What Remains: On the Sacred, the Lost, and the Forgotten Relics of Live Art

CHAPTER 4: CONSUME | Consume is not meant to be a literal description of each work presented but, rather, an indicator of the end to come that will perhaps lead to a final resolution or a place where nothing original will remain. Throughout this month in What Remains we have already experienced the disappearance of performance relics [or transmutable actions that lead to the vanishing of an object] whether through  burning, destroying, eating, or by simple re-use. In 1993 Peggy Phelan wrote in her infamous book 'Unmarked' that performance itself is an act of disappearance - because nothing is saved...only spent. Performance in this sense resists the art market's economical demand to become a collectable object. In What Remains we ask what actually remains after a performance is over. Does the consumption of things [as well as time and experience] lead to an end of what used to be? Or does it make a place for something new to begin? The relic pencil sharpener leaves us with shavings; the burning of a relic leaves us with ashes...but we are also left with memories.
 

Massive in scale and retrospective by nature, What Remains: On the Sacred, the Lost, and the Forgotten Relics of Live Artis the first exhibition of Defibrillator Gallery's 10th anniversary year. Curated by Netherlands-based ieke Trinks, this visual art exhibition and performance art series features a cohort of artists from around the world who responded to an open call to reanimate Defibrillator's collection of objects from performances that took place over the past nine years.

 

FRI 28 FEB | 6-10PM | Performance Program + Finissage

• Christian Bujold [Canada]
• Erin Evans Delaney + Maria Luisa [Chicago]
• Heinrich Obst [Belgium b. Washington D.C.] | proxy* CR Cooper
• Kirsten Heshusius [Netherlands]
• Lola Blake + Ezra Hawkins [Chicago]
• Marina Resende Santos [Chicago b. Brazil]

proxy* | when the featured artist isn't able to be present, a local artist will produce the work.

**Artists are not aware of the context of the original performance in which the relic was used.