Yesterday, I was in the 14th Street Union Square subway station walking across the mezzanine when my ears perked up to the sweet sound of classical music. I followed the sound, and discovered that there was a performance art piece going on in the station. I walked into the performance about halfway through, so I am not sure about what happened in the beginning, but the parts I saw, were pretty interesting.
The performance featured two actors: one male and one female, with their faces painted pastel white and their lips painted in red lipstick. Their appearance reminded me of the stereotypical French mimes who perform actions and without speaking. Instead, these two performers were using their bodies to tell a story about a guy and a girl who fall in love and then grow apart from each other, set to beautiful yet morose piano music. Their facial expressions and small body language cues served to tell the story between these two lovers. I thought that the fact that they chose to do the performance in slow-motion was really powerful in that it emphasized the minute details of a relationship that is falling apart. It really engaged the viewer because the concept of time was so unique that it grabbed my attention, while also lending to the dramatic themes of the performance and the music.
Here is the Youtube link to the video that I took of the performance (sorry if you can’t really hear the music well):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6eJgUCmAHQ
I really love this piece you videotaped, and I wish I could have seen it in person. However, I usually walk past any performances in Subways because I’m always in such a rush to go to point A or point B, and perhaps these mimes are making fun of the typical fast-paced NYC schedule we’re all so used to. To really appreciate this slow-motion performance, I find it interesting that one would have to pause from the day and just soak the performance in; it makes the art that much more immersive.