Preston Douglas, a multidisciplinary artist, and Machine Dazzle, a self-described artist trapped in the role of costume designer, will be at LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton this weekend to illuminate their respective creative processes.
As part of the venue’s Insider Outsider series, which is devoted to new voices in the art world whose work challenges convention, Mr. Preston will talk about his work with MAGO, a.k.a. Enrique J. Martinez, an installation artist and curator, on Saturday at 11 a.m.
Mr. Preston works between painting, fashion, and performance to consider how those forms can create spiritual, nonreligious atmospheres of faith for collective unity, according to a release. His paintings are both remnants of performances and starting points for installations.
“TreeHuggers,” his installation at LongHouse, blurs traditional boundaries between painting, sculpture, fashion, installation, and performance, and reflects the intersection of art, design, and nature so essential to LongHouse.
Mr. Douglas will also be in residence at LongHouse from Saturday through Friday, May 10, for a series of workshops and interactions with school groups and visitors.
Tickets to the talk are $35, $25 for members, and free for students and children.
Machine Dazzle is next up in the Larsen Salon Series on Sunday afternoon at 3. Born Matthew Flower, the name came from dancing in costume at a New York City club as a Dazzle Dancer. A friend referred to him as a dancing machine, which quickly morphed into Machine Dazzle.
Machine creates elaborate designs that transform the most ordinary objects into dynamic displays. His costumes caught the attention of other clubgoers, and he began taking commissions from drag queens and dancers. He has collaborated with Julie Atlas Muz, Big Art Group, and Justin Vivian Bond, among others, and has designed projects for Opera Philadelphia and Spiegelworld.
His opulent displays of wearable art were featured in “Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle,” a solo exhibition that opened at the Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan in December 2022. The show, which brought together more than 80 costumes and other artifacts, was described as “a dazzling parade of exquisitely detailed looks” by Jennifer Schuessler in The New York Times.
Machine received a Bessie Award for outstanding visual design and won the American Theatre Wing’s Hewes Design Award for his costumes for Taylor Mac’s “24-Decade History of Popular Music.”
Tickets are $35, $25 for members.
