ROOMS
Todd Frugia & Marrakesh
TUE 06.04 @ 4-7:30PM
dfb gallery
“MEANING MACHINES”
www.roomsgallery.com
Performers: Sabrïna Baranda, Juan Pablo Beltran, Harish Jaysankar, Danieleel LaVoy, Enid Muñoz, Jackie Sestak & Lauren Sudbrink
RP13 photos by Arjuna Capulong
more on flickr
ROOMS (US) is the performance art/installation husband and wife team of Marrakesh and Todd Frugia. Both have extensive backgrounds in video production and live theatre, having each received an MFA in Theatre Performance from Ohio University. ??Since it’s creation, ROOMS has produced over 50 performance and video installations, including their first commissioned work performed in early 2012. ROOMS has shown work at the Indianapolis Fringe Festival, Collaborations Festival at the Bailiwick Theater (Chicago), Apollo Studio Theater (Chicago), Ohio University, Colorado College, Lamar University (Texas), Defibrillator Performance Art Gallery (Chicago), OUT OF SITE Festival (Chicago) as well as in their own studio as part of the Chicago Arts District in the Pilsen neighborhood.
“Meaning Machines”, is a performance installation with seven blindfolded performers. ROOMS continues their recent exploration into sensory deprivation by blindfolding the performers and feeding them separate audio triggers via headphones. The seven blindfolded performers are interspersed amongst one another and simultaneously perform unsynchronized activities combined with sounds cued by the audio in their headphones.
These audio cues will set off sounds, movements and conversations each performer has observed in their own daily life, in their native language. Each performer has the same set of concepts for each of their sounds and movements yet generated individually, creating their own identity within the installation.
All seven performers are placed within the installation marked by fabric on the floor. The viewer is invited to watch the installation as a whole or to come into the space and examine each performer closely. This installation was inspired by Blaise Pascal’s quote, “Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects. “
ARAHMAIANI (INDONESIA) | ANDREW BARCO (US) | ANNA BERNDTSON (SWEDEN/GERMANY) | WAFAA BILAL (IRAQ/US) | JEFFERY BYRD (US) | PATE CONAWAY (US) | JESS DOBKIN (CANADA) | ZACKARY DRUCKER (US) | ARIANNA FERRARI (ITALY) | FRANCESCA FINI (ITALY) | BEVERLY FRE$H (US) | ANNA FELICITY FRIEDMAN (US) | ARTI GRABOWSKI (POLAND) | FAUSTO GRACIA (MEXICO) | ALLISON HALTER (US/GERMANY) | SARA HOLWERDA (US) | ELANA KATZ (US/GERMANY) | ELENA KATSULIS & ERIN PEISERT (US) | JOSHUA KENT (US) | MEHDI-GEORGES LAHLOU (BELGIUM) | CARLOS SALAZAR LERMONT (VENEZUELA) | MILLER & SHELLABARGER (US) | ŞÜKRAN MORAL (TURKEY) | MOTHERGIRL (US) | BORIS NIESLONY (GERMANY) | WANDA RAIMUNDI-ORTIZ (US) | JEFFERSON PINDER (US) | EMILIO ROJAS (MEXICO/CANADA) | KAMBUI OLUJIMI (US) | ROOMS (US) | FERESHTEH TOOSI (US) | ALICE VOGLER (US) | DOLORES WILBER + SARAH WILBER (US) | JULIE WILLS (US) | ZIERLE & CARTER (UK)