do know about certain goddesses however ... like Kali the goddess of creation and destruction. The poison and the antidote ... Kali 101 ... that's what time it is.

2. Your image and imagery, including your incarnation as a rock star in you band The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, is obviously influenced very deeply by the horror aesthetic. What is it that attracts you to the horror genre?

NUMBER 2: I prefer anti-naturalism and monsters to real horror ... like cancer or vehicular manslaughter ... etc ... I love the universal horror archetypes. I don't know ... it just feels like family.

3. As a child you attended the McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California, which became infamous for its high-profile sex abuse case and accusations of ritual sex abuse. The whole case seems incredibly complicated, with trials and retrials and much speculation and rumour. What is your understanding of the case, and what were your experiences at the school? Did you have any experience of the alleged dark tunnels and secret rooms that some say existed at the school?

NUMBER 3: All of the surfers' offspring went to that day care. I don't recall any Satanic abuse but that's not to say I couldn't uncover some memories. Especially after watching Tim Curry in "Legend". Clearly the case was a witch-hunt. It turned the idyllic South Bay into a filthy reminder of adult dementia. I'm really glad my mother saved all my class photos from that era.

4. How did you originally come up with your Karen Black persona, with the blue body paint and the black fright wig, etc.?

NUMBER 4: actually just "Availabism", making the best use of what was and is available ... of course, in my minimal astringent palette. Transformation of course ... and doing something that my eyes just weren't seeing at the time.

5. I know that you must have been heavily influenced by the Hollywood actress Karen Black's extraordinary made-for-TV movie, Trilogy of Terror, which scared us all so much when we were kids, particularly the third part of the trilogy in which Ms. Black is terrorized by a tiny devil doll. How old were you when you first saw it, and how did you react to it? What are your other favourite Karen Black movies and why?

NUMBER 5: In my twenties. I was recovering from a brutal mugging, actually. Bedridden. That movie gave me hope. I can't pick up a doll of any kind to this day without spray painting it black and pretending that it's attacking me. I will say that as much as I love certain movies, I'm not married to them nor do I fanatasize Karen Black. I admire her unusual beauty...... I have always liked strange looking strong women. Carol Borland ... Barbara Steele ... Lilli Munster ... Faye Dunaway in China Town ... The name of the band is derived by poetic type ... synchronicities like Mike Kuchar saying that the movies I made were "voluptuously horrific" and then the chance viewing of "Trilogy of Terror". I recently watched her in "Easy Rider", she's very method and real..... And I prefer anti-naturalism, ultimately. Extreme cartoonishness. I read a quote from Jack Smith recently where he said something like.... Actors tried to "hoodwink you".... I like Keanu Reeves, Dolly Parton and Bella Lugosi. Also Johnny Depp, because he lets you in on the trick he's playing, it seems like, when you watch him.

6. You've had the pleasure of meeting the actress Karen Black and she's seen your far-out shows. What was that meeting like, and how does she respond to your work?

NUMBER 6: It was great when she came to our early shows ... she took my hand and said "you are an artist." Whoa ... that was so nice ... she's such a good sport ... any other legend would have just probably sued me.

7. Karen Black, the Hollywood actress, was so glamorous in the 70s, and yet so unusual looking, and clearly idiosyncratic. Do you think that decade was an anomaly in terms of opportunities for more unusual, strong and distinctive women? (I'm thinking of Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Karen Black, etc ... as opposed to all the cutesy starlets of today that nobody can tell apart.) What is your favourite decade of the 20th century and why?

NUMBER 7: Yes, these Seventies women were clearly idiosyncratic but there is always a parallel existence of otherness if you care to pay attention. Within every generation. There's a cluster of something that moves naturally contrarian to what is the standard paradigm. And thank god for that. The cute starlets of today are shockingly stupid. I don't know. I hate blonds. Except Chloe Sevigny, Tara Subkoff and Natasha Leone. These are subversive blondes.

