Art Handling: An Installation Play by Liz Magic Laser

On May 11, 2024, Art Handling: An Installation Play by Liz Magic Laser premieres at Luxembourg + Co., New York, transforming the gallery space into a stage, the artworks into props, and a group of art handlers into its cast and crew. In this new experimental play, visitors are invited to attend the live in- stallation process of an art exhibition as it takes place in real time, following a group of technicians, artists and curators as they unpack, examine, and position a display of sculptures, paintings and videos. As the installation unfolds, unexpected interactions among the crew begin to take place as the art handlers share personal anecdotes and invite the audience to assist the installation, animating the artworks in the process. This day-long performance begins at 11 am with the arrival of the crew to the gallery. It concludes as celebratory drinks are served from 6 to 8pm. A live-feed from the gallery’s eight surveillance cameras will be projected and remain installed following the event.

In the weeks after the live performance a display emerges in which both process and product coexist. Art Handling: An Installation Play presents works by Lygia Clark, Gino De Dominicis, Liz Magic Laser, David Levine, Esperanza Mayobre, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg.

In keeping with Laser’s appropriation of reality television strategies, the play stars two artists who have often worked as art handlers: Sophie Becker, ventriloquist and Director of Jack Hanley gallery, and Esperanza Mayobre, Lead Preparator and Assistant Registrar at the Rauschenberg Foundation.

Liz Magic Laser is known for her original studies of the relationship between performative gestures and the social frameworks that condition them, from movie theatres to banks and therapy groups. In her new play, she lays bare the technical production phases of an art exhibition, a process typically concealed from public view and marginalized from critical discourse. In this artworld melodrama, conceptual decisions are put to the test as the art handlers challenge their skills and contractual boundaries.

Liz Magic Laser (b. 1981) is a Brooklyn-based, inter-disciplinary artist who was born and raised in New York City. Laser primarily works in multimedia video and performance. Her practice extends to sculpture and installation, intervening in public spaces such as movie theaters, banks, and newsrooms, of- ten involving collaborations with her audience, actors, political strategists, and surgeons.

Influenced by Bertolt Brecht’s concept of epic theatre and Augusto Boal’s theatre of the oppressed, Laser casts the camera as an active participant guiding human behavior. Laser’s work explores the growing impact of reality television on interpersonal communication, reflecting on the use of new age techniques and psychological methods in both corporate culture and political movements.