Director Pedro Almodóvar premiered his short film Strange Way of Life at the Cannes Film Festival in May, a Western romance starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal as newly rekindled paramours on the open range. The music scenes that inspired Beyoncé's Renaissance are home to queer communities that have been responsible for some of the most inventive and memorable interpretations of the cowboy this year. The image of the silvery-spangled pop empress evokes the idea of the cowboy as adventurer, but instead of championing westward expansion, she begs us to extend our capacity for pleasure under the pulsating thump of her musical command. Although the culturally imagined cowboy is often white, in reality, Abrams says, in the mid-1800s, between a third and a quarter of all cowboys were either Black or Mexican.īy centering herself as an intergalactic disco cowboy, Beyoncé, a Black Texan woman, is both imagining a radical Black future and recalling the truth of the past. "It was this amazing diverse and multicultural experience where there was something for every member of the family, including great performances, Houston-style fried Snickers, and fried turkey legs."Ī post shared by Beyoncé curator Abrams told me during our conversation for It's Been a Minute, the word "cowboy" has its origins with the enslaved and indentured Black men who cared for American cattle, with "boy" a belittling term aimed at Black men of all ages. "I grew up going to the Houston Rodeo every year," Beyoncé told Harper's Bazaar in 2021. Reneigh isn't just a reference to that famous photo of Bianca Jagger at Studio 54, she's also a nod to Beyoncé's Texan roots. Suspended by a complex pulley system and showered in sheets of raining confetti, they floated out above a shrieking audience decked out in their space cowboy best.įor all the futuristic and android references in the Renaissance stage design, I found it fitting that Beyoncé chose to close her show with an equine moment. Near the show's end, a glittering Beyoncé climbed atop the twinkling disco steed that has come to symbolize this era, dubbed "Reneigh" by fans. A post shared by Museum Contemporary Art Denver saw this idea in its most mainstream and live incarnation at the Renaissance tour.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |