what: texts for nothing by harold mendez
where: three walls art gallery in the west loop
accompaniment: emily + megan!
drinkability: 0 during the show- there were rumors of wine post-discussion
show length: 30 minutes
out of four: one/four
i have mentioned the facebook group i started a while back on here called "go see shows (with me!)". for a while i was essentially the only one active on it- always pitching shows, sometimes getting people to go. over the last few months a magical thing happened and other people started getting really active and i have found myself at more shows and events that i didn't necessarily pick out- and its an awesome thing.
harold mendez's show and the performance of TEXTS FOR NOTHING is a prime example of this. emily expressed wanting to get into more art galleries- and the opportunity to mesh our worlds of theatre and art was an exciting option. so- thats how we found ourselves littered among many art students in a pristine gallery with gorgeous exposed beams on a thursday evening.
TEXTS FOR NOTHING is a piece written by mendez heavily inspired by samuel beckett's collection of short prose pieces with the same name. we are spectators of two actors (whose names i didn't catch and don't appear anywhere online or in the large program i picked up) playing two characters ripped from paintings by jean-michael basquait & jim jarmusch. mendez borrowed not only from beckett's texts but also references to tv on the radio, deadwood, jean-paul sartre among many others.
they say - 'good artists copy- great artists steal'. maybe i should consider mendez's TEXTS FOR NOTHING as 'great art', but i simply can't. while i support and admire mendez for joining together the ideals of many artists- in my opinion there was too much emphasis put on other people's art versus his own. the two performers moved around the limited room, standing near the few pieces of artwork that we could view from our seat. i found myself wanting to see more of the art that mendez hung on the walls around me rather than the art that he is borrowing from other humans. while the actors did a fine job playing their roles- samuel beckett is renowned for a reason specific to the theatre community- which left me eyeing a lot of blank stares, flipping of programs, and eyeing phone devices in a period of thirty simple minutes from the audience around me.
harold mendez's BUT I SOUND BETTER SINCE YOU CUT MY THROAT showing is active at three walls gallery only through this weekend, april 12th. catch it before its gone!
_______________________________________
upcoming april shows:
thursday april 17th, 7:30pm: steppenwolf theatre's the way west
sunday april 27th, 2pm: the ruckus' the deer
join me, will you?