PHOTOS - CLICK ON THUMBNAILS TO SEE THE GALLERY
PERFORMANCE SPACE NEW YORK PerformanceSpaceNewYork.org
OCTOPUS: art workers are artists too Organized by Sarai Frazier
Host: Champagne Jerry Artists: Sarai Frazier, Andy Sowers, Žilvinas Jonušas, ESSA.A (Electric Sewage Systems and Analysis), Naomi Harrison-Clay and Tal Mor, Noodt, Matthew Deinhart + Sara Vandenheuvel, Ansel Combs, Jimmy Kavetas and Friends, Emily LaRochelle + Sarazina Joy Stein, Sophia Alaniz, Andrew Fox, Robin A. Ediger-Seto, AMARII, MF BUTCH, CULEBRA, Georgina Kritikos, Sophia Alaniz, Alex Vasquez-Dheming, Evangeline Dillard, and Yisel G.
While artists toil to bring their work to life, there are many unsung heroes that often labor behind the scenes, weaving the intricate threads that bring an artist's vision to the public. "Art Workers are Artists Too" celebrates and shines a spotlight on the inherent artistry embedded within the daily lives of arts workers, inspiring a shift in perspective to foster a greater understanding and recognition of their skills and creativity. Our crew members, hailing from diverse production backgrounds in theatre, dance, and music, bring a unique set of skills honed from their own artistic practices to support the work of their fellow artists. Grounded in an ethos of support, this creative exchange forms the foundation for a vibrant collaborative environment. All of the proceeds raised from this event will support our Derek Lloyd Production Fellowship.
About the Derek Lloyd Production Fellowship The Derek Lloyd Production Fellowship, named in memory and honor Derek Lloyd, advances the careers of ernerging technical artists in the performing arts with the spirit, ethos and art-focused approach that Derek brought to his 14-year tenure as Performance Space's Director of Production. The Derek Lloyd Fellow at Performance Space New York is an integral part of our small, dynamic production team. The fellowship is a full-time, paid position that spans one year and provides the recipient with hands-on learning and professional development. It is our goal to futther build the Derek LIoyd Fellowship in order to give more young adults from all around the City the opportunity to enter and flourish in this exciting professional field In recruiting for this position, Performance Space acknowledges our different individual privileges and aims to break down the barriers that prevent young adults from joining the industry - barriers heightened by the prevalence of unpaid internships connected to institutions of higher learning. By offering a non-academic, paid fellowship, we reach a much wider pool of applicants. Our fellowship can be a practical next step to full-time employment in the technical arts. Special thanks to Maty Rose Lloyd, The Steinberg Family, Chad Bolton, and Fred Lloyd.
Works on View:
Zines by Yisel G.
Evangeline Dillard BedHeaded Acrylic on canvas, 20"x16" Evangeline Dillard With In & With Out Acrylic on canvas, 20"x16" Evangeline Dillard Do Something Acrylic and embroidery thread on canvas, 8"x8" Evangeline Dillard Pure Ultraviolene Acrylic and embroidery thread on canvas, 8"x8" Evangeline Dillard Lackluster Acrylic and embroidery thread on canvas, 8"x8"
Sophia Alaniz I (heart) NY Inkjet Print, 8"x10" Sophia Alaniz Make me cum again Inkjet Print, 8"x10" Sophia Alaniz Hot strangers on a tramn Inkjet Print, 8"x10"
Žilvinas Jonušas The Snake, the Ram, and the Peasant Girl Acrylics on canvas, 36"x48" 2021 Žilvinas Jonušas Lollipop Acrylics on canvas, 36"x48" 2024 Žilvinas Jonušas The Shield of Sadness Acrylics on canvas, 24"x30" 2020 Žilvinas Jonušas The Boy Who Held the Rain in His Eyes Acrylics on canvas, 24"x30" 2018 Žilvinas Jonušas Tell Me Your Monsters Acrylics on canvas, 16"x20" 2024
Georgina Kritikos Gustav Oil on Canvas, 36"x48" Georgina Kritikos Eliza Oil on Mirror, 24"x24" Georgina Kritikos Deb Oil on Plexiglass, 24"x24" Georgina Kritikos Steven Oil on Mirror, 24"x19.5" Georgina Kritikos Charlie Mixed media, Variable Dimensions
Alexandra Vasquez Dheming Fertile Grond (Or: Pennies for your Thoughts) Styrofoam, Turf, Blood, Variable Dimensions
A Tribute to Derek Lloyd by the Production Crew!
