The Audience Inside: a reflection upon Joshua Kent’s The Hand Inside You
We gather expectantly sometime before 7pm just outside the Defibrillator Performance Art Gallery the evening of June 8th, 2013 for Joshua Kent’s, The Hand Inside You. We are waiting for that rare moment when we will be in the space with a performance piece. We came to be captivated by the human body moving, doing […]
In the Defibrillator Gallery, With a Dresser and a Thread
The title With a Dresser and a Thread implies a certain ease of performance, a symbiotic mode of action that works with objects rather than against them. In the work by Chicago-based artists Elena Katsulis and Erin Peisert, domestic objects like the dresser and thread (really, a rope) become hurdles—weapons, almost—to overcome together. Performing in […]
Arti Grabowski
A shiny black leaf blower sits on the floor of Defibrillator Gallery, awaiting activation. 3 moveable white walls have been placed behind the leaf blower. The artist enters the space, wearing black pants and a white buttoned up shirt. This black and white motif is a foreshadowing of the shades of grey that Polish artist, Arti […]
Francesca Fini’s Fair & Lost”
“When you wave the flag of your country you feel like you are really a part of something,” Francesca Fini explains as she attaches the pads of Electric Muscle Stimulation (EMS) machine to her biceps before picking up a small Italian flag. The machine causes her arm to twitch in a mechanized, agitated staccato. The […]
Julie Wills “The Hunt”
Among the many charges leveled at Marie Antoinette at the cusp of the French Revolution was that she callously parodied the hardships of peasant life. The queen did indeed use state funds to erect a mock peasant village, complete with a fully operational farm, on Versailles property. Marie Antoinette’s most bitter critics spread rumors that […]
Fereshtesh Toosi’s “Shoebox Lunch”
Fereshteh Toosi shows us a lot by making us blind. In “Shoebox Lunch,” a performance on Sunday, July 9th at The Hub, the conventionally visual medium of performance art is expounded into a multi-sensory, multi-voiced exploration of history using food and oral storytelling. The interactive performance takes place in total darkness. Participants wear blindfolds while […]
Emilio Rojas “Aesthetic Wounds, Heridas Esteticas”
The body is an archive of experience. The skin holds scars and muscles remember movement. Performance artists have been exploring the potential of the body as material for decades. Naturally, acts of body modification and rituals around tattooing have developed extensive histories through body-based performance art. Tattooing was addressed early on at Rapid Pulse during […]
Arahmaiani “Violence No More”
Violence No More — The semi-‐transparent paper on the windows of the Defibrillator allows for natural light to stream into an otherwise dark gallery. A circle of unlit candles consumes a majority of the gallery floor. People walk in from the street and then sit down to form a neat outer-‐circle around the makeshift barrier. […]
Zierle & Carter Installation
“If you don’t resist and you don’t fear, you will always come back up to the surface again” – written in red lipstick on her window Two window installations 2 long stemmed white Candles 2 Wood chairs Burnt toast covering the female head and the male head Each in their own space He knocked on […]