Microscope Gallery presents
CALORIE COUNTDOWN
a new performance by Marni Kotak
to premier at cutlog New York, May 9-12
Image courtesy of Marni Kotak © 2013
“Calorie Countdown” by Marni Kotak is a new durational performance dealing with the pressures of weight loss and fitness in current culture, with an emphasis on those placed on women following childbirth, The performance draws directly from the artist’s real life experience as a new mother. Since giving birth to her son Ajax 18 months ago as a live performance at Microscope, Kotak has seen her weight loss progress hindered first by a bout with postpartum depression and then by a broken foot which occurred on Thanksgiving Day. She is now seeking to get her body bikini ready.
At cutlog Art Fair, Kotak, dressed in her summer bikini, will work out continuously on an elliptical machine while wearing a BodyMedia FIT armband that tracks her real-time fitness information including calories burned against calories consumed, proper intake of vitamins and minerals, and the artist’s progress towards achieving her weight loss goals. The ongoing analyses tracked by the armband will be fed wirelessly into a computer and projected onto the wall so that she and the audience can track her progress as it happens. Hanging on the wall, beside the projected information will be a “Before” photograph of Kotak and an award plaque such as those given to athletic winners that she will receive upon reaching her ideal body weight.
Even when not present, Kotak will continue to wear the arm band throughout the entire run of the fair, as it will continue to track the amount of calories burned from all of her everyday activities (i.e. walking, viewing the exhibits, caring for her son, etc.), as well as the influence of sleep patterns on achieving her weight loss goals. This data will also be incorporated into the projected progress data.
Location:
The Clement Soto Vélez Cultural Center
107 Suffolk St
New York, NY 10002
Where:
Hallway (3rd floor)
Schedule:
Thursday May 9th: 6pm-8pm
Friday May 10th: 6.30pm-8pm
Saturday May 11th: 4pm-6pm
Sunday May 12th: 3.30pm – 5.30pm
About the artist
Marni Kotak is a performance artist who makes multimedia works in which she presents an everyday life being lived.
In October 2011, she gave birth to her son as a live performance in her durational exhibition, The Birth of Baby X, at Microscope Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. Kotak’s other Found Performances, or works based on daily activities, experiences, or accomplishments, include Calorie Countdown (Cutlog Art Fair), Raising Baby X: Little Brother (ongoing, Microscope Gallery), Postpartum Depression (2012, Fountain Art Fair), and staged re-enactments of her own birth, attending her grandfather’s funeral and losing her virginity in a blue Plymouth.
Her work has been featured in national and international media such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Good Morning America, TIME, PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, Village Voice, Hyperallergic, Times of London, and she was named one of Artinfo’s “Women Who Shook Up The Art World in 2011.” She is the winner of a 2012-2013 Franklin Furnace Fund award and a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council. She received a BA from Bard College and an MFA from Brooklyn College and is represented by Microscope Gallery in Brooklyn, New York City.
More info about cutlog art fair at www.cutlogny.org
