Bain & Hernandez ATA window performance Friday November 25, 4-9pm ... Artists' Television Access, 992 Valencia St, San Francisco
The Other You
A gesture can contain the DNA of an entire persona. From a gait, a life story is told. We will inhabit the ATA window for several hours to perform a marathon of spontaneous character transformations. Not theater improv, this work is what we've both been doing for 2 decades: using character/persona/alter ego to get at the things that people are, that people do. To explore what is inherently human vs what is consumed as an idea of who we are, or who we are supposed to be.
ATA's storefront window is advertising architecture along one of the most moneyed commercial strips in this country. When display windows like this contain the human form, the signal is for viewers to consume, to conform to the specific fashion being portrayed. Instructions are being given on how to look, be, buy...
Last year we loved thwarting the shopper's impulse by being well-dressed, friendly non sequitur in the window; this year we will continue by populating the space with a continuous personality parade from afternoon til evening on Black Friday.
Claire Bain and Alfred Hernandez are Bay Area artists. They both employ persona, using their bodies as material to create impressions of being and story. They have each shown work at numerous venues, and sometimes collaborate.
See also:
Http://Personbain-index.blogspot.com (Claire Bain)
http://www.alfredsvisions.com/ (Alfred Hernandez)
