All this weekend at MoMA PS1, German artist Anne Imhof is performing under the dome with four big, fat, fluffy bunnies. Or if you want to get technical, with four Flemish Giants. Named Ice, Snow, Ontario, and Dee Snyder.
Scott Lynch / Gothamist
Imhof's afternoon-long performance piece is called Deal, and it's presented in conjunction with her upcoming solo show here at PS1, which opens on January 31st. I spent about three hours watching Deal yesterday; here's what you can expect if you go today.
Enter the VW Dome in PS1's courtyard, and the stage is set with two concrete troughs of what looks like grey slime or goopy cement but is actually buttermilk; two piles of paper towels (for wiping down said buttermilk); a scattering of beverages in cans (Bud Lite Lime; Diet Coke); and four suuuuuper cuuuuuuute buuuuuuunnies—er, Flemish Giants—in a plexiglass pen.
Scott Lynch / Gothamist
Seven young men and women wearing skinny jeans and t-shirts appear, squat on the floor, and begin a quiet chant that I couldn't quite decipher. And then... well, not much, depending on which part of piece's cycle you're in. They move around a bit in a slow, choreographed way, and dip there hands into the buttermilk, and pour beer onto their legs and, eventually, someone releases one or two of the rabbits.
Scott Lynch / Gothamist
Don't worry, though, there's a lot more hot bunny action inside the actual museum, where the second part of Imhof's work, SOTSB Deal, happens simultaneously in a second floor gallery. Up here one rabbit, named King Lear, runs free (the other, Loki, remained confined while I
was there, "because he's mischievous", said the wrangler from Sunny Oaks Rabbits), while three performers trot and dance about, sip buttermilk from yet another trough, and bang, to impressively startling effect, several short metal rods against the walls and onto the floor.
Of course, no trip to MoMA PS1 is complete without a stop into M. Wells Dinette. Just about every dish on the menu here is great—the Mushroom Soup, the Blood Pudding, and the Beef Tartare are all tried-and-true favorites—but the obvious choice for a snack yesterday was the Rabbit and Foie Gras Terrine. It was delicious. Sorry King Lear and buddies.
Ann Imhof's Deal will be performed today as well, from 12:00 noon to 6:00 p.m., in the MoMA PS1 courtyard under the VW Dome, and inside the museum proper on the second floor. Anne Imhof's solo exhibition at PS1 opens in January 31.
