MICHELLE AT THE POWERPLANT
Time has flown; this has been my summer of being a slave to children so it has taken me some time to recover my regular self again…
Just before I left Brooklyn in June, I was surprised by an email from a great friend whom I have not seen in a long time, the one and only Michelle Williams Gamaker. She had invited me to the press opening of the Adaptation group show at the Power Plant of which she was part. Michelle is an artist from London, currently working again in Amsterdam, and was one of the first people I met when I moved to Europe five years ago. I remember landing like a crackpot off the plane with two giant suitcases and no idea where I was, and she took care of me by letting me crash in her house with Zen and Kim, and kept me welcome there during the same time that Gary and his amazing crazy Polish girlfriend Anya were also visiting, it was a real full house with such bustling winter energy. Aside from the diversely chill intellectual conversation, I distinctly remember it being the only time I had tasted smoked vodka! (from Poland)… I also remember Michelle’s voice back then exclaiming ‘I feel like I’m getting a mass-age’ while trying to watch some insane quiz show about magic on television after her, Anya and I made a trip of perusing a smart shop two days after my arrival.
Anyway, In the time I have not seen her, she has completed her PhD at Goldsmiths, gotten married, and just co-directed a feature length entitled ‘Mère Folle’ with Mieke Bal. Woof! I miss you dear and hope to see you again soon <3
Happily, I managed to catch Adaptation just before it closed on Sept 12. It was a really nice summer show, with an accessible theme (albeit a little far stretched at times) of what I understood to be an exploration of pseudo-animalism in contemporary culture. I have seen Michelle’s myriad documentary projects in the past, but never her performative work. What she showed here was a video where she is filmed playing dead, whereby her pet dogs sniff and lick her all with a slow motion edit. It’s so uncomfortable to watch because I have never seen her so passive, and it’s all made to seem romantically bestial! The same uncanny feeling arises when my dog tries to clean my hand.
If you want to know more about this fabulous woman:
http://www.michellewilliamsgamaker.com/Home.html
