So-called “porn king” Richard Basciano’s Times Square theaters were the last of their kind. Right up until 1998 when Guy Trebay, then at the Village Voice, lamented the dancer’s donning of bikini tops, these theaters welcomed the best of New York’s sleaze, no questions asked. Now a souvenir shop ironically called Playland Gifts, the once emblematic Show Follies Center saw a revival last night — not exactly of the hard-core variety, but strange nonetheless. Berlin-based artist Cecile Evans brought some of her home town’s infamous underground exhibition-making to New York’s underground, literally.
"Straight up," 2011, a seven-minute single channel video, features Evans in front of a black backdrop, performing a sign language interpretation of Paul Abdul’s 1988 hit of the same name. The work riffs heavily on acclaimed German modern dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch’s "Nelken," 1982, in which a suited male signs Gershwin’s “The Man I Love” in a somewhat minimalist absurdist gesture. Important differences emerge, however, such as Evans's deadpan expression throughout the video, save a knowing smile cracked about halfway through — like those flashed by the previous "performers" to grace the movie screen. Where Bausch’s male mouths the words, making his gestures function directly referential to a linguistically interpretive function, Evans's signing is entirely choreographic, at least to the majority of viewers. The glittery special effects that spurt from her fingertips muddy the conceptual waters further, merging a girl-like imaginary world — in reality created by a progressing drunken stupor — with this linguistic and pop-cultural deconstruction.
All in all, where '80s pop plays against flashy digital video, and art and porn collide, one thing is certain: you probably wanted to take your coat to the drycleaners in the morning.