Performance Schedule:
DJ set by Culebra 7pm Žilvinas Jonušas 7:45pm ESS.A Rhythmic Flush 8-8:15pm Naomi Harrison-Clay and Tal Mor At Our House 8:20pm Noodt 8:27pm Matthew Deinhart + Sara Vandenheuvel Untroubling 8:35pm INTERMISSION 8:45pm Jimmy Kavetas and Friends What's this one do 9pm Ansel Combs, Sitting Stoops 9:15pm Emily LaRochelle + Sarazina Joy Stein Andy Now This (Music by: Kevin Diesel, Felix Da Housecat, and CJ Burnett) 9:25pm Andrew Fox With No Music 9:35pm DJ Set by MF BUTCH 9:50pm DJ set by AMARII 10:15pm
Production Credits:
Mars Doutey, Production Manager Robin Ediger-Seto, Video Designer Sarai Frazier, Lighting Designer Georgina Kritkos, Stagehand Joe Pegorsch, Stagehand Laura Searles - Mohale, Audio Engineer Reason Wade, Stage Manager
Thank Yous: Immense thank you to the staff and production crew!
Bios:
Sophia Alaniz is a New York City based photographer and artist from Texas. Theatre and photography have pumped through Sophia's veins since high school. Recently, out of desperation and genuine curiosity, she has started working in the film industry as a production designer. This is Sophia's first showing of her 35 millimeter photography in New York City. She could not think of a better place than Performance Space New York to have her first showcase. Her film photography is largely inspired by the eccentric people of the streets of New York. Finding whimsy and class in the raunchiest of places.
AMARII is a Brooklyn-based DJ and producer who curates a dance floor that centers space for kindred souls to share connections of joy through movement. AMARII's selections are deeply rooted in their Chicago upbringing notably around the house, juke, and foot work subcul tures as well as the multitude of Transatlantic club music genres.
MF BUTCH is a DJ and producer who seeks to redefine butchness as a source of vulnerability through subversion. Their work explores bass and breaks as a way to sonically interrogate and communicate this dissonance as a form of power by exploring sample-heavy genres with resistant histories including jungle, dubstep, footwork, club, and more. They also co-founded the creative collective planetqueer, who support and plarform ererging Queer DJs. planetqueer hosts regular open decks, skillshares, and club nights at venues including Elsewhere, Nowadays, Mood Ring, and Jupiter Disco.
Ansel Combs is an animator, filmmaker, and all-around builder known for his humorous and grotesque style of art. Inspired by shows like The Simpsons, Spongebob, and Courage the Cowardly Dog. Ansel is passionate about telling stories through the unique medium of film animation. While Ansel is not building film sets or making cattoons in New York, he spends the rest of his time building a sell-sufficient home and greenhouse outside of Las Vegas.
CULEBRA is a Honduran sound artist whose practice is heavily intluenced by sonic archival work. Their DJ sets experiment with archived audio and every day recordings, mixing it with genres like punta, perreo and club music ecreating unique soundscapes. CULEBRA draws inspiration from non-linear music, as well as sounds of growing up in a Central American household in Los Angeles.
Evangeline Dillard (they/them) is an artist currently based in Brooklyn. While earning their degree in Production and Design, they took a painting class on a whim and fell in love with it. They have pursued their passion in their free time, seeing projects in their head and finding joy in sculpting them on canvas. They love playing with mixed media and have found embroidery to be another great outlet. This group of paintings presented at Performance Space is their first fully developed collection. They are excited to continue creating and sharing their work in the future.
