The Sunken Living Room: Closing Party with a Performance by Exhibiting Artist Danna Vajda

Franklin Street Works is pleased to announce a closing party for its latest exhibition, “The Sunken Living Room,” which examines the most recent economic recession through the lens of contemporary artworks. Join us on Saturday, May 24th from 6:00 – 9:00 pm for this free event which will celebrate the last days of the show with a performance by exhibiting artist Danna Vajda. Enjoy bar snacks, free wine and music while viewing the original, group exhibition that features video, text, printmaking, sculpture, and photography.

Danna Vajda’s performance, “thewateringhole,” takes the premise of the post-work drink, the beer, the glass of wine, the cocktail, the shot that creates a possible momentary breakage between a days work and oneself outside of work. The performance entails the mixing and serving of a series of classic drinks and cocktails while using a set of institutional letterhead paintings as recipe cue cards. The recipe’s contents bring together classic ingredients such as aromatic bitters or a cube of sugar, with exhaustion, muddled contradictions, always shaken, stirred and strained. Much like an instructional video, recipes are read aloud, the drinks mixed, served and then on to the next drink. Each recipe functions as an encrypted resignation letter signaling an impasse in the relation between individual and institutional identity. 

The Sunken Living Room, curated by Terri C Smith, is an exhibition of contemporary art that investigates the most recent economic recession. The show’s title simultaneously reflects the interior design phenomenon of the lightly stepped down or “sunken” living room, popular during the 1970s recession, and the crash of the housing market during the recession in 2008. Through a mix of documentation, observation, allegory, and autobiography, the twenty-four artists in this show lend unique perspectives to recent fiscal crises, tackling topics that include: labor, debt, the collapse of the housing market, post-industrial cityscapes, unemployment, and banking practices. The Sunken Living Room is on view through May 25, 2014. Exhibiting Artsits: Anya Sirota + Akoaki, Michael Bell-Smith, Andrea Bowers, Ingrid Burrington, Nancy Davenport, Kerry Downey, Jonah Emerson-Bell, Kevin Jerome Everson, Beate Geissler and Oliver Sann, Olga Koumoundouros, Urich Lau, Mads Lynnerup, Kirby Mages, Rainger Pinney, Oliver Ressler and Ana Pečar, Sal Randolph, Danna Vajda, and Constantina Zavitsanos, with special projects by Alberta Cifolelli, Roxanne Faber Savage, Peter Donald Gramlich and Liz Squillace. 

ABOUT DANNA VAJDA:

Danna Vajda is an artist and writer, born in Vancouver, Canada and based in Brooklyn, New York. Recent exhibitions include both institutional spaces and provisional, less institutional spaces.