Press Room

Making a Scene: Objects for Performance features work by Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung, Jordan Isadore, Alex Jovanovich, Colin Self, Katie Stout, and Whoop Dee Doo

New York, NY (March 25, 2015)

The Museum of Arts and Design presents Making a Scene: Objects for Performance, a series examining the role of objects in performance today. Making a Scene reveals how set designs, props, costumes, musical instruments and art objects shape the performances in which they are used. From March through June 2015, artists and designers will create new work in MAD’s Artist Studios that will then be featured in newly commissioned, live performances. Over the course of the series, Museum visitors are encouraged to meet and engage with participating artists in the Artist Studios to discuss their materials, concepts and processes while they work.

“The relationship between designers who craft objects and performers who use them is a form of artistic collaboration that too often goes unexplored,” says Jake Yuzna, MAD’s Director of Public Programs. “Making a Scene offers audiences a behind-the-scenes look at this relationship, as well as insight into the process of staging contemporary performances.”

For the series’ premiere, choreographers, musicians, visual artists and teens collaborate on an evening of performances that examine gender stereotypes and cultural norms, and consider the question: just how hard is your home life? Presented in three parts and staged within Katie Stout’s scenic environment, A Flaccid Domesticity, on Thursday, April 16 and Friday, April 17, at 7:30 pm, includes Jordan Isadore's newest dance piece; a musical performance by Colin Self on his handcrafted electronic vocal sampler; and a collaborative performance with artist collective Whoop Dee Doo and local teens. 

Commissioned as a performative response to costumes designed and constructed by Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung, the dance piece In Support Of, on Thursday, May 15 and Friday, May 16, at 8 pm, illuminates the interplay of costumes, props, performers and staging. Bartelme and Jung’s unique garments play an integral role in the choreography, as dancers physically attach themselves to each other, to various props and to their architectural surroundings.

For the final performance of the series, New Day, on Friday, June 12 and Saturday, June 13, at 8 pm, Alex Jovanovich stages his own wake following the Serbian Orthodox tradition, incorporating handmade funerary objects in the performance. He invites audience members to commemorate his life and to reflect upon the ritual process of moving on.

ABOUT THE SERIES

Making A Scene: Objects for Performance is organized by MAD’s Director of Public Programs Jake Yuzna. Entry to the Artist Studios is free with Museum admission. Ticketed performances are $18 general / $12 members and students. Tickets and additional information are available by calling 1-800-838-3006 or visiting http://madmuseum.org/series/making-scene.

ARTIST STUDIOS  

Katie Stout
March 19, 20, 26 and 27, 12 pm - 9 pm
March 21 and 28, 11 am - 6 pm

Known for work that embodies playful sensibilities and an offbeat sense of humor, Brooklyn-based furniture designer Katie Stout crafts scenes of home environments by recreating traditional household objects from soft, loose materials including plastics, fabrics and gels for the performance A Flaccid Domesticity.  

In March 2015, Stout was named the winner of HGTV’s furniture design competition, Ellen’s Design Challenge. Her recent projects include furniture designed for Bjarne Melgaard’s 2014 Whitney Biennial installation.

Colin Self
March 28 and April 11, 11 am - 5 pm
April 3 and 9, 6 pm - 9 pm

Join artist, designer and performer Colin Self as he experiments with his newest musical instrument, an electronic vocal sampler. Self’s sampler uses vocal sound recordings that are played back through electronic instruments to create live music. Visitors to the Artist Studios are invited to record their voices as part of a thirty-second vocal composition that Self will perform in A Flaccid Domesticity on April 17 and 18, 2015.

Whoop Dee Doo
April 11 and 12,11 am - 5 pm

Whoop Dee Doo is a traveling artist collective that works with underserved youth groups to create immersive installations and interactive live performances encouraging community engagement, intergenerational collaboration and cross-cultural dialogue. For Making A Scene, Whoop Dee Doo partners with New York City-based teens to craft set pieces for a live variety show examining stereotypes of gender, age and culture that will be performed as part of A Flaccid Domesticity.

Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung
April 30, 7 pm - 9 pm

Design duo Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung are known throughout the fashion and dance industries for their innovative approaches to the construction of costumes for avant-garde performances and traditional ballet. This April, Bartelme and Jung craft their latest garment for the performance In Support Of.

Bartelme and Jung have designed costumes for the New York City Ballet, and were recently featured in Ballet 422, a documentary on choreographer Justin Peck.

Alex Jovanovich
May 28 and 29, 7 pm - 9 pm

Join Alex Jovanovich as he crafts flowered wreaths and crosses for his latest performance piece, New Day. In making these funerary objects, Jovanovich explores the unique craftsmanship involved in the creation of objects for the recently departed.

Jovanovich is a Bronx-based artist and critic, whose work was included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

A Flaccid Domesticity with Colin Self, Jordan Isadore and Whoop Dee Doo
Thursday, April 16, 7:30 pm
Encore Performance: Friday, April 17, 7:30 pm
$18 general / $12 MAD Members and Students with Valid ID

For the series’ premiere, choreographers, musicians, visual artists and teens collaborate on an evening of performances that examine gender stereotypes and cultural norms, and consider the question: just how hard is your home life? Presented in three parts and staged within Katie Stout’s scenic environment, A Flaccid Domesticity, includes Jordan Isadore's newest dance piece; a musical performance by Colin Self on his handcrafted electronic vocal sampler; and a collaborative performance with artist collective Whoop Dee Doo and local teens. 

In Support Of
Thursday, May 15, 8 pm
Encore Performance: Friday, May 16, 8 pm
$18 general / $12 MAD Members and Students with Valid ID

This commissioned dance performance illuminates the interplay of costumes, props, performers and staging with costumes designed and constructed by Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung.  Their unique garments play an integral role in the choreography, as dancers physically attach themselves to each other, to various props and to their architectural surroundings.

New Day
Friday, June 12, 8 pm
Encore Performance: Saturday, June 13, 8 pm
$18 general / $12 MAD Members and Students with Valid ID

Alex Jovanovich stages his own wake following the Serbian Orthodox tradition, incorporating handmade funerary objects in the performance. He invites audience members to commemorate his life and to reflect upon the ritual of moving on.

ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF ARTS AND DESIGN
The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) champions contemporary makers across creative fields, presenting artists, designers, and artisans who apply the highest level of ingenuity and skill to their work. Since the Museum's founding in 1956 by philanthropist and visionary Aileen Osborn Webb, MAD has celebrated all facets of making and the creative processes by which materials are transformed, from traditional techniques to cutting-edge technologies. Today, the Museum's curatorial program builds upon a rich history of exhibitions that emphasize a cross-disciplinary approach to art and design, and reveals the workmanship behind the objects and environments that shape our everyday lives. MAD provides an international platform for practitioners who are influencing the direction of cultural production and driving 21st-century innovation, fostering a participatory setting for visitors to have direct encounters with skilled making and compelling works of art and design.

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