Acts of Service
Borrowing from the conceit of a “spa service menu,” Acts of Service offers “treatments” that visitors may select with the promise of care through the lens of ocean depths. Photobiomodulation, Scrub & Wash, Pressure Point Massage, Burial and Confession services are mapped to Euphotic, Mesopelagic, Bathyalpelagic, Abyssal and Hadal ocean zones. The spa does not take reservations, and appointments can be made on a first come first served basis.
Acts of Service begins as a live performance series by Anna Rose Hopkins and thereafter becomes an invitation for devised interaction amongst visitors of Languish at the End of the Ocean, an installation by Hopkins and Marina Zurkow within the exhibition Sprout Hinge Nap Wobble.
Activations:
March 12, 12pm-5pm
Wednesday - Saturday, March 16-19, 12pm-5pm
*From March 23 to May 14, Acts of Service are encouraged as one to one participation between visitors of Languish at the End of the Ocean, A Free Spa.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Curated by Dylan Gauthier, Radhika Subramaniam and Marina Zurkow, and featuring installations by Gaye Chan + Nandita Sharma, Anna Rose Hopkins + Marina Zurkow, Del Hardin Hoyle, Sal Randolph with Anne Randolph, and collaborators, Sprout Hinge Nap Wobble is a group exhibition that invites the public to feel planetary relationalities at a time of planetary crisis. The vicious systems and wilful actions that are responsible for today’s planetary catastrophe have spawned an attendant industry of planning—preparedness, scenario planning, emergency management—that directs itself to the future, to anticipation, to fear, to escape. Through a series of arrangements and encounters, Sprout explores the material and metaphorical ways in which connections are possible in a climate of uncertainty—neither wholly optimistic nor utterly despairing, neither propelled by urgency nor foreclosed, but held within their vibrating tensions.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Anna Rose Hopkins and Marina Zurkow have been collaborating since 2013 on climate change related dinners, snacks, and performances in the United States. They have been supported by the Food x Film Festival, the Guild of Future Architects, Rice University, UCLA’s Laboratory for Environmental Narrative (LENS), the Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego, and Boston University. For this artwork, Hopkins and Zurkow have created the installation Languish at the End of the Ocean, A Free Spa, and Soupy Salty Sonic: A Liquid Wanting (the audio work embedded in the spa), activated by Hopkins’ performative “Acts of Service” during the first week of the exhibition.
Anna Rose Hopkins is a performing artist and chef by trade who plays at the intersection of food, theater and narrative. Her work considers food systems, the Anthropocene, affective labor and hierarchies of service. Her collaborative works have been supported by Swissnex SF, Getty PST:LA/LA the Barbara Seiler Gallery. Film/TV works of note include Dark Night (dir. Tim Sutton), Amos World (dir. Cécile B. Evans), and Gregory Go Boom (dir. Janicza Bravo). Anna Rose is co-founder of Farm2People, bolstering the farm to food bank supply chain; chef and co-owner at Hank and Bean; writer/actor with IAMA Theatre Company.
Media and participatory practice artist Marina Zurkow connects people to nature-culture tensions and environmental messes with humor and affection. Her work has been featured at Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul; Storm King Art Center, New York; the 7th Moscow Biennale; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; Sundance Film Festival, Utah; and the Seoul Media City Biennial, Korea, among others. She is a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow and received grants from NYFA, NYSCA, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Creative Capital. She is represented by bitforms gallery and resides in the Hudson Valley, New York.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This is Lenapehoking, the Lenape homeland and gathering place for many Indigenous nations and beings. When the unceded earth breathes again, there will be Indigenous lives here, as there are now and have always been. It will still be Lenapehoking. We learn from the bedrock and commit to uplifting, honoring, and listening to those who are seen and unseen, present and future.
ACCESS INFO
EFA Project Space is located on the second floor of 323 West 39th Street. It is accessible via an elevator (whose door width is 32” and car width is 65”) or two flights of stairs. At the building’s ground-level front desk, you will be asked to sign in with your name but not to provide ID.
The exhibition is free. Chairs with backs are available to guests upon request by speaking to a gallery attendant. There are two non-gender-segregated bathrooms on the building’s third floor, accessible via the elevators, outside the Project Space. The bathrooms are cleaned twice daily. One bathroom is wide and long enough to accommodate a wheelchair; the other cannot. Neither bathroom has grab bars. Though we cannot guarantee a scent-free space, we ask that all guests, who are able, to attend the exhibition fragrance-free, out of consideration for guests with chemical sensitivities. Fragrance-free soap is available in the restrooms on the third floor.
For the health and safety of our staff and the general public, attendance at events requires advanced RSVP. All attendees must show proof of vaccination. Masks are obligatory for entry.