The toast-ess with the mostess: An interview with Toast Girl
Baguette Bardot poses in a Boulangerie kitchen with french boulanger (dancers) and her baguette baby for the video clip "Contact." Photo by Alain Sacrez.Wearing a toaster affixed to a construction helmet and a bright red wig, performance artist Toastie, as she calls herself, is Toast Girl -- literally making toast on her head. Other times she is "Tokyo Tower C Ko," an aging one-hit-wonder with an affinity for One Cup sake and scrubbing brushes. With these multiple personalities in tow, the unconventional artist has sung, danced and toasted stages both underground and on TV, in Tokyo and abroad.
Her latest incarnation is Baguette Bardot, a tragic blonde whose arms are loaves of French bread. Convinced that the French "would hate it," she took a trip to Paris last summer that resulted happily in the production of her first CD and DVD "The Best of Baguette Bardot," released this month. With a group show at Nanzuka Underground just behind her and a launch party to look forward to, we met up with Toastie, to find out what she really thinks of bread, performing and mountain dwelling ascetics.
Toastie feted her CD and DVD launch with an event, French Toast Deluxe, at Super Deluxe on April 10. The eccentric line-up included Baguette Bardot backed by the French Toast Orchestra, a human Eiffel Tower, burlesque dancers and baguette vendors.
CNNGo: You've created a number of characters over the years, each with elaborate stories, and now Baguette Bardot. What's her story?
Toastie: This woman has been living inside of me since about 2001, but she didn't come out until two years ago. At the beginning I was just playing, putting baguettes on my hands and dancing around, the name and the character came later.
