Show Me Love, As part of Casual Dancing, an evening of performance and music hosted by Chaparral Studio, Glassell Park.
This piece considers the muffled “safe-space” of the bathroom at the party. Whether a place of solace, a place of secrets among friends, a place for drug taking, snogging, or sickness -- the bathroom at the party doubtlessly separates itself in terms of use, but also in terms of its spatial and environmental quality, from the party itself.
As guests leave the main space or the dance floor of the larger common area of the party and transition into the temporary consolation and relief of the restroom, this piece plays with/within the intermediate threshold of private space/party space. Inside the restroom, party-goers are confronted with a sonic quandary: Where is that music coming from?
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The slim-profile, portable power bass speaker and accompanying ipod are hidden inside the toilet tank, just above the water line. Once the play button is activated and the porcelain top tightly secured, the endless loop of Robin S.’s 1993 club hit “Show Me Love” plays continuously through the evening, from within the toilet.
I recognize that bass line . . .
Was that song playing the last time I came in here?
Is that song playing out on the dance floor right now?
Am I imagining things?
2011