8. Kembra Pfahler, you have lived in New York since, I believe, the late 70s or early 80s, when you started out in the experimental Super 8 scene, the Cinema of Transgression, appearing in the movies of such filmmakers as Richard Kern and Nick Zedd, and making your own movies. Tell us a little bit about those early heady days, and share with us your thoughts about how the New York art scene specifically and New York in general has changed since then.

NUMBER 8: Yes, I was doing a lot of live performance in those days ... I lived in the Lower East Side in 1979. I moved from Calif. and declared myself to be an artist. Someone asked me to do a performance at a place called Armageddeon. I didn't play music or sing but accepted the offer. I had some eggs at home and I thought, you know, that was a nice prop. I had been reading "Story of the Eye", and looking at pictures from the Vienna Action Group. I did gymnastics as a teen so I could stand on my head. It seemed humorous to me to stand on my head and have someone smash an egg onto my vagina for my show. I didn't have much of a costume on and felt vulnerable. Maybe that's why I get so done-up for my shows now ... to hide in plain site and still tell my story ... I did get to make movies with the Cinema of Transgression people. In my opinion they have not been knocked off their pedestal. The difference between then and now? I don't know ... I once read in a Cookie Mueller book that if a girl showed her vagina on film then she would ruin her life. I ruined my life way back then and rain my life as much as possible still. I asked Richard Kern if he would shoot me for "over 40". I loved doing the sewn vagina movie with him and was proud of my sewn vagina spread in Penthouse a couple of years ago ... can't compare then and now. I hate nostalgia. It makes me feel creepy.

9. I, Bruce LaBruce, once wrote a nasty article about the Cinema of Transgression in which I also unjustly maligned your films, something about which I am now truly embarrassed and regretful. After about six years or so, you generously forgave me for my thoughtless and sensationalistic journalistic faux pas, and we became good friends. Have you had a lot of feuds during your career, and what is your philosophy concerning these unpleasant experiences?

NUMBER 9: There was utterly nothing to forgive. You are such an important artist it would be an insult to your massive body of work to sweat the small stuff. I could never remember what that feud was about. Thank god you could rise above my hissy fit of yore and so generously shoot the girls of Karen Black in the "Wall of Vagina". Yes I've had a couple of feuds. The worse is when friends or collaborators just inexplicably sever ties. But there's nothing to do about it. Most extreme artists aren't perfectly socialized.

10. You, Kembra, refer to yourself, in artistic terms, as an "availabilist" or "availabist". Please explain this philosophy and why it is so central to your work and life.

NUMBER 10: I've used the term, availabism, a couple of times before this question. It is in my glossary and in my artistic ethos. Its fun making up movements that no one will join. Availabism is easy. Making the best use of what's available. I made up a new one, which is scarier and more complex. "Ferralism" which is derived from the description of certain surfers.... there's three kinds ... a competitive surfer ... one who competes and is sponsored. A free surfer who is paid not to compete but who is sponsored. And the feral surfer who scouts new surfing spots and who was born domesticated but is now wild. It's a new movement so I can't articulate all of it's promise.

11. As a rock star, you have performed extreme performance art including your Wall of Vagina and the infamous smashing of eggs onto your upside down vagina in front of some pretty hardcore rock and rock n' roll crowds at such venues as the House of Blues. Have you ever felt you were in any danger in these scenarios, or have the audiences ever responded in an unexpected, threatening or unusual way? Which rock stars have you hooked up with sexually?

NUMBER 11: Let's just go to the fun part of this question ... it would be cool to do it with Little Richard, Danzig, Rollins ... Tony Bennet ... Joan Jett ... Kenneth Anger, Wolverine ... but I'm very turned on to Girls Gone Wild Extreme Easter Vacation right now. I did meet Alice Cooper ... But I was passed out after my show. Mike Ness from Social Distortion I was with. I love that band. Hhmmm ... God, I need to fuck more rock stars definitely. I'll try harder. And to answer about being in danger.... Well, luckily not yet. I did sing on one of GG Allen's records once and some of his fans came to a Karen Black show and stormed the stage and tore off my undies. They were fat girls so it wasn't too painful.

