Kathryn Andrews and Scott Benzel: Split Chorale For Viljo Revell
City Hall Rotunda
Viljo Revell, architect of City Hall, referred to the iconic curved building as the “eye of city government.” Los Angeles artist Andrews and composer Benzel riff on the idea of a humming, sleepless panoptic government in a large video installation and performance. A central stalk of video screens broadcasts images inspired by the urban sprawl of Los Angeles, while a massive chorus populating the commons balcony gazes down on visitors while intoning a continuous drone from dusk until dawn. DJ
Michael Smith: Threshold
City Hall council chambers
Since the 80s, Smith, in the guise of deadpan, cliché-spouting Everyman Mike, has been making comedic performances, videos and TV talk shows that send up the art world, business, politics and daily life. A second character, Baby Ikki, is a stubble-faced, diapered, preverbal infant. Since Smith doesn’t shy away from political satire, will his performance draw on the antics we’ve witnessed over the past few years in council chambers? FS
Shasti O’Leary-Soudant: Halflife
Nathan Phillips Square
Riffing on every paranoid sci-fi plague scenario from the Andromeda Strain onward, Buffalo-based O’Leary-Soudant has conceived of a mass performance/role-playing game involving 100 Nuit Blanche participants. Released into Nuit Blanche at 7 pm, these “carriers” will “test” willing subjects throughout the downtown core using invisible UV reactive ink markers. The “infected” are then called back to Nathan Phillips Square at midnight for a mass “curing.” DJ
