TNT | Ziegfeld Girls

Hunter Armistead

May 15, 2014

Doors 5:30pm

Tickets: $5

OZ INVITES NASHVILLE TO EXPERIENCE THE LOST AESTHETIC OF THE 1920s IN MULTIMEDIA ZIEGFELD GIRLS, CREATED BY HUNTER ARMISTEAD, MAY 15

Part of OZ’s Local Artists Series, TNT, Event Exhibits Armistead’s Portraits of Nashvillians, Projected Life-Size, and Live Variety Show 

Multidisciplinary artist Hunter Armistead, a Nashville native and resident, has garnered acclaim as a fine art photographer and as the front man of rock band Mel and the Party Hats. On May 15, as part of the heralded new contemporary arts center’s TNT (Thursday Night Things) series, OZ presents an event that draws on Armistead’s dual background to celebrate the beauty and talent of local artists: Ziegfeld Girls, an immersive exhibition of his 1920s-style portraits of Nashvillians and a variety show, emceed by Armistead, featuring performances by models in the photographs.

Doors will open, and the Riff’s Fine Street Food food truck will begin serving, at 5:30pm. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased online at www.oznashville.com or at the door. OZ is located at 6172 Cockrill Bend Circle in Nashville, TN.

Armistead’s Ziegfeld series takes its inspiration from the portraits by Alfred Cheney Johnston of the Ziegfeld Follies showgirls in the 1920s and ‘30s, among the most famous beauties of that era. Armistead, whose first foray into the arts was jazz dancing in college, is captivated by the graceful, almost balletic nature of the Johnston images: “The women’s poses, particularly the positioning of their hands, are very precise. They look almost mid-dance. The style of the photographs, including their brilliant use of props, captures the look and feel of the ‘20s in an unparalleled way. In my own photographs I have tried to recreate that aesthetic with a contemporary twist or two, with talented local women as my models.”

The Ziegfeld motif will come to life in several ways: Armistead’s photographs will be projected life-size in rotation on four screens within OZ’s elegantly minimal warehouse space. In addition, a variety show featuring several of Armistead’s models—Katelyn Epperly, Meagan Rhodes, Heather LeRoy, Elle Long, Rosemary Fossee, Jenna DeNuys, and Molly Cherryholmes to name a few—will recreate the Broadway setting in which the Ziegfeld girls performed and danced.

About Hunter Armistead

Hunter Armistead began practicing photography shortly after graduating from college due to a recommendation made by a vocational test. He completed a series on Beersheba Springs before setting his camera aside to pursue a 15-year career as a rock singer in rock band Mel and the Party Hats, which in the late 90’s was one of the most successful unsigned bands in the South. In 2006 he began practicing photography full-time. In 2008 he moved to Berlin, now his second home, for a year. There he completed a number of projects, showed his work, and performed. The city remains his second home today.

Armistead has been published in The New York Times, Southern Living, and Nashville Arts, among other magazines and newspapers. His first book, The Nashville 100, a series of 100 strangers he photographed on Lower Broadway in one day, was released in December 2013.

He has shown his images in Berlin and in Nashville at The Parthenon Museum, Project A and the Froelich Gallery and has work in private collections as well as the Tennessee State Museum. He considers AKTION—a popup live performance in front of a 90-foot-long installation of his images at a park in Berlin—the high point of his career to date.

Native Magazine
Media partner for TNT – Thursday Night Things