The flaws in Philip Johnson\u2019s iconic Glass House, his personal residence built in 1949 in New Canaan, Connecticut, are beyond physical. Once you look past the water-stained ceiling, modernism\u2019s oppressive legacy is pristinely contained in the building\u2019s architectural vernacular. The translucence of its floor-to-ceiling glass walls offer a privileged relinquishment of privacy by blurring interior and exterior space in a forty-nine-acre landscape couched in \u201cConnecticut\u2019s Gold Coast.\u201d<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
It is from this very notion of domestic transparency that the visual artist Jimmy Robert staged Imitation of Lives<\/em>, a fifty-minute performance exploring the incommensurability of the Black body in a \u201cmodernist masterpiece.\u201d Curated by Charles Aubin (Performa) and Cole Akers (The Glass House), and part of Performa 17\u2019s special Circulations<\/em> program which sought to reveal how performance can be a radical tool to rethink architecture\u2019s uses and aesthetics, the event highlighted how space is constructed by performative relations. With the help of dancers NIC Kaye and Quenton Stuckey, Robert destabilized the spatial regularity of The Glass House with enlivening aural and physical presence. Citing Johnson\u2019s short-lived amorous relationship with Jimmie Daniels (1933\u200a\u2013\u200a1935), the cabaret singer from Harlem, the event presented compelling movement scenes depicting and confronting the incredulous white gaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greeted at the Glass House visitor centre in downtown New Canaan with a Mercedes Benz shuttle to travel to the historic site a few miles away, the performance\u2019s impact was as much a product of its magnificent use of bodies, props, sounds, and spoken word as its awareness of the procedural realities of architectural tours. On site, Robert and Stuckey appeared in grey security guard uniforms with walkie-talkies, effectively blending into the space. Once it became apparent that they<\/em> were the performers, a pair of elderly white docents intently overlooking the entire event became starkly obvious in their bright sweaters. The looming presence of disarmingly gentle in-house security personnel acted as a constant reminder of the boundaries with which any performance\u200a\u2014\u200aaesthetic and quotidian\u200a\u2014\u200aunfolds. Playing on the audience\u2019s expectations of the ascetic environment, Robert quickly displaced power by focusing our attention on bodies that have historically been subject to (in)visible<\/em> spatial surveillance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By appearing variously in uniforms, hoodies, and an African print shirt, the performers took on predefined racialized roles yet broke from them repeatedly. Moving in, out, and through these garments, the fluidity of their actions transformed the space from a static historical landmark to a dynamic and self-reflexive archive. Literally wrestling to determine what a true Chez Moi<\/em> might look like, the performance referenced the title of a Daniels song amongst others who have looked to articulate the complexities of race, space, and identity. Culminating in explosive voguing to the sound of \u201cBurn the block\u201d by Bro Safari x UFO!, Robert called out Johnson\u2019s own documented bigotry and anti-Semitic behaviour. Slipping into the impermissible by drawing attention to the cracks in The Glass House\u2019s foundation, Imitation of Lives<\/em> presented a critical and timely revisiting of Johnson\u2019s gilded architectural career in affluent Fairfield County, where many of New York City\u2019s wealthiest residents have found weekend respite since the 1850s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n