Setting | A Performance In A Bookstore

​Setting | A Performance In A Bookstore

​Performance by Ye’ela Wilschanski
Curated by Qianfan Gu

​Duration: 20 minutes.

​10-18$

​This newly commissioned performance by artist Ye’ela Wilschanski, Setting | A Performance in a Bookstore, is part of 39 Footnotes, the inaugural exhibition at Accent Sisters’ new Union Square location in New York City. The performance also serves as the exhibition’s closing ceremony.

​Inspired by the gestures of setting a table, the performance includes a theatrical purple tablecloth unfolding a visual story. Drinks and finger food in relation to the performance will be served. (Allergy warnings will be shared with the audience.)

​Image description: A set of miniature silver spoons placed in my hand. Silversmithing and image: Ye'ela Wilschanski.

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​More about the artist:

​Ye'ela Wilschanski’s primary medium is sculpture, layered with performance and video. Her time-based architectural-garments carefully construct large geometrical forms, evoking frames such as window, book and table. These transformative wearable items the artist enters into, suggest structural shifts in both the artist’s body and the garments. Based on wood or PVC pipe frames, these opaque swathes of material caress her body as they progresses into various forms, gradually revealing several garments sourced from, and returned back into the frame.

​As the artist moves within and reconstructs relation to these fabrics, not only does the form change, but also the appearance of her own body in them, as it (dis)appears in between these layers. The playfulness this setting enables, transforms the appearance of her body; at times it seems diminutive in relation to the structure, and at times consumes it.

​This sophisticated design and mechanism is essentially an extension of her body and reframing of her body, which she considers to be the anchor in her performance pieces. Through her choreography and combination of mediums, Wilschanski examines the notion of functionality and corporeality in an environment she creates.