Promiscuous Production: Meeting is Bittersweet
A National Bitter Melon Council Public, Interactive Intervention, Nov. 7, 2010
Group Exhibition: Let Them EAT LACMA, a 1-day performance event celebrating the closing of the garden-focused exhibition: EAT LACMA (June – November, 2010)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Participants interpreted the instruction broadly, realizing a collective performance turned institutional intervention throughout LACMA. Pink and green pollen peppered unwitting friends and strangers. It appeared everywhere — on bodies, walls, and floors, and even snuck into other performances. By the end of the day, the whole of LACMA was bittersweet.
This world cannot be understood through sweetness alone, but often bitterness is seen as a repellent flavor and emotion. However, we believe that fear and avoidance of bitterness on the tongue and in the spirit lead to blandness and flatness of experience, hence our exploration of the bittersweet in this performance. Exposing these opposites in a performance environment instigated exchange through difference — indeed, because of it. The wonder and play in participants’ interactions reached from one polarity to the other in a way was truly bittersweet.