Performing the Home

A site-specific, experiential art exhibit at the Nave Gallery Annex in Somerville, MA in the Boston area in August 2016 curated by artist Christina Balch and featuring local performance artists.

Curator and artist Christina Balch recreated the Nave Gallery as a surreal home and invited the public to experience and interact with performances of the home. Artists in this experimental and experiential exhibit addressed issues of relationships, organization, politics, and longing in the contemporary home via dance, performance, sound, video, digital media and interactivity. 

Gallery visitors turned house guests had the rare opportunity to be voyeurs of the intimate workings of home performances. Relating objects and bodies in the home, Dance group Excavate, Rebecca Henriksen, and Molly Hess explore the physicality of the home space in their respective performances. In Fine China, Andrea Zampitelli balances strength and vulnerability in the home. And Jamezie challenges gender expectations of self-grooming by performing the intimate act of hair removal. 

The public is invited to experience Performing the Home during four performance events or during quieter, more reflective gallery hours. Most performances will have remnants for viewing afterwards and can be viewed on a mobile device within the gallery. Interacting with the art and exploring the gallery are encouraged.

Note: This exhibit closed on August 31, 2016

Watch the performances on YouTube

Artists in Performing the Home

Christina Balch
Erik Benjamins
Excavate with Sharon Kivenko, Bess Paupeck and Alli Ross
Kristina Durr & Kyle P. Feeley
Rebecca Henriksen
Molly Hess
Jamezie
J.J. L'Heureux
Emily Manning-Mingle
Brooke Scibelli
Patty Simon
Gabriel Sosa
Andrea Zampitella

Furniture by Tossed & Found