Robin Abraham Ediger-Seto is a New York based video and lighting designer. His background in dance, and his upbringing in Northern India and New Mexico heavily influences his highly collaborative work. Robin has designed at PSNY, The Huntington, The Atlantic, Mabou Mines, National Sawdust, MoSex, The Whitney, etc. and he has collaborated with artists including Ali Cherri, Julie Tolentino, Raven Chacon, Colin Self, Ron Athey, rafa esparza, and Sister Sylvester. Additionally, Robin founded MERDE, an underground performance series in Brooklyn and Queens.
Emily LaRochelle and Sarazina Joy Stein are NYC-based dancers who met at Bates Dance Festival summer of 2017 and have been collaborating ever since. They've performed their work at Triskelion Arts, Theater for the New City, PSNY, Wild Project, TADA, New Dance Alliance, HONK! Open Streets, and in various community gardens. They also created a site specific piece on Heinrich Spillmann's sculpture at the Brooklyn Public Library. The two have performed with Mindy Toro and Kathleen Clark and recently curated and performed an evening of dance and music at Spoke the Hub with them. They're in the Brazilian samba reggae-style drumline, Fogo Azul. They both work as freelance theater technicians and are thankful to be part of the Performance Space community.
ESSA.A is a sonic project birthed in the alleys of new york city by captain tunney providing distorted drones on guitar/pedal work, and mourra on synthesizers: and drum machines - the project arthythmic by nature defaults to the constant flow of data and information experienced uninterruptedly while navigating the metropolis.
Andrew Fox is a songwriter, producer and composer from New York City. With No Music is grounded in his interests in the "poetics of sound", at the intersection between poetry, sound and performance art. It is his first such piece presented to a live audience. After 15+ years of working as musician and songwriter (under the moniker VISUALS among other entities), Fox began exploring the world of multichannel composition and sound. In that vein, he has collaborated with both visual artists (Athena LaTocha, Oscar Zabala) and sound artists (Maria Chavez) alike to create work in gallery and museum spaces. As a mix engineer, he has engineered the Dolby Atmos mixes for Alanis Morrisette's The Storm Before The Calm, DJ Python & Ela Minus' Corazon EP and the The Range Potential, among others. He was the in-house composer, sound designer and producer for The Museum of Future Experiences, a 16 seat VR and immersive audio theater. Through these diverse engagements, Fox has developed a language of spatial sonics all his own. He is currently working on an album-length work of spatial music in collaboration with Bryce Hackford and Annie Garlid, to be premiered later this year.
Sarai Frazier is a NYC-based, Bessie nominated lighting designer, production/stage manager working in performance art, theater and film. Sarai is interested in lighting design as its own medium to view, engage, interact with as it aids in storytelling. She is the curator of this event, as well as the Associate Production Manager at this organization and is excited to share her view on art workers as artists too. She is deeply passionate about changing the industry to make it more accessible and break down the barriers of the production world.
Yisel G. is an artist and cheerleader working within the realms of performance and zines. She is an educator at the Barnard College Design Center and a theater technician. She also runs @zineofthermonthclub, a collective that has been making zines and mailing them to each other monthly since 2016. Inspired by the wish to create the conditions for joy and to assist her community with their dance with life, her zines and interactive performance art serve as reminders to embody sweet curiosity and to reconnect with their infinite potential.
Žilvinas Jonušas wears many hats while creating entertainment for others, but he started his journey as an actor and nightlife performer. After completing his B.F.A. in Theater and Philology from Vilnius University in Lithuania he worked in several thecater companies there. With his movement teacher and theater director Jurij Popov and dancer/choreographer Anara Baildildinova, Žilvinas brought to lite Pop-Of Show Theater which gave start to theatricalized night club performances in the young independent country. During this evening's performance Žilvinas is reviving two of his most permanent characters he created back in Lithuania. The state of the world today updated these characters. Žilvinas also holds M.A. in Media Arts and M.F.A. in New Media Art and Performance from LIU Brooklyn.
