A Conspiracy of Strange Girls is taking over Minneapolis — and, specifically, CO Exhibitions — to launch their Conspiracy on Saturday, November 12th.
This groundbreaking project is the brainchild of Rhys Jones, the screenprinting maverick behind a successful solo enterprise, LowwBones. LowwBones is a local creative favorite, especially among the queer women’s and WTF (women, trans, and femme) community (I may or may not be wearing a vest boasting one of LowwBones’ “Strange Girls Never Die” patches right now). Jones has been living the mission of this conspiracy and allowing it to filter her own work since 2013, when a trip to Coney Island to attend Coney Island Sideshow School and Marie Roberts changed her life. That trip warranted a tattoo, colored how LowwBones would be run, and stayed on Jones’ mind until this Conspiracy was born. Jones is exactly the right brain to be behind such an undertaking.
As Soraya Dee, event planner extraordinaire who Jones described as her “right-hand femme”, notes, “I worked with Rhys at a coffee shop years ago and was always impressed by her work ethic. When I began seeing her venture into screen-printing, I knew it was going to be amazing because she doesn’t half-ass anything. Then the Conspiracy of Strange Girls came along and I knew I had to get involved. I wasn’t sure what my involvement would be in the beginning, but we both knew everything was going to settle in just the way it should.”
CO Exhibitions is a large scale art exhibit space owned by Burlesque of America in Northeast Minneapolis. Many Twin Cities artists looking for space to create live art, large-scale projects, or doing big collaborative projects have found a home at CO. It’s a great fit for Conspiracy, an art collective for self-described Strange Girls.
A Conspiracy of Strange Girls is launching on the 12th as an official collective, but many art fans reading may recognize the group name and the phrase “Strange Girls Never Die.” That’s because the Conspiracy got it’s feet wet with a group show at CO Exhibitions last year, when it was just Jones as a curator and 25 artists with submitted works. The anticipated walk through numbers were around 100, but throughout opening night the gallery was wall-to-wall full of eager, radical art fans desperate for art that didn’t center around white, heteronormative, cisnormative, male perspectives. These perspectives still overtake much of the visual art field’s resources and visibility. The event went so well, that after Jones got some tough-love speeches from her closest friend, the Conspiracy was born in full. I’ve been familiar with Jones’ work for awhile, and was instantly charmed by Dee in our conversations. As a strange girl myself, someone who spent her childhood collecting cat figures and watching anything about witches ad nauseam, I was beyond excited to hear more about the Conspiracy itself and the upcoming launch event which highlights and celebrates the work the collective is already doing.
In the Conspiracy’s own words, “A Conspiracy of Strange Girls is a newly formed creative collective and arts organization that creates and promotes creative work by, for, and about Strange Girls.” Their mission statement goes on to say that the Conspiracy is “a Minneapolis-based women-trans-femme+ group open to cis women, trans women, femmes, non-binary, and genderqueer folks who identify as Strange Girls. Our Conspiracy currently consists of over 60 inaugural members with a variety of creative backgrounds, including visual arts, tattooing, music, performance art, skilled trades, crafts, and arts organizing.”
Dee describes the purpose of the Conspiracy beautifully as well, saying that “the conspiracy is here to enable strange girls from all walks of life to come together in a place where they feel supported, inspired, and encouraged to keep doing what they do, since many of us have been the weirdos since birth that just never quite fit in anywhere. The conspiracy is our place to exhale for a while because we’re finally in our creative home where we can thrive in what we do and where we dream of going. You don’t want to mess with CSG because we all stand strong for what we believe in, but we’re also sweet as pie, since we will help out someone in need in a heartbeat.”
The Conspiracy of Strange Girls isn’t just taking taking off here in the Twin Cities. New conspirators of all mediums are joining from all over the world to take the art world by storm. CSG puts their emphasis not only on feminism and artistic integrity, but on collaboration and support, creating safe environments for their creators and fans as well. The event on the 12th will fight against the cliqueishness that Minneapolis art scenes are often known for, encouraging all looking for a different art experience to attend and support the CSG, each other, and the arts community here in the cities. Future Conspiracy events are being planned now, and Strange Girls merch and social media goodies are being born as you read this. I was also excited to hear from Dee about a youth mentorship program they’re working through ideas about — enabling the next generation of Strange Girls to flourish, thrive, and go out to create their own communities.
Another key component of the Conspiracy of Strange Girls is its inclusion to those in the art world whose skills lay in organization and support instead of traditional art. Founder Rhys Jones’ herself noted that “I wanted to help facilitate really intentionally building this community of Strange Girls and our supporters and do as much as we can together. I also discovered in curating the ‘Strange Girls Never Die’ show and planning the opening that I’m really good at event planning and organizing and artist wrangling and that I really, really enjoyed it.” She goes on to say, “I really dig making things happen for fellow artists and creatives.”
This is why Jones gravitates naturally towards the aforementioned Dee, the Conspiracy’s event planner and social media expert, considering her an equal and artist in her own right as they put together this launch event. Jones’ dedication to and inclusion of organizers and planners is also why you can see the voice and vision of more than just traditional artists throughout the work of the Conspiracy, making their voice even stronger and even more unique.
The Conspiracy of Strange Girls launch event is planned as a LIVE art show instead of a plain old art exhibit. Guests get to watch, and in many cases participate, as top notch artists create new works in the moment that they will be the first (and in some cases only) people to view. The Conspiracy is vehemently for all types of artists and all mediums, and as such there will be video streams of long-distance member creating THEIR new work, incorporating aspects of film art as well. Performance art gets its due with the CSG as well, and Strange Girls like Star Child, Penny Dreadful, royal brat, Queenie von Curves, and OAKS will fill the night with radical performances. The launch is also when much of the promised new merch drops — so all of us Strange Girls can take a piece of this magickal night home.
Admission to the Conspiracy of Strange Girls launch event is a suggested donation of $5-20. Five or more non-perishable food items will get you raffle tickets with outstanding prizes from all over the Twin Cities, and the items will be donated to The Exchange, a queer community center that offers crucial services to the trans community and other marginalized queer people in Minneapolis. This exciting launch event is on November 12th at CO Exhibitions from 6-10 PM.
For more information, head to Facebook to learn more about the launch event, and the Conspiracy of Strange Girls.