2015
2012-2017
Durational Object Performance
Cardboard, paint, sticks, fog machine, topiary stage, PA system
Performed during the exhibition Bad Jokes
Silas Marder Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY.
Set Design By Tucker Marder
2012
In this playful and irreverent body of work, I was interested in creating objects and media that confront and disrupt semantic systems. I used puppetry to explore how discrete units—objects, signs, or words—can be rearranged, misinterpreted, or assigned new meaning. It is a systematic puppet show that began by inquiry into fragmentation, perception, and liveness.
Behind the topiary hedge wall is a collection of cardboard representations of water, poop, traffic cones, and many other objects or...things. Every few seconds one of these signs are held above the hedge wall accompanied by a booming voice announcing a new title for each sign. Sometimes, fog bursts out. The performance is improvised and durational, allowing for new words to be associated with different cardboard signs.
Sewage in the Aquifer
Durational Object Performance
Durational Object Performance
Performance commissioned for the Beaches and Bays Gala
Long Island Nature Conservancy, Bridgehampton, NY.
2013
Long Island Nature Conservancy, Bridgehampton, NY.
Topiary stage design by Tucker Marder
Documentation by Philip Lehans
2013
Like the “Things” performance, this is a durational, improvised puppet performance where an unseen puppeteer raises and lowers signs on sticks over the topiary wall. Each time a shape appears, they call out a name for the thing in a booming voice. Over the course of the evening, each sign is assigned a new name.
15 minutes
Puppet Performance
Commissioned by Marders, Bridgehampton, NY.
Made in collaboration with Tucker Marder and Nick Fusaro
With help from Christian Scheider
Documentation by Philip Lehans
2013
Made in collaboration with Tucker Marder and Nick Fusaro
With help from Christian Scheider
Documentation by Philip Lehans
2013
A mysterious toxic green sludge (a conceptual stand in for plastics and oil) has been infecting all the native creatures of Long Island, from the ocean to the sky. Three affected critters representing each strata (water, land, air) form an unlikely alliance to discover the source of the “Big Stink.” Finally, they confront the source: a big nasty “Beach Bum” and proceed to lecture him on his disgusting ways.
5 minutes
Object Theater Performance
Performed at the LaMama Puppet Slam
LaMama ETC. New York, NY.
Music composed by Zoe Aqua
Accordion by Hannah Temple
Puppetry by Nick Fusaro and Britt Moseley
2014
How To Make Something
15 minutes
Demonstration with Puppets
Performed at Greenwich House Pottery, New York, NY.
2015
15 minutes
Demonstration with Puppets
Performed at Greenwich House Pottery, New York, NY.
Performed with help from Tucker Marder, Christian Schieder, and Isla Hansen
Music created and performed by Sean Petell
Documentation by Kyna Damewood
Music created and performed by Sean Petell
Documentation by Kyna Damewood
2015
How To Make Something is a playful semi-improvised performance that explores objects as agents, improvisation as method, and process as conceptual vehicle.
In a ‘Bob Ross’ meets ‘Tool Time’ style tutorial, the expert (played by Britt Moseley) demonstrates how to make an ambiguous something. The audience is never told the definition of that thing, and he proceeds to speak with authority on the steps needed to achieve it’s creation. The process is a semi-improvised study in materiality, transformation, and semantic re-classification.
Along the way, puppets of clocks, flowers, viruses, and self-representations interrupt the tutorial to illustrate the mental process of artistic creation. Each puppet is an externalized representation of the expert’s ego, id, inspiration, and fantasies, and they playfully intercept and distract the process.
In a ‘Bob Ross’ meets ‘Tool Time’ style tutorial, the expert (played by Britt Moseley) demonstrates how to make an ambiguous something. The audience is never told the definition of that thing, and he proceeds to speak with authority on the steps needed to achieve it’s creation. The process is a semi-improvised study in materiality, transformation, and semantic re-classification.
Along the way, puppets of clocks, flowers, viruses, and self-representations interrupt the tutorial to illustrate the mental process of artistic creation. Each puppet is an externalized representation of the expert’s ego, id, inspiration, and fantasies, and they playfully intercept and distract the process.
Irreplaceable
5 minutes
Masked theater performance
Commissioned by Sinking Ship Productions
Triskelon Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY.
Score by Zoe Aqua
2017
5 minutes
Masked theater performance
Commissioned by Sinking Ship Productions
Triskelon Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY.
Score by Zoe Aqua
2017
During the performance, a masked supernatural character (played by Britt Moseley), with a rock-head and a vine body, carries onstage a box of human trash. It then proceeds to speak-sing the Beyonce tune Irreplaceable while he analyses and discards the objects, spreading them throughout the theater. It is as if the embodiment of the non-human world has finally said “ENOUGH!” A live violin score was performed and composed by Zoe Aqua.
Med-USA One
10 minutes
Commissioned and performed for the UCLA Game Arts Festival
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA.
10 minutes
Commissioned and performed for the UCLA Game Arts Festival
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA.
2017
The Med-USA One was a solo performance commissioned for the UCLA Game Arts Festival 2017 at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, CA. I performed the role of an aspiring tech entrepreneur, publicly launching a new video game console called the Med-USA One. The actual product is a video game system that holds a sandwich instead of running software, and is “played” by the founder putting on a hand puppet show for the user. It extends my investigations into absurdist materiality, improvisation, and puppetry, while questioning the “advancement” of technology as a race to the bottom.