PS122 Presents STRANGE ACTION 6/3-6

In her premiere evening-length solo show Isabel Lewis resurrects her depiction of Mr. T using him, and others, as unexpected reference points of a discussion by way of performance about the strange act of performing itself. Making minimal use of stage design and media elements Lewis tightens the focus around the presence of the performer in an anti-gesamtkunstwerk (universal artwork, synthesis of the arts, comprehensive artwork, all-embracing art form, total work of art, or total artwork).

In the 2-part performance, Lewis weaves a circuitous narrative about altered states, imagination, connectivity, process, and fiction. PART 1: Isabel plays herself, playing Mr. T, playing BA Baracus in a meditation on the act of performing as it relates to representation, fiction and distance. Josep Maynou interviews Isabel as Mr. T in a state of hypnosis. The text for this interview is adapted from an interview with the visual artist Matt Mullican under hypnosis that was printed in Art Forum in January of 2009. PART 2: Isabel outlines and demonstrates "head banging" as a pathway to accessing visceral and emotional expression. Using this movement to induce a highly emotional state Isabel then re-enacts the final scenes from Stanley Kubrick's Eye's Wide Shut as Nicole Kidman's character, Alice.

Concept and Performance by Isabel Lewis
Dramaturgy and Performance by Josep Maynou

Isabel Lewis is a Brooklyn & Berlin-based dance artist and curator from the Dominican Republic. She is a graduate of Hollins University (USA) where she majored in both Dance and Literary Criticism. In 2004 Isabel formed The Labor Union along with Erika Hand and presented work at the Cunningham Studios, Dance New Amsterdam, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, Dixon Place, Movement Research at Judson Church, Performance Space 122, and The Kitchen amongst other venues in Manhattan and the outer boroughs. Isabel now creates solo work, performs with her family art collective LEWIS FOREVER (Lewis Forever: Freak The Room at PS122 Nov, 2009) and with Ann Liv Young. She has also had the honor of working with Miguel Gutierrez, David Neumann, Levi Gonzalez, and Crystal Brown. Isabel was a Movement Research Artist in Residence and a Fresh Tracks Residency Recipient in 2005-2006 and was selected to take part in the Meeting Points Artist Exchange in Budapest in the summer of 2008. She has worked as an editor and writer for the Movement Research Performance Journal and was the curator for the dance series, Body Blend, at Dixon Place from 2005-2009. As a curator Isabel has also worked on the Movement Research Festival 2004: Improvisation is Hard and the Movement Research Festival Spring 2007: Reverence (Irreverence) as well as Re-Imagining Utopia, an Austrian and NYC artist exchange, a project of Movement Research (NYC), the Austrian Cultural Forum (NYC), and Tanzquartier Wien (Austria).

Josep Maynou studied Fine Arts in Barcelona (UB), Porto (Facultade Belas Artes Porto) and London (Middlesex University). Maynou has shown his work all over Europe highlighting Getxo Arte in Bilbao, Strip Art and Sala Pares in Barcelona, Galerie Eva Bracke in Berlin and Maoshabitos in Oporto among others. He has been working in different artistic fields and is now focused on media art often collaborating with Berlin-based media artist Arturo Steele. Reusing images and giving them new meanings, he creates visual collages which function as a continuous whole, as complete films unto themselves. The visual and rhythmic coherence of his films, achieved through a process of careful editing, makes reference to the manipulative power of audio-visual media. This process of recycling also leads to installing his work in different contexts such as TV repair shops, warehouses, abandoned spaces and second-hand stores.

This performance was supported by a Commission Grant from the Jerome Foundation.

Performance Space 122 is one of New York's ultimate destinations for cutting-edge theatre, dance, music, live art and multi-media. PS122 is dedicated to supporting and presenting artists who explore innovative form and provocative content and who rigorously challenge the boundaries of contemporary performance; PS122 is committed to a steadfast search for pioneering artists from a diversity of cultures, nations and beliefs. www.ps122.org

Strange Action will be performed Thursday, June 3 - Sunday, June 6 on the following schedule. Thursday - Saturday at 8PM, Sunday at 6PM Late Show: Saturday, June 5 at 10PM. Running time: 60 minutes.

Thursday Night Social: June 3 with complimentary refreshments after the show.

Tickets: $20 and $15 (students/seniors). Tickets and PS122 Passports are now on sale and available at www.ps122.org by calling TheaterMania at 212-352-3101, and at the Box Office in Performance Space 122. Note: The PS122 Passport is a bundle of 5 tickets for only $55 that can be used in ANY combination to the Spring 2010 season performances.

Performance Space 122 is located at 150 First Avenue @ E. 9th Street, NY, NY 10009

To post a comment, you must register and login.