Late Night Tales - Azian Nurudin’s Wicked Times: The Compiled Tapes

The Compiled Tapes presents the first, complete retrospective of Malaysian-American artist Azian Nurudin’s work. Made between the height of San Francisco’s LGBTQ revolution and the turmoil of the AIDS epidemic, these twelve films spanning 1986 to 2001 are an unabashed declaration of lesbian BDSM and solidarity. 

After completing a degree in music production at Mills College, Nurudin fell in with a “bratty” group of women insurgent artists, including Cecilia Dougherty and Leslie Singer (Grapefruit, 1988) at the San Francisco Art Institute in the 1980s. Together, they shared resources and labour, taking on various roles in each other’s productions. Armed with a cracking whip and access to a plethora of cameras like the DV, PXL2000 and 16mm film cameras, Nurudin spent the next decade in her signature shades, leather jacket and baju kurung, prowling the streets of San Francisco to make her films. 

Supported by her friends in the collective, Nurudin was able to act on instinct and at the point of inspiration. The resulting works are ripe with dynamic sexual and political tension, with stunning undertones of tender and delicate feeling. Following a successful run at the Queer East Festival, this retrospective reflects on an artist’s unflinching resolve to bring together her interest in music, film and pop culture, as well as her burgeoning involvement in the BDSM and performance art scene all at once, for a heady maximalisation of passion and pleasure.

Curated by Sasha Han, Renee Ng and Daryl Cheong

The programme includes the following films

1. Bitter Strength: Sadistic Response Version / 2:22 min / US / 1992 
In a series of fragmented images, extreme close-ups and harried camera movements, Bitter Strength: Sadistic Response Version turns the heavy pixels of PXL2000 into a feverish playground of S&M desire.

2. Nancy's Nightmare / 5:34 min / US / 1988
Set to the toe-tapping tune of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” and Megadeth’s “These Boots”, a pair of lovers engage in flogging, bootblacking and other BDSM shenanigans.

3. Automobile Clean-up Expediency / 6:48 min / US / 1988 
Azian wants to set a car on fire and film it for a project. To do so, she navigates a web of bureaucracy, application processes and increasingly comical phone calls to make this happen.

4. What Do Pop Art, Pop Music, Pornography and Politics Have to do with Real Life / 19:20 / US / 1990
A television talk show hosted by Andy Warhol, played by a deadpan Azian Nurudin, brings together impersonators of Jeff Koons, Ilona Staller, Whitney Houston and an art dealer in this parody feature on the state of Pop Art.

5. The Headhunters of Borneo — A Recollection / 10:35 min / US / 1989 
A Malaysian woman in America reflects and immerses herself in the colonial erasure of Dayak headhunting practices across history. While doing so, she becomes inspired to seek out a prey of her own.

6. Binky "Doomsday Loser" / 4:26 min / US / 2001 
The last video Azian made was for the now defunct band Binky for their single, “Doomsday Loser”. Four mask-clad singers seize control of their toxic world.

7. The Rehearsal / 5:01 min / US / 1987
Languid bodies rise and fall. A documentation of the rehearsal process of performance artist and dominatrix, Kristine Ambrosia, at her studio.

8. Self-Immolation as an Anachronism / 3:35 min / US / 1988 
Azian confronts the continued practice of genital mutilation through a ritual involving doll burning.

9. Malaysian Series 1-6 / 22 min / US / 1986 - 1987 

Malaysian Series : 1 Televisyen Di-Atas Dapur
Malaysian Series: 2 Toaster Oven in Armchair
Malaysian Series: 3 Hot Sauce/Sambal Pedas
Malaysian Series: 4 Le Boudoir et la Bicyclette
Malaysian Series: 5 Punishment by Death for the Smuggling of Illegal Narcotics
Malaysian Series: 6 Les Enfants du Paradis

Malaysian Series 1-6 introduces key themes that recur throughout Azian’s work. Each tableau in this series begins with a chapter title (e.g. Malaysian Series: 5 Punishment by Death for the Smuggling of Illegal Narcotics) and features Azian’s enactment of state violence on an object.

10. Without Makeup You Haven't Got a Prayer / 4:04 min / US / 1988 
At an industrial park, performer Caerage boldly undresses, applies makeup and poses for the camera and the wandering eyes of drivers in container trucks and trains passing by.

11. A Gun is Useless in a Dead Girl's Hands / 2:41 min / US / 1999 
Gun kills man. Woman inherits the earth. Armed with guns, germ warfare books and a sleek, two-fingered hand torch, artists Azian Nurudin, Michelle Handelman and Klara Lux hang around shooting ranges and garages, appealing for fellow queer women to “Join the lesbian militia!”.

12. Wicked Radiance / 5:09 min / US / 1991
Shot on PXL2000, a woman secludes herself in the confines of her home and enacts her desires through the intricate patterns and shadows of wayang kulit.

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About Azian Nurudin

Azian Nurudin is a USA-based artist born on Penang Island, Malaysia. Beginning with her time at the San Francisco Art Institute, she made films and videos in frequent collaboration with insurgent artists later termed the “brat pack”, exploring BDSM, politics and queer sexuality.