Fri 4/14, 4/21 & 4/28 @ 6-9PM
Fri 5/5, 5/12 & 5/19 @ 6-9PM
Sat 5/27 @ 11AM-8PM
Ray Caspio is a Cleveland-based performance and conceptual artist and painter who creates atmospheric works addressing topics such as memory, queer identity, loss, society’s grotesque aspects and profound emotion, jugging humor and intensity. They’ve performed at The Cleveland Museum of Art, the BorderLight Fringe Festival, Theater Ninjas, and Cleveland Public Theatre’s annual Pandemonium benefit.
Now Caspio has created, designed, written and will perform a piece called The Wall which includes audio, video, paintings and automatic, homoerotic drawings, with space construction by Bobby Ayala Perez. The core of the piece is a 6’4” x 6’4” wall of text featuring automatic writings done during an 18-month pandemic isolation period. The walls erected between and within people during that time provided the piece’s main influence.
“The result is a dreamlike meditation on loss, self, sexuality, and memory inviting participants to face the walls we erect around ourselves,” says the artist statement. “The Wall’s raw vulnerability and immersive reflection in a time of lies, chaos, and fear of ‘the other’ is a journey of acceptance toward the wholeness of ourselves, and each other, before our time is through.”
The installation isn’t intended to be a static piece. Caspio says, “The space and performance will evolve throughout the seven-week process. It will be an organic performance as I respond to who and what is in the space each time, culminating in a nine-hour performance to close this phase of the installation.”
The performances take place at 1300 Gallery at 78th Street Studios on Fridays throughout April and May with the final performance on Saturday May 27. They’re ticketed and pay what you can with a suggested cost of $25. There are also viewing hours with no performances.
N95, KN95, or surgical masks are required at all performances. Attendees must be 18 and over. The Wall was produced with the Ohio City Theatre Project.
Cleveland, OH 44102