99 Canal, the experimental artist platform presents New York Performance NOW! featuring new works by New York-based performance artists ms. z tye, Alexa West, and Mayfield Brooks at the 12th edition of Untitled Art Fair in Miami Beach, FL. Conceived by curator Kyla Gordon, the showcase focused on issues related to trans rights, group dynamics, and interspecies relationships. The performances took place throughout Untitled’s VIP and Press Preview day on December 5, 2023.
In my imagination, "technology" is a physical apparatus. I think of the images of early computing with large, cumbersome punch cards and operating systems the size of rooms with operators working with them and interacting with their colleagues around these machines. I watched a bunch of goofy, old British-Pathé newsreels of computers and these "new workplaces of the future" and I wondered about the social aspects of repetition, and the unique physical toll on the body.
When thinking of performances to include in this program I thought of Alexa West and her focus of choreographing around the built apparatus, and the physical and social dynamics these objects engender. The three dancers: Jade Manns, Amelia Heintzelman, and Justin Faircloth -three (almost) primary colors-represent distinct archetypes who move in repetitive gestures around this apparatus. I like the inherent humor in “OCCASION OCCASION OCCASION” and West's work in general, which makes me think of memes (which have really defined the visual aesthetic of digital time) and how memes so rely on archetypes to work. These movements are so meme-able and ripe for parody because they are so collectively understood. At its most basic understanding, technology is a tool, an implement used for a specific purpose. When tasked with the theme of "gender and technology" I thought a lot about the ways in which "gender" and "race" are capitalist technologies used to separate, control, and alienate people from one another. Technologies are tools within larger organizing systems that set and often violently enforce standards of legibility. In American Idoll, ms. z tye with Maya Margarita uses the 13 folds of glory—traditionally a ritualistic way of folding the flag to honor fallen soldiers—to memorialize the trans lives lost through violence this year. In this performance, 27 flags are folded. In 2023, so far, 27 trans lives were cut short due to violence. ms z tye uses the flag in her work as a way to interrogate Americanness and the promise of America—the national myth being one of individual liberty, economic opportunity, social mobility, equality, and justice for all. What does it mean that some people are excluded from this promise that has so defined the national character of this country? Yes this is art fair week, but we are still in Florida, a politically and culturally conservative state, a place that harbors Trump, a place with stringent anti trans legislation. In further abstracting and considering "technology", I thought about the nature of systems in general and the shape of gestures to come.
Mayfield Brooks' work explores a metaphysical apparatus whose material is composed of the spirit, folklore, memory, and grief. Of course, it must be stated that the future of technology lies in craft--one can only look to the nomenclature that we use to describe how we digitally interact that imply this truth: for instance, we reply to a thread, we "pin" posts and comments, we stitch videos, etc. The more technology advances, the more things become smaller and more automated, the more we will want to use our hands (I jokingly think that the future of industrial design lies in objects that appear automated, but must actually be manually operated...HaHa!) to connect with each other and the material world around us. But can we take this one step further and consider a future where we will intertwine in a more meaningful way with other species? This performance creates a circular path, rejecting verticality (a visual and physical quality of humanness), questioning nonlinear time, and leaves traces of the natural world in the highly artificial space of the fair.
LOCATION: Untitled Art, Miami