LIKE - A PERFORMANCE SERIES

Vogt Gallery is pleased to present curator Gene McHugh’s summer performance art series. Twelve artists/collectives will be performing over the course of five nights. This inaugural series exemplifies Vogt Gallery’s dedication to performance art as an integral part of the gallery’s program.

The conceptual starting point of the performance series “LIKE” is the endless blending of our on- and offline worlds and the amazement it produces. Our daily life is permeated by the overwhelming weight of online interaction.

While this process has constantly evolved over the last decade, performance artists have recently responded in a more rigorous way to the blending of technology and daily life. The embrace of liveness, shared space, the body, and community seems to be a mode of escape from the hyper-mediated, simulated existence technology creates. Especially amongst artists whose practices develop online and who use computers as their primary medium, there is a need to reflect upon these technologies and experiences in an offline setting. The performances in this series were conceived of in this context.

The title—LIKE—is taken from the popular Facebook “Like” button, a thumbs-up icon one clicks to indicate approval of all kinds of contributions throughout the internet that appear instantly on Facebook. “Liking” embodies both the tension and ambiguity inherent in contemporary technological communication. On the one hand, it quickly and efficiently allows interpersonal communication. On the other hand, though, it is a deceptive and an inadequate stand-in for actual human contact. The novelist Jonathan Franzen recently described "the transformation, courtesy of Facebook, of the verb 'to like' from a state of mind to an action that you perform with your computer mouse, from a feeling to an assertion of consumer choice. And liking, in general, is commercial culture’s substitute for loving."

Schedule: Monday, June 27, 7:00 PM: Jeremy Bailey, Marisa Olson, Rick Silva Thursday, July 7, 7:00 PM: BFFA3AE, Duncan Malashock, Nick DeMarco and Justin Kemp, Michelle Proksell Thursday, July 14, 7:00 PM: Ann Hirsch Thursday, July 21, 7:00 PM: Genevieve Belleveau Monday, August 1, 7:00 PM: Billy Rennekamp, David Bernstein and Nicole Demby, Will Simpson

For further details please contact Fabian Bernal at Fabian@vogtgallery.com or at 212.255.2671.

LIKE - A PERFORMANCE SERIES
Kurator: Gene Mchugh

Künstler: Jeremy Bailey, Marisa Olson, Rick Silva, BFFA3AE , Duncan Malashock, Nick DeMarco / Justin Kemp, Michelle Proksell, Ann Hirsch, Genevieve Belleveau, Billy Rennekamp, David Bernstein / Nicole Demby, Will Simpson