PERFORMANCE ART | It looks like torture? Great! Take part in the agony at HERE

NEW YORK CITY |  On Monday, March 4 at HERE Art Center (145 Sixth Avenue, NYC), a series of performance art presentations, under the banner title of “Looks Like Torture,” diagnoses the levels of pain and torture that people inflict upon one another.

Co-curated by Nicholas Cohn Art Projects and Amy Kisch of AKArt, the exhibit brings together performance-art happenings, video, photography and site-specific installations by an internationally renowned selection of artists. There will be a reception from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. with the performance by Jaeeun Lee beginning at 8:30pm.

“Jaeeun Lee’s performance, in collaboration with musician Che Chen, arouses uneasiness in viewers, presenting conflicting and coexisting notions of oppression and entertainment,” says a prepared statement. “Chastity devices, double as musical instruments, and bind the performers, dissecting societal norms and redefining what is ‘appropriate’ engagement.”

Jaeeun Lee, Assorted Nils, Performance piece presented at RH Gallery, 2012

Jaeeun Lee, Assorted Nils, Performance piece presented at RH Gallery, 2012

On view at HERE from Thursday, February 21 through Saturday March 30, 2013, the exhibition highlights issues of discrimination, authoritative abuse, bullying and insecurity. “The works respond to ongoing ethnic conflicts, discrimination, animal cruelty and environmental neglect,” says a prepared statement. 

Here are some of what’s on display:

In “Pretender,” Joshua Seidner draws from themes of Orientalism and ritual, offering audience members a foot cleaning and massage. This occasionally awkward interaction raises questions of socio-economic status, gender and power in western culture.

Joshua Seidner, "Pretender," presented at HERE, 2013

Joshua Seidner, “Pretender,” presented at HERE, 2013

In “Shooting Party,” Mitch Miller also explores issues of space and control, inviting participants to shoot at a target that begins to crumble, and ultimately becomes a sculptural installation. The performance is suggestive of our relationship with the natural world, and how our neglect has resulted in destructive environmental change.

“Suspended” is a single channel video by Iranian-born Bahar Behbahani. It portrays a woman bound and hung. The film questions the loss of individual power in a politically and morally restrictive Middle Eastern environment as well as the psychological confinement of a media-saturated Western culture.

Sean Fader’s still photography and video document a very personal search for companionship and fulfillment. Apparently uninhibited by social constructs, Fader and his partners explore their-and our-sexualities in the world of online dating. His photographic series SUP, captures online communications with his dates-both prior to and following their intimate encounters-with images of partners conjured from their virtual correspondence juxtaposed with the realities he learns them to be. The images culminate with OPA, a video of his emotional, physical and psychological release of-and ‘torture’ by-these dualities.

Jamie Knowles’ sculptural wall installation and performance piece accouterment, “Wind Chimes,” similarly addresses how we manipulate and orchestrate identity in a synchronized performance. Unifying imagery from burlesque, the cat walk, sexual subversion-and to a lesser extent, drag-the objects made from metal Chinese therapy balls reinterpret an archaic instrument of imprisonment, the ball and chain, as fashion accessory.

Also vexed by the play between sexual identification as well as gender-particularlly transgender-negotiation, Aiden Simon’s large-scale photography frames the performative nature of personhood while exploring subjugation and power between subject/object and viewer.

Aiden Simon, "Second Skins," 2011, 69 x 46 inches, Inkjet print, Edition of 3

Aiden Simon, “Second Skins,” 2011, 69 x 46 inches, Inkjet print, Edition of 3

Negar Behbahani explores this on a macrocosmic level, depicting the individual’s response to, and envelopment in, the cogs of the status quo. In “Agony; Never Ending,” a series of women are captured in an endless rotation of wheels set upon a predetermined pathway. Loud and unintelligible commands of culture call their-and our-’choice’ into question.

Taus Makhacheva similarly presents this gap between the collective and the personal. Her double-channel video “Let Me Be Part of a Narrative” uses graphic imagery of dog-fighting placed alongside archival footage of wrestling champion Ali Aliev, in an attempt to explore the stereotypes of the region as presented by the media, versus the actual lived experience. At the same time, the work poses important questions about representations of masculinity, as well as the individual and political nature of competition and its circumstances.

Taus Makhacheva, "Let me be part of a narrative," still from three channel video installation, 2012

Taus Makhacheva, “Let me be part of a narrative,” still from three channel video installation, 2012

Delving further into elements of dominance, power, animal cruelty and violent human behavior seen in Makhacheva’s film, Marielis Seyler invites viewers to decide what their role in this narrative will be. Placing large-format images of the slaughtered, the feeble and the vulnerable on the ground, her installation measures our response to an invitation to trample, degrade, ignore or protect the subjects-a disturbing metaphor of our treatment of living things, the natural world and each other.

Programming Schedule:
Monday, March 4 @ 8:30pm, Jaeeun Lee
Monday, March 11 @ 8:30pm, Mitch Miller

Exhibition On view: February 21 - March 30, 2023
Public Hours: Tuesday - Friday 2-7pm

Directions:
HERE, 145 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 10013
(Enter on Dominick Street one block south of Spring)

Additional Information available at: http://www.ncartprojects.com/upcoming-events or www.here.org

  • Young Freelance Filmmaker Says Shen Yun ‘Touched my heart’ (theepochtimes.com)
  • Deputy General Counsel Lincoln Center for the Performing Rights (nysbar.com)
  • World Sword Swallower’s Day 2013 Spotlights Science Of Ancient Performance Art (VIDEO) (jtm71.wordpress.com)
  • ‘The eternal perspective’ of Shen Yun Fascinates Mesa Audience Member (theepochtimes.com)
  • The very beginning (myfirstyearconfessions.wordpress.com)
  • Somerville Native Brings the Best of Broadway to The Hanover Theatre on February 22 in Broadway Boys (prweb.com)

 

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2 thoughts on “PERFORMANCE ART | It looks like torture? Great! Take part in the agony at HERE

  1. Thanks for the nice writeup! Hope you enjoyed this past Monday’s performance. Join Nicholas Cohn Art Projects + AKArt for the final reception + performance by Mitch Miller, this Monday, March 11 @ 8pm at HERE at 145 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY, 10013 [Enter on Dominick St.]!

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