Manic and Wasted

group show @ Swing Space Lower Manhattan NYC

curated by Randall Garrett ~ Aug to Sep 2006
see more @ manic-and-wasted-james-wagner

video of my opening night performance

my sketch for the installation that is in the book Beets,

an empty bank building on Wall Street is sci-fi futuristic, unconventional space that we took as a special challenge, most of the artists were in town for the install. I built the leaning wall for Pedro Velez, duplicating his last exhibit...Donna Huenca, Mariana Saldana, and Jason Villegas had sewing machines and glue guns going 24/7. Part of my performance is finishing the installation, the aluminum screen wall and pipes was working came together when workers brought in heavy dance floor sections and I

was able to use 3 of the sections. I now had a circular flow from floor to ceiling and used my extended sound track to drag out the performance so Mariana can do her speeded up clothes changing while I move in a slow motion juxtaposed across the room from her. Randall and I were sleeping on the roof of Jack the Pelican Gallery in Williamsburg, but when the floors showed up I decided to sleep on top of my art on the wood floors, as the city became quiet, the subway rumbled underneath. Besides Mariana and I, Jason and Donna also performed, and all were incredible. Randall shot the video and Niloo Jalilvand edited.