Long Night Performance Salon
Amos Eno Gallery presents Long Night Performance Salon on December 21, the Winter Solstice and the longest night of the year. The Performance Salon featured traditional and participatory performances that conjure spirits to satisfy their need for attention and embody togetherness to help each other through dark times.
The evening featured performances by:
Different State
Dirty Churches
Betty Eastland
Heather Layton
Sharilyn Neidhardt
Neill Prewitt
An exhibition of work will be on view during the event. Works on view in Long Night engage the longest night of the year as a metaphor for various experiences of the world today. Experiences of political alienation, embodied states and physical and environmental displacement are countered by representations of hope that the sun will indeed rise again.
More about Long Night on view during the performances:
The exhibition featured Eric Banks, Candace Jensen, Sam Jones, Charleen Kavleski, Chris Kienke, Stephen March, Robert McCann, Rosemary Meza-DesPlas, Hatidza Mulic, Heidi Neff, Jose Presman, Ulrike Stadler, and Philip Swan. Works on view in Long Night engage the longest night of the year as a metaphor for various experiences of the world today. Experiences of political alienation, embodied states and physical and environmental displacement are countered by representations of hope that the sun will indeed rise again.
A mixed media Solstice Altar by Candace Jensen offers a space to reflect upon the growing darkness and a hint of light emanating from the distance. Black and gold leaf on wood represents forms of religiosity as a practice of hope within dark times. In photographs by Sam Jones, long nights offer an opportunity to isolate the moon as a light source in a dark sky. Jones presents an ode to one of our moon’s past functions as a proto-satellite for radar signals enabling long distance communication.
Figurative work in watercolor on Aquaboard by Rosemary Meza-DesPlas calls to mind the resolve of the vigilante standing watch during the longest night of the year. Stephen March presents an allegorical take on the present political climate and other dark ages in mixed media on canvas. In Semicircle, Robert McCann offers a disrupted realist depiction of a recent scene in the US Senate, capturing a dark moment that stretches on in the American public imaginary. For Heidi Neff, a dark but starry night is centered in a painting of sculptural acrylic in which Corinthian columns pierce a mass of flesh and blood given form through thick impasto.
A site-specific drawing by Jose Presman locates viewers in a liminal space between the walls and floor. The large-scale egg tempera painting by Ulrike Stadler titled Sisters depicts two ethereally connected figures partially obscured by bare trees amidst a rising sun. In Buster by Eric Banks, a tree or cloud form promotes comparison to wrinkled leathery mummification in peat bogs that is paradoxically raised to eye level, suggesting the cyclical nature of life and pre-social concerns.
In Family Farm: The Knell by Charleen Kavleski, colorful geometric blocks reminiscent of patchwork quilt designs sugarcoat the depiction of a barren landscape that once was a family farm. A hard-edged geometrical painting by Philip Swan invites viewers to witness the artist’s marking of time over the course of producing and responding to marks on the surface. Stripes of vibrant color remain visible beneath encroaching silver and black, inviting the viewer to experience the traces of past geometric considerations that the artist is channeling. A mixed media painting by Hatidza Mulic depicts a dark, swirling cosmic space—with a ray of hope.
Founded in 1974, Amos Eno Gallery is one of New York City’s longest operating artist-run gallery spaces. As a registered 501(c)3 organization, Amos Eno Gallery offers a diverse calendar of public programming including performance art, film and music, lectures, panels, and workshops throughout the year.
