Performance Space 122 Presents Marisa Olson's WHEW! AGE, 2/12-2/14
By: BWW News Desk Jan. 20, 2010
PERFORMANCE SPACE 122 PRESENTS
MARISA OLSON'S
WHEW! AGE
Performance art for your chakras
(with an erotic twist just in time for Valentine's)
WORLD PREMIERE: February 12- 14
Marisa Olson will sit before a projected score of remixed YouTube meditation videos and vintage relaxation tapes, and engage the audience in a series of guided visualizations and breathing exercises. While no audience participation is required, the artist will invoke the familiar persona of the self-help "guru" in encouraging viewers to think about the role of mindfulness and positive thinking in their interactions with the environment. Her message is ultimately to stop freaking out and start chilling out. Expect kitsch and giggles as much as tranquility and a reawakening of your bodily senses.
Marisa Olson is an admitted internet junky and a serious bookworm. This performance is both a product and a trace of her research into fluke epistemologies, the vernacular of digital visual culture, and the intersecting histories of science and superstition, new ageism and DIY/homebrew computing culture. If you'll allow her to mix metaphors about body heat, global warming, and other things "hot," she'll reward you with a sundry selection of funny videos, chakra realigning musical jams, and the words to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Marisa Olson's work combines performance, video, drawing & installation to address the cultural history of technology, the politics of participation in pop culture & the aesthetics of failure. Her work has recently been presented by the Whitney Museum of American Art, Centre Pompidou-Paris, New Museum of Contemporary Art, 52nd International Biennale di Venezia, National Museum of Contemporary Art (Athens, Greece), the British Film Institute, the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, the Sundance Film Festival, and elsewhere. She is also a founding member of the Nasty Nets "internet surfing club" whose new DVD premiered at the New York Underground Film Festival. Her work has been written about in ArtForum, Art in America, Folha de Sao Paolo, Liberation-Paris, the Village Voice, New York Magazine, and elsewhere. More at http://www.marisaolson.com/
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Whew! Age premieres Friday, February 12th and runs through Sunday, February 14th: Friday & Saturday at 7:30; and Sunday at 5:30pm. There will also a Late Show Saturday, February 13th at 10pm. (Post-Show Toast on Friday, Feb 11th - included in ticket)
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