Venue: the Merrill Theater at On the Boards
October 8 - November 6
THIS IS AN IN-PERSON EXHIBITION AT ON THE BOARDS IN SEATTLE
Timed entry
Thursdays & Fridays 3 – 7pm
Saturdays 1– 6pm
Proof of vaccination* or negative Covid test within 24 hours will be required for entry. Patrons are required to wear masks during the entire event.
*Photo of vaccination card is acceptable. If you do not have your card, you can access your vaccination record remotely by creating an account on the WA Dept of Health Immunization Information System, WA.MyIR.net.
Experiential Exhibition in the Merrill Theater
A special treat for those joining us on opening night, Oct 8. Faye Driscoll will be present, throughout the duration of the evening, welcoming visitors and engaging in conversation.
Faye Driscoll’s Experiential Exhibition, Come on In, invites visitors to reconceive the body and its limits. Developed with her long-term artistic collaborators Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin, Come on In is Faye’s first solo museum exhibition. The exhibition, which was presented and co-commissioned by the Walker Art Center, is now adapted specifically for On the Boards’ Merrill Theater.
New York-based choreographer Faye Driscoll (US, b. 1975) creates performances that activate the dynamic space between artist, performers, and audience. Often balancing poignancy and tenderness with irreverent wit and humor, her work as she describes summons “the unnamed forces that surge between the viewer and the viewed.”
Faye Driscoll: Come On In, the artist’s first exhibition to date, creates a space of gathering that invites us to encounter, and carry forth, this intangible connection. Here, Driscoll simultaneously captures the sensation of being in the audience at one of her performance works, the intensity of being a performer in her work, and her own subjective voice as a director. By removing the performers and removing the theater, Driscoll gives the work to the body of the gallery-goer, leading us into an internal dance of our senses: of self and other, body and world, desire and abjection, communion and loss.
Upon entering the carpeted area, you’re invited to choose a listening station, each featuring a soundtrack spoken by the artist herself. Each listening station has a unique audio work playfully referencing prompts she might give to a performer. They are guided meditations, erotic power play, prayer, lamentations, aspirations, and longing that come together to ask: How are we alive to the non-linear symphony of our senses? In this time saturated in technology, where is the body? How far does it extend?
Co-Presenters include the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA)
About the artist
Driscoll explains, “Come On In is built around a series of audio pieces called Guided Choreography for the Living and the Dead. I wanted to capture the sensation of being in the audience at one of my shows along with the intensity of being a performer in my work, and my own subjective voice as the director of the show. I wanted to take all of that and remove the performers, remove myself, and remove the theater and give it to the body of the gallery-goer. As visitors follow my guiding voice they are guided into a private dance and become a collection of slowly moving sculptures. They become my work.”
Studio Lunch Chat
On the Boards’ Artistic Director, Rachel Cook, and Faye Driscoll hosted an Instagram Live conversation about this current exhibition, and answered questions from the audience.
Wednesday October 20