PERFORMANCES | PERFORMANCE INSTALLATIONS
Friday Nov. 12, 8:00pm
Saturday Nov. 13, 8:00pm
(All performances at Abrons Arts Center)
A new solo performance that explores our human compulsion to tempt fate and reach beyond our physical limits. Writer/performer & filmmaker Samuael Topiary takes us on a journey from 16th century Antwerp through 20th century New York City to explore the symbolic and poetic resonances of the Greek myth of Icarus. Bessie Award-winning choreographer Miguel Gutierrez directs. [see full description here]
16mm film projections juxtapose images of worship, ritual and religious symbols against those of queer spaces, protest and parades. These films, meant to question the notion of God and address the need for belief, are distorted with prisms, mirrors and lenses in a 30-minute improvised performance.
A human body methodically covered in icing starts to revolt against its decorator, creating a gradually intensifying food fight contained within a clear plastic enclosure, allowing the audience to observe without being covered. Following, two hyper-feminized women battle to out-decorate a large cake between them, ignoring its slow destruction as they frantically fight for victory. This performance examines the body as both consumable and consumed.
Friday Nov. 12, 11:00pm.
Live-action-walking advertisement fashion show Future Tools for the transmodern female on the go: a production line of mutated, violated technology-turned organisms by PJ Linden. Director/Editor Sarah Stuve captures her life with artist-muse PJ Linden in momentary desires, "sex scenes," fantasy fight sequences, promotional parties of the Brooklyn scene ramblings of the non-linear mind, meditative breakfast ceremonies and art-ambushes on the gallery system.
An array of industrial-themed found objects and various projector screens surround performers, who sit at various stations and follow a strict schedule, switching genders and labor actions in timed incre- ments of "work" and "play." Thread is fed in loops by a female character and received by a male character, who then strings it through an old, broken typewriter. As the concepts of two traditionally "gendered" objects (sewing machine and typewriter) merge, they create an intersexual object that lacks function but is nonetheless abused and manipulated relentlessly by its users.
Friday Nov. 12 at 7:30pm
Saturday Nov. 13 at 7:30pm
In this study of femininity and the performativity of animation, the artist is transformed into a living sculpture.
Seated on a chair, she is hooded and her face replaced with that of an animated doll lip-synching to samples of dialogue from Sunset Boulevard. A live video feed of the performance is projected onto a back wall and the artist interacts with the camera, her gestures becoming increasingly hysterical.
The artist serves at once as the animator and animated; creator and projection screen; self and other.
The queer fruit tree, adorned with figural sculptures and spray painted memento mori, serves as the centerpiece to ritual-based performances throughout the festival. As Radical Faerie drummers create music around the tree, images of the queer past are projected onto performers, creating an interrogation of the relationship between that past and queer future. In times of respite between performances, the audience is invited to create notes to attach to the tree, adding individual intentions to this place of community storytelling.
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
Samuael Topiary
Thursday Nov. 11, 8:00pmFriday Nov. 12, 8:00pm
Saturday Nov. 13, 8:00pm
(All performances at Abrons Arts Center)
A new solo performance that explores our human compulsion to tempt fate and reach beyond our physical limits. Writer/performer & filmmaker Samuael Topiary takes us on a journey from 16th century Antwerp through 20th century New York City to explore the symbolic and poetic resonances of the Greek myth of Icarus. Bessie Award-winning choreographer Miguel Gutierrez directs. [see full description here]
Believe It Or Not
E. Hearte
Friday Nov. 12, 8:30pm16mm film projections juxtapose images of worship, ritual and religious symbols against those of queer spaces, protest and parades. These films, meant to question the notion of God and address the need for belief, are distorted with prisms, mirrors and lenses in a 30-minute improvised performance.
Hold Still My Sweet
Roving Party Machine
Saturday Nov. 13, 9:30pmA human body methodically covered in icing starts to revolt against its decorator, creating a gradually intensifying food fight contained within a clear plastic enclosure, allowing the audience to observe without being covered. Following, two hyper-feminized women battle to out-decorate a large cake between them, ignoring its slow destruction as they frantically fight for victory. This performance examines the body as both consumable and consumed.
Future Tools
Wonderpuss Octopus
Included in the show Starving Hysterical Naked.Friday Nov. 12, 11:00pm.
Live-action-walking advertisement fashion show Future Tools for the transmodern female on the go: a production line of mutated, violated technology-turned organisms by PJ Linden. Director/Editor Sarah Stuve captures her life with artist-muse PJ Linden in momentary desires, "sex scenes," fantasy fight sequences, promotional parties of the Brooklyn scene ramblings of the non-linear mind, meditative breakfast ceremonies and art-ambushes on the gallery system.
Experiments in the Revival of Organisms
Daniel Pillis
On View continuously, with performances Friday Nov. 9 at 7:15pm & Saturday Nov. 13 at 7:15pmAn array of industrial-themed found objects and various projector screens surround performers, who sit at various stations and follow a strict schedule, switching genders and labor actions in timed incre- ments of "work" and "play." Thread is fed in loops by a female character and received by a male character, who then strings it through an old, broken typewriter. As the concepts of two traditionally "gendered" objects (sewing machine and typewriter) merge, they create an intersexual object that lacks function but is nonetheless abused and manipulated relentlessly by its users.
Out There in the Dark
Birgitta Hosea
Thursday Nov. 11 at 7:30pmFriday Nov. 12 at 7:30pm
Saturday Nov. 13 at 7:30pm
In this study of femininity and the performativity of animation, the artist is transformed into a living sculpture.
Seated on a chair, she is hooded and her face replaced with that of an animated doll lip-synching to samples of dialogue from Sunset Boulevard. A live video feed of the performance is projected onto a back wall and the artist interacts with the camera, her gestures becoming increasingly hysterical.
The artist serves at once as the animator and animated; creator and projection screen; self and other.
Under the Queer Fruit Tree
Blaise Garber
On View Continuously. Ritual on Sunday Nov. 14 at 7:30pmThe queer fruit tree, adorned with figural sculptures and spray painted memento mori, serves as the centerpiece to ritual-based performances throughout the festival. As Radical Faerie drummers create music around the tree, images of the queer past are projected onto performers, creating an interrogation of the relationship between that past and queer future. In times of respite between performances, the audience is invited to create notes to attach to the tree, adding individual intentions to this place of community storytelling.