Ian Deleón

Social Health Performance Club is proud to present "Empathy Play", an evening of performances with artists:

Lorene Bouboushian Zachary Fabri Ian Deleón Geraldo Mercado Rafael Sanchez

The title pays reference to the empathy play that psychologist Piaget described as the pretending to be another person or thing that leads to greater empathy in the development of a child. Operating within a framework of identity politics, "Empathy Play" asks what does it means to make work from another perspective? Is it ok to assume another identity? When does that become offensive co-opting and when is it investigation and "empathy play"? "Empathy Play" marks the first in an extended series of teaser events leading up to culminating exhibition program "Before it’s Over: Identity, Difference and Hegemony" slated for Fall 2015.

Primarily operating as a curatorial entity founded by Ayana Evans, Esther Neff and Elizabeth Lamb, Social Health Performance Club gathers temporary collectives of artists to produce events, exhibitions, and other public art projects. The Club itself is framed as a performance, gathering together as action, understanding social relationships as artistic processes.

Performance art, video of social action, and live music compose the 36th installment of PERFORMANCY FORUM, a platform for experimental performance practices across disciplines.

Each event uses a topic/title as a frame for discussion and analysis of the work. This time, we focus on the intentions of the artist, the intentions of participants, and intentionality as it relates to performance.

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IAN DELEON http://iandeleon.com/

AYANA EVANS http://ayanaevans.tumblr.com/

NATASHA JOZI http://www.natashajozi.com/

ELLEN O'MEARA http://ellenomeara.com/ MATTHEW GANTT http://themoneyjungle.tumblr.com/

******************************************** pay-what-you-can, $5-15 Brooklyn Brewery available for a suggested donation ********************************************

What is an intention? What does it mean to "have" or "not have" one? How are intentions subverted, misinterpreted, appropriated, and invented? To what extent does an artist get to decide what their work is "about" and/or how it operates for a live audience in a live situation? To what extent are intentions "embedded in" or visible in artwork? Similarly, but perhaps more esoterically, what is "intentionality" or conscious action? Are all performed actions "intentional"? Or, as some "anti-intentionalists" argue regarding states of consciousness, can some states of performance become mystical experience or "Pure Consciousness Events" in which awareness exists, but has no object, is not awareness "of" anything?