Lex Brown: The Inside Room
April 19, – June 8, 2019
Due to the process-based nature of the Session program, Inside Room will undergo constant modifications; the features of this page provide accruing information on the project’s developments.
Events
All events are free and open to the public. Events are subject to change
Lex Brown: Julia Proctor Clown Workshop
Saturday, May 4th, 12-4pm
RSVP
On Set: A tour of Feirstein School of Cinema
Friday, May 24th, 3-4pm
RSVP
Biologically Inspired: a discussion with Joel Simon, creator of Ganbreeder
Thursday, May 30th, 7-8:30pm
RSVP
Binge Party, Book Release & Closing Reception
Saturday, June 8th, 2-8pm
RSVP
The Inside Room
If, at some point in the future–between our point of origin and the point of no return–machine intelligence, virtual reality, and immersive set design conspire to render us powerless in the face of the ultimate media experience, it is now vital to make a TV show whose format speaks to an undoing of that future.
On April 19, Lex Brown will launch The Inside Room, a project that transforms Recess into a production studio for impromptu, tactile TV made for the body and voice. Operating in the gaps of media language, The Inside Room will seek a texture beyond the JPEG and create a dynamic relationship with the barrier of the screen. Tantamount to this project is a celebration and reinscription of what is human at a time when our lives are increasingly controlled by the inhuman and inhumane.
The Inside Room will produce an episode of a news broadcast TV show open to public participation. During Recess’s open hours, visitors will be invited to participate on varying levels, from observation to drafting scripts along guided prompts, delivering lines, or performing completely improvised scenes. Structured by Brown’s Revolving Narrative style–in which a single character is portrayed by multiple performers, and a single performer portrays multiple characters–storylines will approach systems, relationships, and common experiences rather than any limited notion of identity.
The public will be invited daily to engage using onset costumes and sculptural props; green screen filming; voiceover and instrumentation; and a daily “call sheet,” noting where the storyline went in the day before, and questions about where the storyline could go next. Remote viewers can participate via online plot polls and live chat. Each episode of The Inside Room will be devised and filmed over the course of a week and aired online on Monday night. Brown’s two month residency will culminate in a full day “Binge Party,” inviting performers and project participants for short cameo performances of their characters and a full day screening all of the episodes.
Open to the public Tuesday-Saturday, 12-6pm; Thursday, 2-8pm
About the Artist
Lex Brown is a writer, performer, and visual artist. She received her M.F.A. in Sculpture from Yale University School of Art and her A.B. in Art and Archaeology from Princeton University. Brown has performed and exhibited work internationally at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland; The Hammer Museum, REDCAT Theater, 356 Mission, and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles in Los Angeles; The Kitchen, New Museum, the High Line, International Center of Photography, and Deli Gallery in New York; and MunchMuseet in Oslo, Norway. Brown is the recipient of various awards and residencies, including a Sommerakademie Fellowship in Bern, Switzerland; Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture in Maine; The Madeconia Institute in Chatham, NY; and Susan B. Whedon Award in Sculpture from Yale University. In 2013, she was the Coordinator and Lead Teacher at Thomas Hirschhorn’s Gramsci Monument, produced by Dia Art Foundation in the Bronx, NY.
Recess is supported, in part, by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; The National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council; The Horace Goldsmith Foundation; The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation; Art for Justice Fund, Pinkerton Foundation, ELMA Philanthropies, Laurie M Tisch Illumination Fund, The Salomon Foundation, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Prospect Hill Foundation, Powerhouse Environmental Arts Foundation and The Tikkum Olam Foundation. In-kind support is provided by Materials for the Arts.
