Performance Series: April 30 – May 6, 1976
April 30–May 6, 1976 112 Greene Street/WorkshopExhibition Description
April 30, 1976 / Michael Balog: Yo-Yo. No information available.
May 1, 1976 / Ralston Farina: I had a dream that Leo asked me to do a show “The final moments of this experiment with time contained a projection of the climax of a film, The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Just as the gangsters were being shot, popcorn began to pop. The chance timing of the popcorn hitting the screen with the actors being machine-gunned created an interesting example of synchronicity.” [artist’s statement]
May 4, 1976 / William Wegman: World History was a work-in-progress presented at 112 in audio form. Wegman asked average people from Boston streets to tell the history of the world as they remembered it from their seventh grade history class. He videotaped their responses, intending the work to be seen in video format. Lacking funding at the time, he created a sound mix of sixteen voices from hours of tapes. This version of the piece lasted twenty minutes. World History is yet to be realized. [from a conversation with the artist]
May 6, 1976 / David Deutsch: Installation of Four Works: “(1) A brownish-colored panel painted with a repeating pattern of wood grain, producing a faint circular effect. The panel gives the impression of being neither a painting nor an ordinary piece of plywood. 4×8′. (2) A three paneled work, consisting of one motorized panel, 3×6′, spinning at approximately 5 rpm, and two adjacent, side by side panels, each 2×7′. When the viewer scanned horizontally from the spinning panel on the left to the static side-by-side panels, pausing for a moment, he would notice an optical after image, stimulated by the spinning of the first panel. (3) A 16mm film, illustrating various works which I made directly on camera, by drawing, while the camera was running. That is, the images evolved slowly as I developed them ‘before the viewers’ eyes.’ Alternating with the drawing were shots of photographs of the actual works. And (4) one machine-made drawing. . .more or less a double of itself—depicting a house in a forest.” [artist’s statement]
May 6, 1976 / Joan Jonas Performance/Installation with James Nares. Joan Jonas describes her performance as follows: “Two circles of cones, one white paper, like mushrooms, one tin like chimneys or horns; the tin one with a large monitor on its side, lighting it with the image of a tall window with the afternoon sun streaming through it. Talking or yelling through the large end of a cone, James Nares doing same through small end of another cone; the cones meet on the floor and there is some communication. We can listen also.”
Excerpted from Brentano, R., & Savitt, M. (1981). 112 Workshop, 112 Greene Street: History, artists & artworks. New York: New York University Press.
