Performance! Events! Art! All in a Big Window in Times Square!

chashama presents
The Faux-Real Theater Company’s
WindowBOX series
Curated by Laura Barnett and Carrie DuBois
Produced by Laura Barnett
Visual Consultant: Matthew Staniec

Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from Friday February 9th to Sunday, April 29th, 2001
Friday and Saturday – 12pm – 6pm
Sunday – 10am – 2pm
135 West 42nd Street between Broadway & 6th Avenue

For more information: 212.631.8706

Friday, February 9th

The Human Black BOX Sandra Meisel, SKIZUM, & Alexandre Itin - MIXED MEDIA / INTERACTIVE A live exploration of the internal human black box that transforms ambient visual, physical, and audible ‘input’ into interpreted ‘output.’ The box is covered with black construction paper; passerbys see only their reflections. Sound bytes entice passerbys to stop; they are voluntarily photographed, recorded, or otherwise asked leave a piece of physical evidence (a slip of paper, perhaps, a hair ribbon…) The artists will interpret this ‘input’ and create a mixed media work which will slowly replace the black paper. During the course of the day, The Black BOX transforms into The Human BOX, an interpreted reflection of the world inside and outside.

Saturday, February 10th

C-Thru BOX C (Bakkom, Freedland, Smith) - PERFORMANCE An endurance reading of Mary Shelly’s creation story Frankenstein. The three artists, read, wait and rest.

Sunday, February 11th

(en) light BOX Katerina Fangra - PERFORMANCE/DANCE Communication as expressed through flamenco dance, subtle shifts in light and meditations on jellyfish.

Friday, February 16th

BOX Entwined Annie Murdock - PERFORMANCE/DANCE A seven-foot length of rope connects two dancers who are dressed in identical rope dresses. As the performers move through the BOX space, they become aware that while they feel themselves to be a pair, they limit each other. The tether becomes a tug-of-war between the twins and the dance of ‘coming to the end of one’s rope’ will be played out, a metaphor for the symbiosis and tug-of-war between each other and within oneself.

Saturday, February 17th

Match BOX scratch-‘N-sniff - MUSIC/BOXING/BAKING With DJ gear including several toaster ovens the DJ duo scratch-‘N-Sniff (a.k.a. Cassis and Swiss Miss) mixes beats and spins while baking chocolate chip cookies. At the same time, there is a live boxing match; the sparring is inspired and heightened by the music. The audience watches, listens, dances, and eats cookies.

Sunday, February 18th

Hot BOX Erica Enders - SCULPTURAL INSTALLATION A mannequin, faux fur, feathers, pink light. Beauty with a slightly tarnished side.

Friday, February 23rd

BOXed In Edisa Weeks/Enwrapture - PERFORMANCE Do We Live to Work? Do We Work to Live? This is the question posed on the front of the windows. Inside, a methodical counting of rice.

Saturday, February 24th

PaintBOX Sandra Spannan - PAINTING/INTERACTIVE A live multi-portrait session. The artist sits in the window painting the individuals who pass by the window. People can sit for their portrait or the artist will make an impressionistic rendering as they dash by. If passerbys wait, they will be given the picture of themselves; if they go by quickly, their sketch portrait will be hung in the window.

Sunday, February 25th

Sublit BOX John Kole - SCULPTURE/INSTALLATION "I want to use the BOX in the way that it was originally intended. People will be drawn to the window thinking it is a storefront; however, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that the storefront and the items within are somewhat twisted and transformed. Slide projections will be projected onto T-shirts worn by mannequins. A video camera will project images of the spectators onto the scenery."

Friday, March 2nd

XOB BOX LOC810N - VIDEO/SOUND INSTALLATION There are several monitors in the window – one, on the audience, shows live footage from closed circuit cameras, another is inside the BOX. A third plays a video loop which includes a pre-recorded ‘live feed’ from a similar location in another city, mixed with quick breaks of box-themed imagery. LOC810N aims to distort the viewers’ perception of place through multimedia dislocation.