Jimmy Kavetas is a purveyor of sounds all over New York City, his work spans every aspect of audio. Whether he's behind the board or on the stage, his drive to push boundaries and expose audiences to new things is always present.
Georgina Kritikos is a glorified hoarder. Recycling materials from shows at Performance Space (and of the street, other theaters, etc.) she makes *art* through a vhirlwind of climate anxiety, hyper sensitivity, romanticisation of garbage, and oil paint-on almost any surface beside the traditional canvas. Art is feeling and so are the materials that make it. To her, art is less for the self (although it can be) and more for the means of community. Community and art are two of the few things that are important; she loves Performance Space because they're the only institution she's found that holds this truth at the core. Georgina was asked to share her "practice." Her "practice" is the intersection of people, creativity, and sensitivity.
Matthew Deinhart is a New York based visual artist and multidisciplinary designer. His primary focus is to experiment with how an artist can engage with the audience. Seeing technology as a connection point and a road block, he breaks open this juxtaposition to create work that explores the human condition in a tech driven world. Recent design credits include the scenic design for Song of Joy (Premiere - The Tank) and Sweat (Brooklyn College), the lighting design for R.E.S.P.E.C.T. (National Tour), Dark Star of Harlem (LaMama), Blur (Premiere - The Shed), and Tongue Depressor (Premiere - The Public), and the projection design for Ulysses (Premiere - Bard College), With Marion (The Kitchen), and ANIMUS ANIMA//ANIMA ANIMUS (Premiere - The Public). Outside of theater Matthew is a frequent collaborator with pianist Ning Yu and his visual art has been shown at M.A.D.S. art gallery. Matthew is a graduate of Brooklyn College with an MFA in Design and Technical Theater.
Sara Vandenheuvel is a New York based costume designer with over ten years of experience in the field. While I appreciate the specificity and detail found in realism, I'm far more excited by experimental theater. I'Il always consider myself a costumer first, but I have also explored puppetry, set decoration, prop construction, and, more recently, performance art. No matter the genre, I am committed to work that pushes boundaries. I believe that theater is most interesting when it has something to say andd when it says it in a way that fully embraces the suspension of disbelief that only theater can get away with. saravandenheuvel.com
Naomi Harrison-Clay and Tal Mor experiment with ways of being and becoming through performance, video, music, writing, and prayer. We revere improvisation - attunement to live inspiration is the heart of our shared temple. Our primary mentors are the energies that find pleasure in moving themselves through our bodies. Our current long-term project involves activating one hundred fifty pages of original epistolary poetry through performance.
Noodt is originally from Norway, Jørgen Noodt Skjærvold is a technician and sound artist who has been making sounds and experimental music for a while.
Andy Sowers is a designer, director, and technician currently serving as the Production Manager at Performance Space New York. Outside of PS, Andy has worked as the lighting/video designer and project manager for Julie Tolentino's HOLD TIGHT GENTLY and ECHO POSITION (Whitney Biennial 2022), project manager for Moriah Evans' Remains Persist, and the touring Technical Director / Audio Engineer for Half Straddle's Is This A Room. He has directed stage work (Eugene O'Neill's Ile, and In The Zone) at the 122CC Second Floor Theater and the Collapsable Hole, and is gearing up to present a major, site-specific O'Neill Maritime Triptych in 2025.
Alex Vásquez Dheming is a Salvadoran Lighting Designer based in NYC. Collaborators include Big Dance Theater, SLM Dances, Nélida Tirado, Calpulli Mexican Dance, NYTB, Ashwini Ramaswamy, Trusty Sidekick, Les Ballets Trockaderos, Gay Men's Chorus. Her work has been seen nationally (Lincoln Center, Jacob's Pillow, Guggenheim Museum, BAC, CPR, Works and Process, Boston Celebrity Series, Festival Flamenco Albuquerque), and internationally (København Danser, Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, Cannes Film Festival, Oceania Cruises). Commissioned artist for the Park Avenue Armory's Sound & Color: The Future of Race in Design Symposium (2023); Alex's poetry was selected for Love Letters in Light in LA Public Libraries (2020) BFA Production Design SCAD, Wingspace mentee, Sragecraft Institute of Las Vegas alum; Playwright Realm's International Theatermakers Award recipient (2021).
