Scandalous Conduct | Matthew Lawrence & Jason Tranchida in Artist Talk at Stanley
Saturday, June 14 at 1pm | $20 Suggested Donation
Join Matthew Lawrence and Jason Tranchida in conversation about their immersive video installation and experimental documentary piece about the Newport Navy Sex Scandal of 1919.
Installation on view FREE at Stanley, 494 Commercial Street:
June 5-15 | 11am-4pm (closed June 10,11 &13)
Scandalous Conduct: A Fairy Extravaganza is a musical documentary investigating themes of homophobia, surveillance, and drag in the United States military. It chronicles a bizarre homophobic sex sting conducted by the Navy shortly after the close of World War I.
While fifteen suspected homosexuals were imprisoned without due process aboard a decommissioned ship in Newport Harbor, just half a mile away the navy mounted an elaborate production of the 1896 musical The Strange Adventures of Jack and the Beanstalk: A Fairy Extravaganza. It was all part of a new marketing strategy to recruit boys into the Navy where they, like Jack, could leave their homes and mothers in search of adventure and riches from foreign lands.
Scandalous Conduct: A Fairy Extravaganza blends first person reports written by the young men doing the entrapping, movement-based sequences inspired by archival photographs, and restaged scenes from the Jack and the Beanstalk musical.
Matthew Lawrence and Jason Tranchida’s collaborative practice is interdisciplinary and research-driven, centering around curatorial projects, video, and performative events. From 2010-2024 they co-edited the queer art journal Headmaster. Scandalous Conduct: A Fairy Extravaganza is their first feature-length work. They’re currently in the preliminary research phase of a second musical documentary exploring the Krewe of Yuga, the first gay Mardi Gras krewe in New Orleans in the 1950s.
Matthew Lawrence is an archivist, writer, and editor in Providence, Rhode Island. In 2022 he received his Master of Information Studies from McGill University, and has since worked on archival projects with Providence Public Library, the Massachusetts State Historical Records Board, and Providence College Galleries, among others. He also writes about art for many local and regional publications. He was a 2021 finalist for the Rabkin Prize for Visual Art Journalism and a 2015 recipient of the Public Humanities Scholar Award from Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.
Jason Tranchida has a creative practice that is a multi-disciplinary intersection of art, design, and curatorial projects. Born in Detroit and living in Providence, Rhode Island, his project-based art practice includes objects, installations, video, and digital explorations. As creative director of Headmaster magazine, Tranchida has received two Print Merit Awards from the Society of Publication Designers. His creative agency LLAMAproduct specializes in graphic and experience design, creative direction, and event production. His work draws heavily on his foundation in architecture and stage design.