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.