Brian Bress's show Under Performing ended last weekend at Cherry and Martin with great reviews from ArtForum.com and LAWeekly. For those of you who missed it, allow me to fill you in. With 8 video portraits all performed by Bress himself and slowed down for the viewer, these images portrayed vastly different characters and landscapes, but carried a running theme in their similar circumstances.
"These are performances that, as the show’s title indicates, are meant to fall short—all are acts that are impossible to complete or sustain for very long. Sometimes the roles imperil the actor more dramatically, as with Cowboy (Brian led by Peter Kirby), 2012, where the artist, dressed in a cartoonish foam cowboy suit, unsuccessfully attempts to draw various figures on a glass plane. His misplaced scribblings show how the thick, airless suit has also blinded him." - Genevieve Yue
"These are performances that, as the show’s title indicates, are meant to fall short—all are acts that are impossible to complete or sustain for very long. Sometimes the roles imperil the actor more dramatically, as with Cowboy (Brian led by Peter Kirby), 2012, where the artist, dressed in a cartoonish foam cowboy suit, unsuccessfully attempts to draw various figures on a glass plane. His misplaced scribblings show how the thick, airless suit has also blinded him." - Genevieve Yue
The same is true for this portrait of a man in a beaded suit jumping on a trampoline. He is fantastic to watch and yet the heaviness of the suit impedes the height of his jumps. All of the portraits tell of the burden the performer endures under performing.
Brian Bress: Status Report is showing through March 25 at The New Museum in New York and Bress is also exhibiting at The Armory Show in New York from March 8-11.
Try not to miss it if you're there!
Here is Status Report for those of you who would like to enjoy it from the comfort of home. It's truly as comical as it is strange. But the simplicity of dialogue and handcrafted sets makes this feel like an intimate form of storytelling put on just for you.
Try not to miss it if you're there!
Here is Status Report for those of you who would like to enjoy it from the comfort of home. It's truly as comical as it is strange. But the simplicity of dialogue and handcrafted sets makes this feel like an intimate form of storytelling put on just for you.
New Museum 235 Bowery New York, NY 10002 | March 8-11: The Armory Show, NY Pier 94, Stand #724 | Cherry and Martin 2712 S. La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90034 |
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