Mark Shetabi "ARENA"
Jeff Bailey Gallery
This event has ended.
ARENA is based on Shetabi's examination of live performance, crowds and public space. How does a performer inspire a crowd? Where does this energy come from? Where does it go?
Shetabi came across footage on YouTube of Freddy Mercury, Queen's flamboyant and charismatic vocalist, and was intrigued by its connection to ideas being explored in the studio. At a 1985 Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium, Mercury whips an adoring crowd into a frenzied and ecstatic state. The connection between the performer and audience is palpable. In a recent BBC poll, this performance was voted the greatest live performance ever.
In The Public Sphere, the viewer looks through a peephole lens installed in the gallery wall, and adopts the view that Freddy Mercury saw from the stage of Wembley Stadium in 1985. A vast, undulating crowd waits for the show to begin. The viewer, like Mercury, has become the focal point of the spectacle. Several small and intimate paintings depict Mercury at this performance, both before the crowd and in isolation.
Media
Schedule
from November 12, 2008 to December 20, 2008
Opening Reception on 2008-11-13 from 18:00 to 20:00