Page 603 - Demo

SK TIO\\ 2Performers Serve Up Three Shows At Opening:B A C A 's T i s h B o n e s ' c h o k e s (J n l o o M u c h A b s u r d it yBY ARTHUR KROEBERBACA Downtown is the kind of place where one can go and not think it strange to be asked by another baffled spectator if one is part of the performance.That actually happened to this writer, who stepped gingerly into Angelika Festa%u2019s %u201c sculptural installation,%u201d %u201c Fish Bones%u201d last Friday as it entered the second of seven hours of performance. The baffled spectator turned out be BACA%u2019s own staff photographer, who had obviously been illprepared for the nature of her assignment.Festa%u2019s stately performance piece was but a part of the opening festivities of BACA%u2019s 1988-87 season. It was an event calculated to satiate the aesthetic appetite of predatory culturati rendered ravenous by the meager diet of a New York summer.The seven-hour %u201c Fish Bones%u201d co-existed (usually peacefully) with Jay Sims%u2019 %u201c Red Zone,%u201d a three-hour meditation on voluntary sterilization performed in the same space; later in the evening, Tom Eric Stanton %u201c activated%u201d his installation %u201c Balerethon%u201d with a miraculously succinct 25-minute performance in a neighboring room.And at 8 o%u2019clock, the exceptionally robust among the banqueters could venture upstairs to view the premier of Allan Ha vis%u2019s three-person play %u201c Mink Sonata,%u201d the inaugural event of BACA%u2019s second annual Fringe Series of innovative plays. Although a reception had been advertised, actual refreshments were limited to beer, wine and soda at a dollar a glass.A BARMECIDE FEASTExcept for Ha vis%u2019s meaty, though gristly, drama, however, BACA%u2019s cultural cookout amounted to a Barmecide feast.Festa%u2019s %u201c Fish Bones,%u201d for example, was unable to justify its hem e length by any discernible content or technique. At whatever hour me entered, one could see Festa trussed with white bed-sheets to a large galvanized pipe suspended about ten feet off the floor. Her head was encased in a white helmet with large rabbit ears. Thus immobilized, Festa could only gaze at the floor, shift her uncomfortable body and occasionally caress a large fish with her hands, which were free.The fish was handed to her alternately by her co-performers, Charles Allcroft and singer Barbara Noska. Allcroft executed lugubrious gyrations on the floor, mostly prone, while Noska moaned periodically into a megaphone and pushed around a steer%u2019s rib suspended from the ceiling by a complicated pulley arrangement.One could consult the program notes and discover that Festa was attempting to exG ordana R ashovich (left), Randy P h illip s and V ic to ria B oo thy s ta r in %u201c M ink S onata,%u201d by A llan Havis, c u rre n tly at BACA D o w nto w n. It is a b rig h t spot in th e recent o ffe rin g s . (A llan H avis P hoto)plore %u201c mythological transformation, social interaction, and absurd order,%u201d and that the rabbit marks, %u201cthe point where primitive desires and articulated social needs intersect.%u201d But to do so is to announce the failure of the work to meet one of art%u2019s most elementary prerequisites: to be selfexplanatory.LITTLE IMPRESSION MADEThe only visible characteristic of this work was its absurdity, and perhaps it might have worked as a Dadaist joke. Beyond that, the only striking thing about this lengthy work was how little an emotional, intellectual or aesthetic impression it made.%u201c Red Zone,%u201d performed by Chicago artist Jay Sims and her mother, Marion K. Sm s, showed more purposefulness. It is an exposition of the %u201c Fan Dancer,%u201d described as %u201c part furniture, part bird, part exotic persona%u201d and portrayed by the younger Sm s, nude except for a skirt of banister posts and chair legs, and a rectangle of plastic wtjattached to her stoma cian%u2019s tape. The el< in black robe and dience photocopied narration was emit recorder; it includ; textbook descriptii and the personal two Smses.Something was being attempted here, at least, but the results were unsatisfactory. Too many elements were in play, too many thoughts and images were being pursued, and so no development of character is achieved, nor is any insight into the two women%u2019s medical experiences gained. NONE COMPREHENDEDThese two performances, along with Tom Eric Stanton%u2019s fragmented and thoroughlyFesta's 'Fish Bones/forexample, was unable tojustify its heroic lengthby any discernable contentor technique.practice if not in theory). Nor are they forms in which mental confusion can be palmed off as cosmic mystery. Nor are they obscure and unique events.Myth and ritual should be clear, ordered and rigid, and presuppose an elaborate hierarchy of values which does not submit to questioning. They exist only by virtue of infinite and exact repitiion. They are selfexplanatory and not the domain of aesthetic or religious experts, although they may provide access to secrets and mysteries. It is a pity that these useful concepts have been corroded by by the self-justification of sloppy artists.Performance Is Saved ByAn Offbeat 'Mink Sonata'Allan Havis%u2019s %u201c Mink Sonata,%u201d fortunately, shows that the offbeat need not be cryptic and confused.%u201c Mink Sonata%u201d concerns the tortured psychological relations of a wealthy Manhattan man somehow involved in politics, his wife Catherine and his unbalanced cellist daughter, who keeps minks in her room.Matters are bad enough when the daughter, Roberta (Gordana Rasovich) makes clear her intention never to marry or to leave home, even though she already has stints at Amherst and a psychiatric institution under her belt. The stylish, limited and Catholic Catherine (played fluently by Victoria Boothby) is upset and jealous, rightly attributing her daughter%u2019s alientation form her as the result of an extravagant passion for her father.The situation deteriorates when the father, Rodney (Randy Phillips), hires a self-assured former student at Amherst, Blake, as his assistant and mistress. Roberta, spumed, moves to a hotel after killing her minks.By casting Rashovich as both Roberta and Blake, Havis (who directed this production) highlights this ambiguity of theNewly Decorated Upstairs Dining Room Now OpenFor Your Special Party NeedsUnlimited Liquor Hot Buffet or Sit Down Dinner Minimum 35 people. $23.95 per person v tax & gratFOR INFORMATION CALL 788-3245 140 7th Ave. Brooklyn NY 11215Award-Winning Writing Every WeekIn The Phoenix Newspaper