Mobius held a performance art extravaganza at Studio Soto this past Saturday – lasting from 7-11:30pm and featuring 21 different performances, SPEED was quite the event. Despite its long duration, I was captivated from beginning to end. The performances were polished and the transitions between them were smooth and orchestrated down to the minute, such that every time one came to an end the audience had to spin around to locate the next performance. I was impressed with the high level of audience participation throughout the evening, whether in the form of needing to move around the shifting performance area or being directly engaged by the artist in the performance itself.
Kaethe Hostetter
Karthe Hostetter bewitched her audience with electric looping violin and dramatic lighting.
Tom and Ryan treating an audience member a “trombone sandwich”
Trombonists Tom and Ryan offered “trombone sandwiches” to eager volunteers. Although a few lucky audience members received their own personal ear concerts, the rest of us got to watch as their expressions shifted from wary to surprised to gleeful, even the most unsure participant soon unable to hold back grins and giggles.
Andary Dance moved almost too fast to photograph
Andary Dance wound in and around onlookers, combining speed, interpretive dance, and incredible precision.
Jimena Bermejo-Black
Jimena Bermejo-Black proved that performance doesn’t require polished speech. Her impersonal and confessional dialogue and utmost trust in her audience drew us in as she performed her midlife crisis blindfolded, wrapped in bubble wrap, and to the tune of a song selected by an audience member.
Left: Jessica Borusky, Right: Liz Roncka and Jason Sanford
Jessica Borusky never fails to impress, using her impeccable sense of timing and personal rhythm to explore the fidgety agony of waiting, the explosion that happens when someone snaps, and finally, with over 100 “I’m sorry”-ies, a failed attempt to re-conform to polite expectations. Jason Sanford DJed as Liz Roncka dance/twitch/exercised, displaying incredible muscle control with an intensity that made all my muscles tighten up just watching.
Left: Kirk Amaral Snow, Right: Sara June and Max Lord
Kirk Amaral Snow showed strength and commitment as he transformed his legs into feet of sand. Sara June took on the persona of the Fastest Woman on Earth.
Ian Deleón and Anabel Vázquez
Towards the end of the evening, Ian Deleón and Anabel Vázquez performed a slow dance that was one of the few performances of the evening that did not break the fourth wall and maintained an air of the theatrical throughout. Deleón’s solo show, Cuba + Puerto Rico: Invitación a Volar, (which I wrote about previously here) is still on view at La Galería through June 21st.
Moments from the many performances have kept popping into my head over the past couple days as I work to process them all. With both faces I knew and loved and new artists I now plan to look out for, SPEED was an evening to remember and a testament to Boston’s thriving performance art scene.