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120 model tableau vivant – skylight one hanson HQ

Original was uploaded on 2016-01-22

Two years in the making, on May 23rd and 24th of 2011, Sarah Small and collaborators mounted a 120-participant Tableau at the former Williamsburg Savings Bank, now known as Skylight One Hanson. Chosen as one of Time Out New York’s Top Critic’s Picks, and listed in the New York Times, Flavorpill and more, this performance had the attention of many, long before the cast took the stage. Maintaining it’s roots in her still photography series, The Delirium Constructions, and already the most ambitious project of her career, in 2011, for the first time, Small explored, within the Tableau Vivant, a specific social phenomenon: the ritual of marriage. With its airs of pageantry and religious rectitude, wedding ceremonies celebrate the most intimate joining of two individuals in the most public sphere, providing rich fodder for examination within the project’s framework. On the evenings of May 23rd and 24th, Small acted as the legal officiant for three couples (two weddings and a vow renewal ceremony), as she simultaneously directed the attendant Tableau Vivant cast in their own explorations of the theme, mingling performance art with reality in a compelling cocktail.

Small and collaborators received a stellar review from The New York Times and were featured on both the front and back covers of the Sunday Art section of the The Washington Post. Among many others, the event had press in attendance from both local and international media, including Italy’s Virgin TV.