Saturday, March 3rd

Snow BOX Come Winter - PERFORMANCE/MUSIC The window is a forest. Come Winter is dressed as two kids playing in the snow. The snow becomes high; the boys become lost. They realize they will freeze to death and eventually do.

Sunday, March 4th

Communist Propaganda BOX Rebecca Major - PHOTOGRAPHY Faux-vintage photography of a re-staged communist propaganda poster. A beautiful babushka woman framed with stalks of wheat, a sickle in hand.

Friday, March 9th

Clown BOX Metro Clowns / Dieter Riesle - PERFORMANCE Five clowns – no makeup, just red noses – in a series of set and improvised clown scenarios.

Saturday, March 10th

Identity BOX N. Buivid & Associates - INTERACTIVE The public will be invited into the WindowBOX and offered the opportunity to create personal identity stickers. They will be greeted by an operator and invited to scan something unique to themselves (a piece of jewelry, their hand, a wallet photo…). This image will be printed onto two labels. The participant receives one; the operator displays the other.

Sunday, March 11th

Sky BOX Jessica Jackson Hutchins - SCULPTURE/INSTALLATION A sculptural installation of found objects, including cardboard boxes.

Friday, March 16th

Quality of Life? BOX Tony Stamolis - PHOTOGRAPHY Three large photographic prints of Times Square.

Saturday, March 17th

Winner Take Mall BOX Andrew Fremont-Smith - INSTALLATION/SOUND and SCULPTURE In the window, a green field and a football player. Is he all right? Down for the count? What is this obsession with winning? This installation depicts a particularly ambiguous moment of possibility: possible injury, possible victory, possible defeat. We hear a soundscape, overlapping, meshing, and separating: stadium sounds, escalators, movie UFOs, sports commentators. The piece attempts to challenge and question what is involved, observed, and at stake in the widely popular American cultural reflex of winning. The title, Winner Take Mall, is a take-off on a phrase experienced on both personal and political level every day.

Sunday, March 18th

What’s Inside the BOX? Ricardo Muniz - PERFORMANCE "People’s lives are dictated by boxes; they check boxes on forms; they live in box-like apartments; their food comes out of or is stored in a box; and they eventually compartmentalize their emotions within their own hearts and minds. Using puppets and props, I will tell the story of Dirty Dahlia, a little girl who learns to love ‘bad ‘ hair and herself, no matter what ‘box’ society has put her in. This is based on a children’s book which I am currently writing."

Friday, March 23rd

Shadow BOX Cora Fisher - SCULPTURE/INSTALLATION "A shadow is something that can be seen and contemplated in absence or in silhouette. My intention is to create a silent space which will then dialogue with the throbbing busy-ness of 42nd Street."

Saturday, March 24th

Squeeze BOX b-blush / Cassis & David Cossin - PERFORMANCE/MUSIC b-blush evokes the vaudeville atmosphere of Old Times Square in a sensual-red-breathy accordion performance. Dressed in feathers, the German chanteuse invites you through the suggestively breathy sounds of her squeezebox. It’s a return to the world of the 20’s and 30’s. The performance is presented behind glass. No trespassing!

Sunday, March 25th

Lifesaving BOX Robert Yahner (Robuster) - PERFORMANCE Keeping his vigil, a lifeguard attempts to instruct, warn, and heighten the awareness of visitors to this "urban beach." While being challenged to perform rescues and protect himself from being a victim, Lifesaving BOX explores the dangerous relationship between rescuer and victim, the fear of helping and the lack of focus and awareness in urban movement. Procedures from Red Cross waterfront rescues and lifesaving demonstrations are applied to everyday situations.

