Marni Kotak. Dancing in the Oval Office

About

The title piece is a performance and installation that finds Kotak dancing continuously each day of the exhibit within a recreation and personal reinterpretation of the White House Oval Office. As is a custom in her family, Kotak uses dance in this work as a way to transform her daily anxieties into a cathartic and liberating act. In this way, Kotak seeks to reclaim her right to joy as an individual and an American, standing in opposition to those who abuse power, or use fear and other authoritarian methods. She encourages as many people as possible to join in and dance with her daily in the gallery.

Within Kotak’s Oval Office, elements such as the executive desk, sofas, armchairs, and a carpet with the presidential seal each mimic those of the actual office, but have been altered to suggest a more open, inclusive, and peaceful society. Although eight flags hang in the current Oval Office, Kotak has chosen the historical norm of two, offering her own hand-sewn versions of the American and Presidential flags and featuring materials culled from her own life as an artist and mother. The office is situated on a gold, oval dance floor surrounded by shear curtains of the twelve colors of the spectrum, and lit by rotating disco ball lights. Music is from a selection of cassette mix-tapes from the artist’s youth and digital playlists selected by her son Ajax, among others.

“Since I was a baby dance has been a central part of my personal and family life. … And as an adult I have found that when life feels overwhelming, sometimes the only thing to do is dance. I have been so personally bothered by the current presidency and corruption over the past three years, and feeling like I have to do something about it, so dancing came to mind. A saying in my family has always been: ‘The purpose of the game is not to win; the purpose of the game is to learn how to dance’.” — MK

Other works on view on the walls surrounding the installation include three new series of twelve oil pastel on wood panel paintings. Each features multi-colored text — often re-written over, overlapped, or erased — extracted from her diary entries from each month of the past three years. Additionally, a series of ink and oil pastel drawings and writings on actual $1 bills, framed in gold memorabilia cases, push the political undertones of the exhibition further and remind us of the values of people’s lives over those of convention and commerce.

Marni Kotak: “Dancing in the Oval Office” opens on October 18th and runs through November 24th, 2019, with an opening reception on Friday October 18th, 6-9pm.

Gallery Hours: Thursday through Monday 1-6pm, and by appointment. For additional information please contact the gallery at inquiries@microscopegallery.com or by telephone at 347.925.1433.