“I have to get on with my life”: Marni Kotak’s Found Performances from Birth to Present

“I have to get on with my life”: Marni Kotak’s Found Performances from Birth to Present

January 14, 2011 – February 11, 2011

Open reception: Friday, January 14, 7-9pm

Closing and live performance of “My Birth”:

Friday, February 11, 2011
8:00 pm

“You’re born in a bed, you dream in a bed, you make love in a bed, and you die in a bed.” – Marni Kotak, 2010

Marni Kotak will present a new performance entitled "My Birth" at the Alice Chilton Gallery, this Friday Night, February 11th at 8pm, in conjunction with the closing of her exhibition. In this live action, Kotak will undergo a public rebirthing ritual on her recently deceased grandmother's bed that the artist and her lover broke during sex. Typical of contemporary rebirthing practices, Kotak will employ cyclic breathing techniques in order to tap into and release traumatic memories stored in the deep reaches of her body consciousness. Starting from the recent past and moving deeper into her memory towards her birth, Kotak will re-experience traumatic events in her life, live in front of the audience, while simultaneously shedding layers of clothing, symbolic objects, documents and other memorabilia that relate to the distressing events, until she is ultimately bare and re-born. Leading her through this action will be her boyfriend, Jason Robert Bell, who will be present as a doctor/shaman/spiritual guide.  


Also available at the closing will be a limited-edition book with photos and written commentary about each of the artist’s performances from birth to present, and quotes by contemporary artists, curators and art writers, as well as members of the artist’s family, that speak to the concept of everyday life as art.


In her installation at Alice Chilton Gallery, I Have To Get On With My Life:  Marni Kotak’s Found Performances from Birth to Present, Kotak presents the major events in her life from birth to present within the context of a bedroom in a working class, New England town. The exhibit is installed in the style of her parents’ New England beach house utilizing household items that have been altered or imprinted with family photos, and includes photo plaques commemorating the ‘major performances’ conducted for each year of her life from 1974-2010. 

Background on Marni Kotak

Marni Kotak is a Brooklyn-based performance artist who creates interactive multimedia works in which she presents her life as art. Recent bodies of work include her MyHouse project whereby she proclaims that everything that transpires in her home in Bushwick, Brooklyn to be art; her on-going Livesystems through which she markets her everyday activities online and sells advertising on her body; and her Found Performances – or re-enactments of real life experiences – the latest of which, Sunny Blue Plymouth (2010), was just held at Fountain Art Fair in Miami, and involved a re-enactment of losing her virginity in a glittery blue Plymouth Acclaim, as well as a collaboration with international performance art group NONGRATA to destroy that same car. Other Found Performances include Hot Water Bags (2010), a re-enactment of childhood sexual exploration, at Plato’s Cave, S’mores (2009), held as part of the 10th Annual Open Art International Performance Art Festival in Beijing, China, My Grandfather’s Funeral (2009) at English Kills Gallery, and How to French Kiss (2009) at Grace Exhibition Space.

For more information, visit http://www.marnikotak.com

ALICE CHILTON GALLERY of PERFORMANCE ART DOCUMENTATION

147 Roebling Street Brooklyn, NY 11211 www.alicechiltongallery.blogspot.com

Press Contact: Gallery Director, Jill McDermid    646.78.3402