Fri 4/18 @ 5-7:30PM
Akron Soul Train’s mission is to provide short-term “residencies” for artist in all disciplines to work on a specific project which is then presented at its gallery. Its new show, featuring work by Alex Heard and Hank Bamberger, is on view Wednesday April 16-Saturday May 10, with a free public reception and performance on Friday April 18.
Akron sculpture and performance artist Alex Heard’s This Machine Makes Art: A Plushy Installation and Performance “is on a quest to soften the harsh edges of our reality—to create a place where fear becomes more loveable.” It features a display of plush toys, props and costume-like wearable objects in an installation animated by performance featuring audience interaction. “You will make new friends! You will see the square peg fit through a round hole! You will become the soft sculpture you were always meant to be!” says Heard in the show’s artist statement.
Hank Bamberger, who is currently a visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Akron, explores “queer aesthetics, intimacy, and activism in movement” in his show Feckoned Point, which features experimental choreography and video — “a surreal world for bodies to move in defiance of societal norms with a focus on improvisational movement, abstraction, and queer aesthetics to challenge heteronormative frameworks.” It creates what’s described as a “dystopian-like world” using such materials as ropes, tarps, plastics and objects with erotic implications such as skyscraper stiletto heels and sexual devices.
In addition to his show and performance, he’ll be holding a free workshop called “Killer Heels: Movement, Power, and Play” on “how seemingly eccentric, non-normative embodiments can disrupt normative systems of power and control when placed in public spaces” on Saturday May 3 @ 10:30am-noon. Register at akronsoultrain.org.