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Email PageThe Man Who Pictured Space From His Apartment (II)
February 3, 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Cupola Bobber
CUE Art Foundation
511 W 25th StA multi-media performance by Cupola Bobber Friday, February 2 at 8:00pm Saturday, February 3 at 6:00pm Duration of performance: 1 hour, 30 min. Free Admission Reservations Required in Advance: 212.206.3583
With an eye towards vaudeville and the lens of Buster Keaton, Chicago-based experimental performance group, Cupola Bobber’s (artists Tyler Myers and Stephen Fiehn) premier performance of The Man Who Pictured Space From His Apartment will chronicle the duo’s struggle to find comfort in the mass of space by imagining a railroad to the sky, while investigating the stars, the railroad, and the meaning in that parallax.
Mixing basic materials with homespun engineering, and bumbling wit, Cupola Bobber thoughtfully tinkers with reality by creating imagery that hangs between staged theatrics and the utterly familiar details of everyday interactions. Using an intricate, barely visible web of lo-fi mechanics, the duo will convert a confined interior gallery space into an expansive nightscape through deceptively simple means ─ a universe (room) out of cardboard, and two small towers made from cardboard toy bricks, and various suspended props from the ceiling of the gallery.
Achieving height as a means of breaking free, conquering distance, and attempting to defy gravity in a pursuit of unbridled joy are themes persistently and futilely explored during the performance through physically-demanding activity including: tap dancing, one performer carrying the other on his shoulders, precariously balancing on towers formed out of cardboard boxes, donning paper mache hats in the shape of stars, becoming line dancing constellations and building ephemeral structures out of cardboard that have the illusion of being architecturally sound until they are laid to waste.
Choosing small signatures of larger objects and settings, the suggestions ask audience members to let their minds complete the images by actively engaging in their free associations. The logic of the tasks flow into each other, as the space changes visually, and as the lighting recedes from spotlight, to twilight, and then to darkness peppered by incandescent stars. Dialogue involving conversations that describe something that can not be adequately explained finds meaning in the dozens of connecting threads left on the fringe of its intention.
Working in a medium in which the highly prized moment instantly comes and goes, Cupola Bobber push themselves to the physical limit in order to slow down time and turn a moment into something monumental, thus allowing the audience to break free of worldly constraints and allow the poignancy of their words, images, and envisioned contexts to seep in.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
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