Mission Statement: YES to Artists YES to Risks YES to Community YES to Every Body YES to ___
About Performance Space New York: Over the last 4 decades Performance Space New York (formerly Performance Space 122) has been propelling cultural, theoretical, and political discourse forward. Founded in 1980, Performance Space became a haven for many queer and radical voices shut out by a repressive, monocultural mainstream and conservative government whose neglect exacerbated the emerging AIDS epidemic's devastation. Carrying forward the multitudinous visions of these artists who wielded the political momentum of self-expression amidst the intensifying American culture wars, Performance Space is one of the birthplaces of contemporary performance as it is known today. Together with our artists and communities, we have been presenting interdisciplinary works that dissolve the borders of performance art, dance, theater, music, visual art, poetry and prose, ritual, night life, food, film, and technology. We are committed to centering those who have been historically excluded from spaces like ours.
Performance Space New York Staff: X Arriaga, Keith Haring Curatorial Fellow Constanza Armes-Cruz, Senior Producer Paula Bennett, Senior Manager Institutional Partnerships Mars Doutey, Derek Lloyd Production Fellow Sarai Frazier, Associate Production Manager Yolene Grant, Communications & Marketing Manager Pati Hertling, Director Ashley Pierre-Louis, Artist Services Associate Alex Reeves, Creative Technologist Amarii Saeed, Communications and Office Associate Ana Beatriz Sepúlveda, Associate Director Andy Sowers, Production Manager Kirsten Sunderland, Manager of Individual Giving Kimiko Tanabe, Audience Services Manager
Board of Directors: Kerstin Brätsch Nicole Eisenman Roxane Gay, President Jonathan González Meaghan Gragg, Secretary Autumn Knight Jeffrey Lee Sophie Mörner Ted Oberwager, Treasurer Jackson Polys Thomas Rom, Vice President
Institutional support is provided by Arison Arts Foundation, Destina Foundation, Ford Foundation, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Keith Haring Foundation, Willem de Kooning Foundation, Lambent Foundation, Fund of Tides Foundation, Henry, Luce Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, Morrison & Foerster Foundation, National Performance Network, The National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Jerome Robbins Foundation, Shubert Foundation, David Teiger Foundation, Cy Twombly Foundation
Land Acknowledgement: Performance Space New York is situated in Lenapehoking, the land, waters, and air of the Lenape diaspora, a place which has always been, and still is, and always will be a network of intersecting Indigenous movements. We acknowledge that our existence, operating on the island of Manahatta, is a consequence of violent histories of settler colonialism bound up with unchecked exclusions, genocide, and erasures of many Indigenous people ongoing to this day. This acknowledgement should not function as acceptance or closure, but as a call to commit to reconfigure our notions about ourselves through our work and working practice as we take responsibility to dismantle the ongoing effects of settler colonialism.
PRESS
THE NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT Crew Loads-in The House Before Bringing It Down By Adam Wassilchalk
"...Right after mini load-in was complete and Frazier gave a rousing welcome speech to us, the stage went dark. A door near the back of the theater opened. There was the sound of chains dragging across the floor, bells tolling through the speakers, and a disturbing thumping gradually moving closer to us. Trying to describe exactly what happened next is difficult: Imagine an evil, exhilarating, post-apocalyptic drag performance led by Žilvinas Jonušas, which then turned into a campy, over-the-top rendition of “Willkommen” from Cabaret. I was transfixed by the insanity, absurdity, and intense physicality of Jonušas’ piece..."
Read full review here: THE NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
© 2010, ŽILVINAS JONUŠAS