My Friday night was all about Art Downtown, a yearly event in Grand Rapids. All of the art galleries on South Division are open, and various art organizations in the community hold their own shows as well.
One of the main attractions of the event this year was Site:Lab, a mix of performance art and interactive drama. When I think of performance art, I usually think of people licking jam off a car. Site:Lab might have been that, or it might have been something else entirely.
I expected that there would be people acting out bits of a play in various rooms. Visitors entered the building and went directly to the second floor, where there were various pieces of installation art in the front of the building, and a large, open room in the back where there was music playing. The whole building had a feel of decay, it has been unoccupied for years. There were some men walking around wearing turbans, and others wearing helmets. The costumes felt like they lacked consideration, as though they were purchased from some party store earlier that day. I wish they had been more robust and less plastic. Random pieces of art on this floor was focused on the Knights of Pythias, which was a group that Pythagoras formed. It was false, obviously, but it seemed to be aware of the fact.
To gain entrance to the third floor, you had to get a piece of wax, which you could get stamped with a third of a triangle in three different spots. When you had a full triangle, you got in line to go to the third floor. If you were lucky, you spent part of your hour and a half wait watching the performance portion of the art. For everyone who visited Site:Lab at another point in the evening, they were wandering around the set of a play which they were never going to see. At 9:00, a man stepped onto the stage and, for five minutes, the crowded room was silent and watching him do a sort of Gregorian chant with the kind of sound in the background that I associate with Indian music. The man said that this was the first ever open house of the Knights of Pythias, and that they were seeking new members. The knights all marched out and formed a circle and did a ritual. Another man, who was the inspector from the central organization of the Knights of Pythias, criticized how the local chapter was being run. At some point in all of this, there were dancers and a man wearing a headdress to look like a horned beast.
I liked the idea of Site: Lab, but it could have been realized in a way that was more successful. Instead of being immersed in a fictional universe, I was aware that I was watching a strange spectacle. In the middle of the evening, the line to get in the building was long, but it moved fairly quickly. However, the line to get into the third floor was incredibly long and slow moving. When I reached the third floor, I hoped that it would be a culmination to the story, but instead it was a series of separate exhibitions of art that were difficult to access and contextualize.
As always, if there’s something that you think I should write about, feel free to email me.