Robert Allen and Antoinette LaFarge Performance: Hangmen Also Die May 16, 2010

Hangmen Also Die is a performance and video piece. The work begins on opening night with a monologue by a live actor interacting with the projected environment. The live performance then merges with the projection, creating a recurring environment that changes over the course of a 70-minute cycle. The installation slowly breaks up as Allen and LaFarge note, “triggering successive attempts to salvage meaning by re-interpolating material.” Ultimately, the work almost completely disintegrates. The actor’s performance reflects upon issues of political actions and systemic consequences drawing from a number of texts addressing these concerns: The Measures Taken (1930) by Bertolt Brecht; Hangmen Also Die! (1943) by Bertolt Brecht, John Wexley, and Fritz Lang; Mauser (1976) by Heiner Müller; and recent U.S. government documents.

Actor: John Mellies
Videographer: Amy Kaczur

Official Website: http://lagunaartmuseum.org/Current-Exhibit.html