Tina Girouard
Live House

Live House was an open house performance in which the participants were asked to perform a room in a house.

Tina Girouard supplied the materials and supervised the performers’ selection of place within the two floors of the gallery. As one entered the space, the “entrance” and “hallway” were preset (as in theater piece) with large sections of hanging patterned fabric. Tina Girouard performed the “kitchen”, using a variety of cooking ingredients to mark out a pattern on the floor of a table setting. Caroline Goodden recalls, “Tina gave me the choice of which room in the house I’d like to portray. said I’d like to do a ‘back porch’. So, in the basement, swung a hammock and put up a screen of crickets, which is my image of the squeak one associates with a back porch. Someone planted flowers in the corner of the airshaft outside the back window.” [Ed. note-this was Juan Downey] Michael Kern performed the “bathroom” by placing fabric over a hole in the floor, hanging an electric shaver, which was turned on, and a bucket, on the wall. Norman Fisher used the old elevator shaft for his performance of the “closet” and Jared Bark did the “library” by quietly sitting and reading a book. Penelope and Hummingbird (her baby) performed a “bedroom” and Barry LeDoux did the “roof” by placing four slats at an angle to the wall and moving on them. He signaled the end of the piece by filling the space with fog from a fog machine. The results of the performance remained on view. [description taken from conversation with the artist]

Excerpted from Brentano, R., & Savitt, M. (1981). 112 Workshop, 112 Greene Street: History, artists & artworks. New York: New York University Press.