Closing Performance / Kim Ye
TAKEN DOWN is a closing performance from current exhibiting artist Kim Ye, corresponding with the deinstallation of the exhibition body|armor.
From the artist: In this durational performance I will hire a white cis male performer to take down the art that was exhibited over the past month. Directing him from behind the camera, my voice instructs him on exactly what to do and how to do it. As I give him specific orders on how to handle my photographs, how to patch the walls, and how to carefully set down each piece, I also begin to extend the reach of my will to his person. Piece by piece, I instruct him to unbutton his shirt, take off his shoes, and remove his clothing--paralleling the increasingly bare walls with his increasingly bare body. Situating myself behind the camera the entire time, I remain conspicuously unseen as the performer becomes more and more exposed.
Audience members will be allowed to watch from strategic peepholes that are cut into tarps, which are blocking the entryways of the gallery. The performance is over once all the art is deinstalled and the performer is completely nude.
The video from this performance will then be edited and included as a piece in my solo exhibition at Visitor Welcome Center that opens on March 17th in Los Angeles.
