A showcase for short, in-progress, just beginning or just finished performance works.
WORKHORSE returns for a third installment of innovative, in-progress performance works. Curated by Colleen Harriss and presented by The Soap Factory, Workhorse offers artists the chance to share work at an early stage and gain useful feedback from their peers in an informal setting.
This May's participating artists share a common fascination with the question of what it means to perform -- standing in the spotlight, commanding a crowd, feeling out a moment of truth, basking in the complex glories of performative pressure. Demonstrating a wide range of approaches all verging on the absurd, this May's installment will feature hand-on-hemline combat, a multi-media motivational speech, and wandering musings on Lil' Wayne and Bas Jan Ader.
Participating artists:
Nathaniel Freeman will present Basic, a performance-based piece that incorporates video and sound to explore the fractured character of a motivational speaker / coach who is at once humorous, pathetic and inspiring. As his character shares with the audience his philosophy on matters physical, emotional, and otherwise, Freeman will explore through his performance the complicated mix of emotions audiences feel towards a man at odds with a host of unattainable and illogical quests.
Melissa Birch will present Here Came the Bride, a blowout movement melodrama about love, friendship, and bridesmaid gowns. When a Maid of Honor insists on wearing a used and yellowing wedding dress instead of a bridesmaids dress, the other bridesmaids agree and also want used wedding dresses for themselves. As the Bride slowly crumbles, Birch and her five-member cast will explore the complexities of emotional hardship using a wide-range of movement and musical vocabularies ranging from tai-chi to tango.
Patrick Gantert will build upon an established performative dialogue as he presents a fast-paced dialogue mediated by alcohol, caffeine, and the changing attitudes of audience members. Lasting for an indeterminate amount of time, the work will blend and blur a large range of topics spanning from art history to popular culture to regional and collective histories, synthesizing the personal within a frenetic wash of cultural runoff.
Watch the latest episode of Soap Factory Gallery 4, our monthly video show:
Soap Factory May 2010 from Soap Factory on Vimeo.