(Long Island City, NY – March 31, 2017) - British artist and writer Hannah Black will present a new performance work, OR LIFE OR, as the 2017 VW Sunday Sessions Commission on April 9. A collaboration with composer and musician Bonaventure and artist and designer Ebba Fransén Waldhör, OR LIFE OR takes place within a site-specific, immersive environment in the VW Dome.
This new performance is the latest collaboration between Black, Bonaventure, and Waldhör following their 2016 performance at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, which introduced the character Anxietina, a superhero figure who channels her anxiety into miraculous small acts of creation and destruction.The VW Sunday Sessions commission presents an expanded iteration of this character, with Anxietina setting off on a deconstructed adventure loosely based on the Wikipedia entry for “life,” the field of corporate catastrophic risk analysis, and colonial American antiques. The work explores the links between 19th century Euro-capitalist expansion, contemporary corporatism, and the rise in populism both in the United Kingdom and United States.
The performance takes place in an environment conceived by Black and Waldhör that features colored reflective pools, laser projected extracts from the script, and handcrafted banners. Black takes on the central role of Anxietina, accompanied by Bonaventure’s original score, dressed in clothes designed and created by Waldhör—inspired by streetwear and reimagined using both absorbent and water-repellant fabrics.
OR LIFE OR will be presented on Sunday, April 9 at 2 p.m., 3:30 p.m., and 5 p.m., as part of MoMA PS1’s Spring Open House, premiering a new season of exhibitions including Ian Cheng: EMISSARIES, Maureen Gallace: Clear Day,Tomáš Rafa: New Nationalisms, A BIT OF MATTER: The MoMA PS1 Archives, 1976-2000, and Past Skin. The event is free and open to the public.
Each year, VW Sunday Sessions commissions a new work by an international emerging artist, often introducing their work to a New York audience. Past VW Sunday Sessions commissions have included Trajel Harrell, Judson Church is Ringing in Harlem (Made-to-Measure)/ Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church (M2M), 2013; Marten Spangberg, La Substance, but in English, 2014; Anne Imhof, DEAL, 2015; and Tobias Madison & Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, Rotting Wood, the Dripping Word Shuji Terayama’s Kegawa no Marii, 2016.
Hannah Black
Hannah Black (b. 1988, Edinburgh, Scotland) is an artist and writer from the UK. She lives in Berlin and New York. Previous exhibitions include Not You, Arcadia Missa, London (2015), Screens Series, New Museum, New York (2016), Soc or Barb, Bodega, New York (2017) and Small Room, mumok, Vienna (2017). Upcoming shows include solo exhibitions at Chisenhale Gallery, London, and Company Gallery, New York.
Her book Dark Pool Party was published by Dominica/Arcadia Missa and a mini-novel written in collaboration with Juliana Huxtable, Life, was published by mumok this year. She has written for Artforum, Harpers, The New Inquiry, Texte zur Kunst, and Tank, among others.
Bonaventure
Bonaventure uses music as an identity research tool along with practical and speculative initiatives to connect her African and European roots and investigate human relationships. Since December 2015, she has been developing sonic weaponry designed to confront oppressive power structures, tell the story of violence and abuse fuelled by racism, with Complexion released on NON Worldwide last year marking the prelude to her protest.
A regular on Berlin Community Radio, Bonaventure has also made herself at home for several hours on London’s NTS. Her debut EP FREE LUTANGU will be released on PTP this spring.
Ebba Fransén Waldhör
Ebba Fransén Waldhör is a visual artist and designer based in Berlin. Her work spans several contexts, from art and design to dance, film, and fashion. She graduated from the Weißensee Academy of Arts with a specialization in Textile and Surface Design. Her design practice combines the use of new technologies and materials with traditional fabrication methods, exploring new, hybrid ideas of spatiality. Currently she is engaged in a long-term research project on electronic textiles at the Berlin University of the Arts.
About MoMA PS1’s VW Sunday Sessions
MoMA PS1’s acclaimed VW Sunday Sessions program welcomes visitors to experience art live and in real time. Embracing performance, music, dance, conversations, and moving images, the program vividly demonstrates how these art forms can push us to engage with our contemporary world in creative, illuminating ways. With an emphasis on artistic practices that blur and break traditional genre boundaries, the program supports and commissions new work, inviting artists, curators, and other cultural instigators to share their latest projects.
MoMA PS1 offers one of the most extensive museum programs dedicated to live art in the world, representing a core component of the institution's mission since its founding.
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