Exhuming Johnny
@ Chicago Cultural Center
78 E Washington St, Chicago, IL 60602
Opening Friday, April 19th, from 7 PM - 3 PM
On view through Sunday, April 21st
Performances on April 19 & 20 at 7 PM and April 21 at 2 PM
Sidney R. Yates Gallery, Chicago Cultural Center
78 E Washington St, Chicago, IL
All performances are free to the general public.
Exhuming Johnny is a new performance by Robert Walton in collaboration with a team of performers and athletes from Europe, Australia and the USA. The work takes a long-forgotten video recording of Goat Island’s performance of Can’t Take Johnny to the Funeral as its starting point, excavates a dance called The Perspiration Machine, and brings it back to life. By precisely reverse engineering this dance as it was performed at the Masonic Temple in Portland, Oregon on November 14, 1991 the group has learned to exist in two times at once: 1991 Portland and 2019 Chicago. We call this strange connection that bends the laws of physics The Vortex. Through this performance we ask: can we use The Vortex to fix the future by correcting the past? How much sweat does it take to change the course of history? Exhuming Johnny combines extreme physical exertion and sci-fi speculation to ask difficult questions about the effort of living in the present and our dreams of escaping to the past.
Company:
Robert Walton: Director, Commissioned Artist
Catie Rutledge: Assistant Director
Callum Grant: Performer
Jean Grant: Performer
Chris Mosier: Performer
Sebastian Robinson: Performer
Tom Benko: Composer & Performer
Mark Comiskey: Video
This project is supported by DCASE and the Year of Chicago Theater. More information can be found here: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/provdrs/attractions_eventsandexhibitions/news/2019/january/goat_island.html
Official Website
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Tags: Callum Grant, Catie Rutledge, Chicago, Chicago Cultural Center, Chris Mosier, Exhuming Johnny, Goat Island, Jean Grant, Loop, Mark Comiskey, performance, Robert Walton, Robert Walton & Company, Sebastian Robinson, Tom Benko
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