12. You were in a love relationship with the late and much beloved Colin de Land, the New York art dealer who helped found the Armory Show and ran American Fine Arts before he died of cancer at the age of 47 two years ago. I remember fondly spending time with the two of you at the pool of the hotel on Franklin Street in LA (the hotel where Janis Joplin died!) the day before shooting your Wall of Vagina performance, and a particularly memorable night on the town with you both and a couple of rich art mavens in Manhattan. If it isn't too personal, could you share with us some thoughts or a story or two about Mr. de Land, and what he meant to the New York art community?

NUMBER 12: Well, Colin called me on the phone one day and I didn't know who he was. I didn't know about his gallery until he asked me over there. It's been two years since he has been dead. He was responsible for giving John Waters his first art show. And he invented "Academic Criticism" or reinvented it. He encouraged me to have an art exhibit at his gallery, which was very generous. I am still reeling from going through that ... it feels so abject for me to talk about it ... I guess I can't yet. Maybe some stories will come out in the next Karen Black record Rage, Lust and Emptiness. It's not too personal for you to ask ... Thanks for the considerateness though ...

13. You are currently showing with the gallerist, Kenny Schecter, and recently had a show at his new gallery in London. What was your London show like, and what kind of projects are you currently working on?

NUMBER 13: Oh yeah, that London show was really fun. Kenny Schacter reminds me of Colin. He is open-minded and supportive and intelligent. I am currently working on Girls of Karen Black Gone Wild, a movie.

14. a) How did you first come up with the name of your band? Is it taken from a real headline? With your band you do some fantastic covers, like Chicago's "Feeling Stronger Every Day." What other covers do you do, and what covers would you like to do? b) I remember fondly the time that you played Halloween here in Toronto at Will Munro's Vazaleen and I listened to you at sound check singing Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me." Will you ever record this cover, please? NUMBER 14: I think I talked a little bit about how I named the band ... as far as cover songs ... since I grew up on the beach in Southern California ... driving and music ... mainly cheap ... were impressed upon my early education like Latin. It seemed like every time there was a sunny day "Two Tickets to Paradise" by Eddie Money would come on--all that deformed synchronicity crap. Those songs would get catalogued not so much for retro charmishness, but for later being able to describe to my band members what I might want to get after in a song. I have never advanced from the verse chorus verse chorus guitar solo verse chorus paradigm. I like classic rock. It's like taking a vacation. I prefer to be dark on the outside and lite on the inside. Doing cheesy songs helps balance out the horrifically unentertaining theatrical acts I do. So other songs ... I will do a cover album real soon. With the new edition to Karen Black ... Armin Ra on Theremin. As far as Bonnie Raitt ... that song literally makes me sick it's so moving. "Turn out the lights, turn down the bed, turn down these voices inside my head, lay down with me tell me no lies, just hold me close, don't patronize ... etc." some words just sound odd in songs too ... like "capiche" or "honorarium'.

15. Remember the time that you and Will Munro and I drove to Niagara Falls and you were too chicken to go under the falls and you were so scared of the falls that you had to crawl to the railing on your hands and knees and then peek over? And then how terrified we were cowering on the floor in the House of Horrors? Most people would think because of your image that you would not be afraid of such things. What else scares you in this world?

NUMBER 15: And lastly ... about Niagara Falls ... yes a great secret ... that's such an unpopular place. Extreme nature lit by klieg lights, I guess its because I'm afraid I'll fall in. To the big wet chasm. I'll roll over in a wheel barrel and wake up on the bottom of the waterfall with Bugs Bunny and Marilyn Monroe. I don't know why I'm afraid of Niagara Falls. I am afraid of everything ... that's the good part. I'm going back for my honeymoon ... I'm getting married to my friend Ben. You are invited ... I asked John Waters to marry us. He has his license to do such things. Love Kembra ... did I answer the questions long enough?