On October 2nd, 35 Appointments were filled by audience members at the Prelude Festival in New York City. Performances were created by Brent Green, Daniel Alexander Jones, Sibyl Kempson and Aaron Landsman.
One of our favorite things about these pieces was that, by performing them in a working set of offices, we blurred the lines between art experience and work experience, audience member and performer, and office worker and creator.
Or maybe those lines are always being blurred – we just tried to put a spotlight on it. Because whenever two people are alone in an office, there is always something being performed.
In Aaron Landsman’s piece, audience members were asked at the end, via an audio recording, whether they’d be willing to read the piece to the next viewer, or whether they’d rather Aaron perform the piece himself. Almost no one turned down the opportunity to read. This led to some unexpected and sublime meditations: what happens when two curators read to each other about one taking the other’s job? How do you enable a viewer to capture the subtext of a piece without ever having seen it?
Here’s a link to what Aaron’s invitation to perform sounded like:
Appointment – Aaron Landsman\'s request
Here’s a photo of the ever-intrepid Morgan Jenness reading to the also-intrepid David Townsend.
And here is the amazing Stacey Robinson performing “Blondell Is Businessfied” by Daniel Alexander Jones. In which the unsuspecting viewer is given footwear advice, etiquette instructions, and a taste of Dean Lattislaw and her welcome gift.
Please stay tuned for more upcoming Appointments. We are planning to remount these works sometime soon.
APPOINTMENT 