Sarah Michelson’s Delicate Fetish Play
Sarah Michelson’s performance work “nowhere” is being presented daily at the Museum of Modern Art through October 11 as what performer Juli Brandano calls “essentially a 25-day dance.” The piece layers movement with objects, sound, and projections, including “Dance | Debt” duffel bags carried by dancers and taped seating branded with the names of theaters associated with Michelson’s career, while also reusing elements from earlier works such as “4” (performed at the 2014 Whitney Biennial) and “Devotion, Study #3” (2012) in MoMA’s atrium. The review describes Michelson’s self-referential approach, including a sequence in which ping-pong balls are shot at Michelson as she moves against a wall, and the appearance of two large silver sculptures of female dancers wheeled and spun by performers Lauren Bakst and Brandano to Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5.” The sculptures include provocative details—one with a necklace spelling “cunt” and another with a heart tattoo reading “RIP Steve Paxton”—framing questions about dancers’ labor, sexualization, and artistic legacy. The project acknowledgments thank the fashion house Maison Margiela.
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This story was covered in Restitution Reckonings and a Market on the Move