Catherine Sullivan Exhibition: Exploring Theatrical Representation and Performance Art

This exhibition features the work of Catherine Sullivan, focusing on her exploration of theatrical representation, the paradoxes of performance, and the relationship between role, person, and body. The central piece, 'The Chittendens', utilizes numerical composition strategies and a multi-projection format.

The exhibition at Secession centers on the work of Catherine Sullivan, whose practice interrogates the constraints and paradoxes of theatrical representation. Her films, theatrical productions, and sculptural works are rooted in the concrete experience of acting, exploring the schizoid structures that arise from the discrepancies between role, persona, and body. Sullivan's interest lies in the encoding of expression and the tools used to define and control actors' performances. Through the grammar of theater, she reveals culturally embedded codifications of gestures and self-definition. For her exhibition at Secession, Catherine Sullivan presents 'The Chittendens', a new work exploring numerical composition strategies and their application to performer behavior. The film, shot on 16mm and presented as a six-channel projection, adapts strategies of separation, recombination, and variation to the exhibition space. Sullivan developed a choreography based on abstract rules, assigning 16 actors 14 individual poses each, interpreted and performed rhythmically according to strict formulas. The work questions how actions can be broken down into quantifiable units, akin to a musical piece, and how arbitrary juxtapositions of poses can form distinct characters. It probes the nature of self-control and free will within the constraints of assigned gestures. Sullivan pairs the analytical purity of her approach with methods of alienation through temporal and spatial shifts. Costumes draw on various 19th and 20th-century stereotypes, offering no clear identification for actors or viewers. While previous works often transplanted settings into historical contexts, this exhibition's locations were chosen for their metaphorical resonance with the individual. The insurance company logo 'The Chittendens', featuring a solitary lighthouse, inspired the filming locations: a largely disused office building in Chicago and a small lighthouse on Poverty Island off Wisconsin's coast. These costumes and settings create new, arbitrary relationship systems for the separate performances, accumulating meanings and gestures. Ultimately, these behavioral regimes, shaped by historical and cultural imprints, become visible in the tension between the particular and the universal, questioning where the individual creates their own identity versus where they are inscribed into a community and an era through seemingly personal gestures.

Information and tickets for exhibitions can be found via the provided link. Visitors are directed to an external ticketing platform for purchase, suggesting separate admission may apply to exhibitions beyond general museum entry.