There's an opening/performance by Shana Moulton on Monday, January 21.
Get excited people. She's great.
The opening is 6-8pm and the performance is at 7:30pm. It's at 1182 Broadway, Suite 1602 (which is between 28th and 29th) - take R to 28th st.
A video of hers can be found at http://youtube.com/watch?v
more info:
SHANA MOULTON
SAND SAGA
OPENING RECEPTION MONDAY JANUARY 21, 6 – 8 PM
LIVE PERFORMANCE 7.30 PM
EXHIBITION JANUARY 21 - FEBRUARY 16 2008
New York based Video and Performance artist SHANA MOULTON invented a genuine
feminist aesthetic after postmodernism: the creative language of hopeless but touching
dysfunctionality, characterized by elegiacally desperate urgencies and escapist worlds of
petty pop refuge, driven by a radically mediated esprit of liberation.
In a continuing series of films SHANA MOULTON creates her notorious alter ego 'Cynthia', a
highly discouraged woman, in a red wig, (reminiscent of Cindy Sherman's mildly disturbing
impersonations), who fails to face the conditions and challenges of a contemporary
everyday life. Tortured by the tristesse of her social isolation and personal idiosyncrasies,
she develops a bizarre agency, leading her to find temporary release in a parallel universe
of companionship, inhibited by artistic idols (such as Piet Mondrian and Georgia O'Keeffe)
and pop cultural creatures.
The 'neon' color temperature and studio realism of amateurish interiors in MOULTON's
films recall the early video art aesthetics of the late 70s/early 80s. She works consciously in
regard to influences such as Maya Deren, Michael Smith and Eleanor Antin.
In her performances SHANA MOULTON acts as an integral part of the video projection. In a
recent live performance at Gimpel Fils (London) and Electronic Arts Intermix (NY) the artist
came out to the audience in white overalls on which the projection reflected. She became
part of the video and started to dance with the creatures of her own filmic imagination.
Born in California in 1976, SHANA MOULTON studied at Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon in
Pittsburgh and attended the "De Ateliers" program in Amsterdam.. She had recent solo
shows at Gimpel Fils (London 2007) and Bellwether (NY 2007). Her films were screened at
various international festivals and she held live performances at The Andy Warhol Museum
(2004), at Electronic Arts Intermix (NY 2007) and in many international venues.
5 comments:
hmm... seeing as how we've spoken about her work a bunch back in the summer - what does everyone think about us meeting there and watching the performance and then going to a nearby diner or something afterward to discuss it and many other very important matters? (whoa hello run-on sentence.)
i say yes! to performance then talk. Brian
Shana Moulton was awesome and inspiring. I think I speak for Matt and I when I say "wow".
The performance was interesting/good.
Some people at the performance were saying it was "amazing" or whatever, but I don't know about that. It's very subjective I suppose. Saying things are amazing clearly devalues the meaning of that word. What she did was clear and understandable. Parts of it were surprising (her turning into a flower at the end; a flower coming out of the sand filled cardboard box). Parts of it went too long (the end dance became repetitious and maybe ended just in time).
It is certain that initial responses are always exaggerated versions of the sunken in variety.
All in all the performance was not to be missed and she's an artist worth looking at for sure.
Something that occurred to me while at the show: Jules de Balencourt was there and he hugged her upon the conclusion of the performance (not as part of it but as recognition of it, they're clearly friends or simply friendly). So his work seems to have something to do with hers and vice versa and it's hard for me to completely know what that is. Is it the hokey/outsider-art nature of the work? The knowing but not knowing thing? I'm not sure.
The performance offered lots to think about and ultimately work can do two positive things for the viewer: 1. give us lots to think about, or 2. make us feel.
Rambled a bit at the end there. What do you all think about any of this? Maybe some more links to her work are necessary?
The performance that I saw at Electronic Arts Intermix was much better than this performance. This performance seemed like a slow build up to a double punchline and the end. The previous performance had several parts that were interrelated. It was more complicated and not as easy to describe in one sentence (like Matt just did). Maybe that kid who was standing RIGHT IN FRONT of me who was video taping the performance, will put it on youtube.
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