Friday, March 30th

Confession BOX Laura Barnett - INTERACTIVE "I sit in the window, not visible, covered by a large box. People come in, tell me their secrets, then write them down: - When in Germany, I feel guilty and frightened.- I don’t like my mother’s cooking.- It was my fault the Latin book fell out of the window- I can’t tell the difference between a circumcised and uncircumcised penis. I am interested in the juxtaposition of revealing secrets in a very public way, yet in a way which is so public (a window on Times Square) that it preserves the secret itself and the secret-sharer’s anonymity. When the participants are gone, the papers will be affixed to window, facing out, revealed but still anonymous. I will remain walled in by secrets."

Saturday, March 31st

Chained in a BOX!! Vereni the Great - PERFORMANCE Vereni the great escape artist will be handcuffed and chained into a box by an audience member and will escape in moments!!

Sunday, April 1st

Be Well BOX Alessandra De Meo - INTERACTIVE An interactive piece in which objects and images from the sacred world are incorporated.

Friday, April 6th

Magnetic Poetry BOX Mahogany Jones - PERFORMANCE A solo theater piece centered around the theme of airing the ‘dirty laundry’ of life while doing different kind of cleaning. "I, Mahogany Jones, will create six different characters who are all in the process of becoming both metaphorically and actually clean. One girl is in the washroom of a club, talking about ‘who slept with whom’; Mariposa is washing her kids laundry while talking about the trials and delights of motherhood – all six characters share the nurturing dirt of their lives."

Saturday, April 7th

KidsBOX Sandra Spannan & Sandra Meisel -PERFORMANCE/KIDS The window is completely white. Inside, is a group of children from Underground Ammo Organization, based in the Puerto Rican Community of South Williamsburgh, Brooklyn. The kids, who have worked together on several art projects, are between 5 – 10 years old. In the window, they wear white jumpsuits. In thick black marker, they write their thoughts about BOX (stereotype) thinking on the walls, floor, window, as well as on their clothes.

Sunday, April 8th

CAT BOX Carrie, Dan, and Pete - PERFORMANCE/MUSIC A cabaret about being a cat. "I plan to perform, with a live guitar accompanist, a cabaret of songs in different styles all about being a cat. Everything will be in the first person, from the viewpoint of the cat."

Friday, April 13th

Kitty Litter BOX Patricia Coleman - PERFORMANCE Spend your holiday watching our family resurrect the matzohs: A Grand Guignol Family saga with cats.

Saturday, April 14th

Soap BOX Edisa Weeks / Enwrapture Two outlandishly dressed hairdressers invite the spectators to venture in for some styling. No cuts, but lots of spike, color, glitter, twisting, toy animals, action figures, embellishment! Whatever is appropriate for the occasion.

Sunday, April 15th

Kitty Litter BOX Patricia Coleman - PERFORMANCE/PUPPETS Spend your holiday watching our family resurrect the matzohs: A Grand Guignol Family saga with cats.

Friday, April 20th

Dread BOX Katja Esson - PERFORMANCE/DOCUMENTATION "I sit on a barber chair and will have my hair covered in honey and lime and turned into dreadlocks. The piece deals with the contradiction of ‘having your dreads done’ versus letting them grow for years and therefore be a symbol of blackness and wisdom. While my straight hair is turned into dreads, there will be amplified conversations about different points-of-view about dreadlocks."

Saturday, April 21st

The Idiot BOX Sharon Lamazor - PERFORMANCE/KIDS In the window sits a large TV. A parade of children, dressed as classic children’s book characters will enter and be seduced, confronted with, driven mad by the mind and soul-deadening power of The Idiot Box.

Sunday, April 22nd

Cloud BOX Matthew Staniec - SCULPTURE/INSTALLATION A physical contemplation on the nature of light.

Friday, April 27th

?…..! BOX Ampersand - PERFORMANCE Reflections on language. Performed by teenagers at Saint Ann’s School.

Saturday, April 28th

Surprise BOX To Be Announced!!!

Sunday, April 29th

Surprise BOX To Be Announced!!!