Artist Brian Lobel, is on a mission – his goal, using the very 21st century phenomenon that is binge-watching TV series, is to create a space in which people slow down, connect with strangers, experience some strange intimacy, and through the act of silently watching, try to deal with some of the systemic terror and trauma that are so pervasive today.
This is BINGE, a performance installation at HOME in Manchester consisting of a collection of one-to-one and intimate drop-in performances over the Spring Bank Holiday Weekend based around your favourite box-sets.
Brian has drawn together eight artists – “a who’s who of Manchester performers including a range of artistic practices, with a delicious diverse series of televisual expertise,” he says. They are: Qasim Riza Shaheen, Jenny Gaskell, Eva Serration/David Chu, Tammy Reynolds, Andy Pilkington, Léonie Higgins, Ali
Rome, and Cheddar Gorgeous. Brian – born in New York but now based in London – names Sex and the City as his chosen binge-watch.
Creating a space to slow down, disconnecting from the noise of everyday life, and reconnecting with the comfort of a duvet – the artists will be wearing either pyjamas or bathrobes. Audience-members, who will be greeted by gallery invigilators in nightwear, are encouraged to do the same.
Existing somewhere between radical self-care and playful self-indulgence, BINGE is based on the artist’s world-renowned performance You Have to Forgive Me – about which Sarah Jessica Parker said “Wait, what?” – which Lobel has performed everywhere from youth hostel bedrooms in Lisbon to the Sydney Opera House.
BINGE blurs the distinction between the high-brow, the low-brow, and the freshly- plucked brow. Leave your own drama behind, and insert yourself into a world where whatever the drama it’ll probably be solved in under 30 minutes.
The performers and audience-members are invited to wear a pyjama/bathrobe- type covering so that everyone eventually looks somewhat similar, making it difficult to tell who is performing and who are audience-members.
“I’m thrilled to be curating BINGE,” says Brian. “We received applications from over 30 local artists and I think we’ve found a killer crew of artists, professional, emerging, emerged and everything in between.
“We have people with a wide range of televisual knowledge, From A Different World to Green Wing, from Coronation Street to Doctor Who and Crazy Ex- Girlfriend and beyond. Our artists/fan-fanatics have an epic amount of quotes to share, and expertise to deploy.”
PERFORMANCE CALENDAR
Fri 24 May 2019, 12:00 – 20:00
Sat 25 May 2019, 12:00 – 20:00
Sun 26 May 2019, 12:00 – 18:00
TICKETS Free, drop-in – please bring night-wear!
