“Hasty Happenings” exhibition at the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Photo by: Lucy Grundhauser
Institutional art typically requires a set of standards – a specific sort of effort or background to deem it notable. To some, these guidelines give the craft a level of principle, an “only-the-best-make-it” type of mentality.
But you don’t realize how refreshing it is to dispose of this standard until you walk into an exhibition and watch a video of someone roughly singing “I Dreamed a Dream” on Photo Booth whilst taking shots and doing poppers.
“Hasty Happenings,” an exhibition of art outside of traditional merits of art presentation, showed at the Co-Prosperity Sphere in Bridgeport this past Thursday, April 19. The exhibit was conceived by Adrien Guadagnino, with the help of Alex Chitty, the head of Co-Prosperity Sphere’s artist-led programming council. For one night only, the exhibition featured art made quickly, with little thought about presentation.
The exhibit was open to the public and featured performance, visual and sensory art. Artists dropped off their pieces the night before, and there was a sign up slot day-of for performances.
“Each piece in the exhibition is a snapshot of the momentary mental and emotional state assumed at the time of creation” the event’s web page said, “tapping into the pleasure of completion and reverential observance of the tossed off.”
The hurried nature of the pieces was evident, adding an endearing quality without sacrificing impact– custom personal scents from someone who worked at a luxury perfume store, a salt lamp inside an animal cracker container, disconcerting pictures of an artist’s ex-boyfriends, and quickly choreographed ballets by an SAIC class. The pieces weren’t thoughtless, they were just working outside of convention.
For Issy Bottger, the performing arts aspect gave way to a charming and comical dance, where she removed articles of clothing with expressive choreography. The three-minute piece had the appearance of being improvisational but felt piercingly personal.
“It’s private performance that comes in my mind in the moment,” Botter said on the creation of the piece, “I’ve been really sick and really sad lately and the choreography felt like silly acts of violence.”
“Hasty Happenings” was the perfect medium, providing an outlet where typical standards for preparation were thrown out the window.
“This is the best place for art in the moment,” she said, “This piece couldn’t really be anywhere else.”
The exhibition was honest and felt like a better representation of day-to-day and the way human narrative functions. It gently proposed the potential beauty in letting go of specific expectations, making room for art in the everyday.
Patsy Newitt 