Published in City Magazine, April 2008.

“The rock goddess is the modern Goddess,” says visual artist Rob Roth, and he’s worked with enough to know – from Debbie Harry of Blondie to Theo Kogan of The Lunachicks/Theo & The Skyskrapers. Roth’s intricate performances almost always incorporate female or gender-bending heroines, live music and the limitless human possibility for transformation. In Screen Test, his ever-evolving rock show, an actress undergoes repeated cosmetic procedures by her director/plastic surgeon. Each new self is projected on her in high definition. For the 2006 Whitney Biennial, Roth created a 40-minute video morphing together found headshots of anonymous actors, accompanied by a live band.

Roth comes out of the mid-1990s downtown New York club scene that also spawned The Scissor Sisters and others. He co-produced the long-running cyber-fetish party Click + Drag. “It wasn’t about who you were, it was about what you did. The hooker down the street was more of a star than Naomi Campbell.”

Currently, Roth is directing Michael Cavadias in his show Claywoman, about a 500-million-year-old enigma “who can cure anyone of their deepest pain.” Ostensibly, the show is Claywoman’s first appearance on Earth in 30 years. In a post-modern Christopher Guest-ian twist, it involves a mockumentary entitled “The Mystery of Claywoman.” This video, also a Roth creation, features Alan Cumming and Amy Poehler (among others), discussing the existence, history and symbolism of Claywoman. Is she a superhero for a post-9/11 world, or a collective hallucination?

Look for Claywoman in New York City’s Deitch Gallery in June. Click + Drag may also make a one-time comeback, Roth hints, if the right space can be found this summer.