From The Ashes: Skylar Fein and "Remember the UpStairs Lounge"

Locations

(Skylar Fein. Photo by Dick Mitchell)
 
On Sunday, June 24, 1973, the UpStairs Lounge, a second-story gay bar nestled in a seedy corner of New Orleans’ French Quarter, was destroyed by a fire that resulted in more than 30 deaths. Signs pointed to arson but between the city's homophobia and the gay community's wariness of airing its dirty laundry the tragedy was mostly swept under the carpet. Until Bronx artist Skylar Fein came across a small plaque memorializing the tragedy several years ago. “I knew I wanted to do something on this, so I went to my studio and tried make art out of death,” Fein recalls. “I thought, I have to find a way to make fun out of this story, even though it’s terribly macabre.”
 
His initial attempts to research the bar and the fire at the Historic New Orleans Collection were fruitless. But the discovery of a trove of vintage photos and notes owned by amatuer historian Johnny Townsend proved  to be  a godsend.  The resulting piece, Remember the UpStairs Lounge, is a multi-room walkthrough installation that recreates parts of the bar, right down to its kitschy maroon wallpaper. It first went on display in New Orleans in 2008 but has now migrated to the Meatpacking District. Teaming up with No Longer Empty, a non-profit that pairs artists with available empty commercial spaces, Fein was able to take over the ground floor of the Caledonia, a high-rise on West 16th Street next to the High Line.
 
Inside the converted space, photos along a corridor depict both the gruesome holocaust and more convivial images from the bar’s heyday.  A second area strays from recreation into what Fein calls “a fantasia”—a sort of museum of imagined queer memorabilia, with a working buddy booth, Tom of Finland etchings and signage from Adonis Books, a retro gay bookstore Fein dreamt up. He says his work often plays with history, both real and imagined. “I’m fascinated by how some history is preserved and other history is washed away. Who makes those decisions? In a way, I’m filling in our history.” —Dan Avery
 
Remember the UpStairs Lounge at 447 W 16th St (@ Tenth Ave), nolongerempty.org. Weds–Suns noon–7pm through May 30; free.