Irrational Exhibits 7

Press release

Purchase tickets online at: https://shop.track16.com/products/ir7

17 February, 2009—Track 16 Gallery is pleased to present the seventh edition of IRRATIONAL EXHIBITS, the experimental performance /installation show produced and curated by Deborah Oliver. This one-night-only performance extravaganza will occur on Saturday, March 7, 2009, at 8 PM. Advance ticket purchase is suggested. Purchase tickets online at archive.track16.com; admission is $12, $10 for students with identification.

The entire gallery space will be occupied by performances, installations, and video art in an immersive environment that will push the boundaries of non-static art. All pieces will be performed simultaneously and live during the course of a two-hour template. In this current political environment of hope, change, and determination, these pieces will bring into focus the process of actions that create change. The audience will become part of an ever-evolving world spending as much time as they wish with each of the eighteen works shown, or by moving freely through the gallery. This type of show is rare in Los Angeles–one night only, a carnival of consciousness, a revolution, a revelation.

Performance - Installations – Video Art by:

Brian Black & Ryan Bulis; Kent Anderson Butler; Gul Cagin; Mariel Carranza w/Svetlana Darsalia, Asher Hartman, Adam Overton, and Lindsey Walker; Nicole Hayashida; Joe Hernandez & Emilie McMahon; Alejandra Herrera; Steve Irvin; Marcus Kuiland-Nazario w/Leigh Ann Hahn; Dana Maiden & Lizabeth Eva Rossof; Jamie McMurry; Paul Oshima w/Jason Keller and Tony Banuelos; Seth Pringle; Shane Quentin & Natalie Jean Klibanow; Helia Rabie; Jules Rochielle Sievert; Steve Shoffner; HK Zamani.

Brian Black and Ryan Bulis: “Brian and Ryan Bicycle Ball Joust”

Brian Black and Ryan Bulis have been working collaboratively to explore their interests in the psychology of competition and sports. In their sport-based work, the two artists have reflected that the “staged artistry” of these performances often gives way to a genuine urge to win and compete. For this performance, the artists will merge the chivalry of the joust with the action of the contemporary sport basketball.

How do we deal with the wounds, stains, and sins of our self, our country, and our humanity? In this work, Kent will be covering a section of the gallery wall with adhesive bandages. The viewer is invited to reflect upon this important issue, and really think about how it affects them in a personal and universal manner.

Gul Cagin: “Panoptic Mouths, Hegemonic Cognition, and Lost Bodies”

The circulating stereotypes about the ‘the other’ is a site of mediation for Cagin. Her performance piece draws on various Western discourses and languages that creates distancing classifications about ‘the other.’ She focuses on indistinct boundaries between vision and perception by bringing forth the masquerades of stereotypes in her playful apparatuses and readings.

Mariel Carranza with Svetlana Darsalia, Asher Hartman, Adam Overton, Lindsey Walker: “Blank Space”

Carranza’s performances continuously present a challenge to physical and emotional deprivation while exploring mental processes. “Blank Space” involves the participation of four other artists in an experiment that explores how the exclusion of one of the senses influences artists’ sensibility in relationship to artistic process.

Hayashida's work is usually based in drawing and painting. She incorporated the use of paint and textured mediums into this video work. Played in reverse, the piece aims to call to question the authenticity of time, and reality. With a doll painted face, Hayashida wanted to portray the intake and spilling of knowledge and existence from an empty shell.

Joe Hernandez & Emilie McMahon: “Kiss You All Over”

This work examines interpersonal relationships and the sometimes outlandish promises and verbal enticements that people make to one another. This work brings to fruition the adage that we’ve all said or had said to us... “I’m going to kiss you all over.” This saying will become a reality in this performance, displaying the pleasing and perhaps uncomfortable results of keeping this familiar promise.

Herrera’s work explores gender roles through a filter of action and reaction. Over several hours, Herrera uses her body as a vessel to transport liquids that the human form relies upon, into another location and thus presents them in another state. The result is an installation that both questions the form and function of these materials, but also questions the body’s typical use of them.

This work falls within the scope of many of Irvin’s earlier performances that have dealt with struggle, confinement, liberation, and progress. Through a process of gesture and actions he sheds layers of shirts to confront self. He assumes this gesture from a scaffold, and the shed shirts animate the piece by falling.

Marcus Kuiland-Nazario with Leigh Ann Hahn: “High Performance (C)Art”

“High Performance (C)Art” is a mobile, interactive portal into the pages of High Performance Magazine. The mission is to reflect the multiplicity of visions and perspectives found in the pages of High Performance, to turn observers into participants, to educate audiences about performance art’s rich Los Angeles history, and to go directly to the streets providing the public at large with unique art experiences. A public feeding á la Barbara T. Smith in a re-invention of her famous sq