Avant-garde performance artist Diamanda Galas will perform "Judgement Day," an emotionally charged, solo stage production about the AIDS epidemic, tonight in Spaulding Auditorium at 8 p.m.
The classically trained singer and pianist uses everything from biblical passages to parodies of fundamentalist preachers in her criticism of how the disease is dealt with by many Americans.
Shock is an integral part of Galas's shows. She has been known to appear on stage nude and covered with stage-blood. In a photo by Annie Leibowitz for Vanity Fair magazine the performance artist poses for a Crucifixion scene.
Songs from "Judgement Day" come from her new compact disc "The Singer," which is a continuation of three records released by Galas in the mid-80s about AIDS.
Other previous Galas works include: "Wild Women With Steak Knives" and "You Must Be Certain of the Devil."
In her work, Galas uses several blues and gospel songs by such artists as Willie Dixon and Roy Acuff. She transforms Acuff's "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord" to a contemporary version with the saints replaced by the AIDS community.
Since she began composing "Plague Mass" in 1984, most of her work has addressed the AIDS, which took her brother's life in 1986.
