This week, Zavitz Gallery features The Party, an exhibition by Ryan Grover, Alexa Gargoum, and Bogdan Chifa. According to the Facebook event, the show is “A simulation of party culture.” It opened on Oct. 20 and runs until Oct. 24. I wandered through the gallery with my friend Alec Follett, a PhD candidate in English, talking about the work. This is a selection from our conversation:
Will: So today we’re here, and there are invitations. The invitations are to the opening on Wednesday, where a party is going to take place, or something called The Party is going to take place.
Alec: And it could just be a bunch of people standing here doing exactly what we’re doing, thinking, “Well, why did I come here?” Or it could be totally different.
Will: Are you going to take an invitation?
Alec: Of course.
Will: Are you going to come to the party?
Alec: I don’t like to do anything after five o’clock on a Wednesday. [Laughter.] Eat some dinner. Simpsons at nine o’clock. Bed at nine-thirty. You can hear the floor. It’s a wood floor. It’s like a high school gym. You know what you did in high school and somebody’s like, “Oh, it’ll be fun, let’s go,” and you try to get yourself all excited, and you put gel in your hair, and then you come here and you’re like, “Ahh, now what?” I’d be standing probably here, against the wall, thinking to myself, “S**t, I don’t know if I should even be here.” But the interesting thing is that this is only part of the art. Because we’re not at the party. And presumably something will happen at the party. People will show up. The space is going to be different. So, it’s not only spatial art but it’s temporal. Parties are a weird thing. They’re an uncomfortable place, right?
Will: One thing I think is really funny about parties is that you’re very conscious of other people looking at you. They’re inviting the viewers to be the performers. Because when you’re at a party, you’re the one performing and you’re performing sort of for everyone else, and everyone else is performing for you.
Alec: So it’s like when you go to a club, often times they’ll have an upper floor that overlooks the dance floor, so you can then remove yourself and just be the observer.
Will: Do you think this is going to be a cool party?
Alec: Oh yeah. Yeah.
Will: It’s not going to be a lame party.
Alec: No. Look, I can tell you, whoever picks up this invitation and thinks, “Yes, I’m coming to this,” they’re interesting people.