Lucy Khan’s participatory performances are ideal for small groups and intimate gatherings. These private performances function as trust and team building exercises in which the goal is to experience shared vulnerability. If you would like to invite Ms. Khan to perform at your event or venue, each performance can be tailored to meet the specifications of the space. Her current menu of performance offerings are described below.
Performances
7 minutes in hell
(3 hr maximum performance)
Part photo shoot, part therapy session, 7 Minutes in Hell is a performance that challenges the viewer’s understanding of personal space boundaries. As potential participants enter into the field of performance, they are asked to complete an intake form. From the completed forms, one is selected at random and the chosen participant goes into a small, confined space with me for 7 minutes. Once inside, we discuss the contents of their form while I direct the participant through a series of verbal and physical and prompts. This intimate experience culminates with me taking 2 polaroid photos of the participant–one for me, one for them–which acts as a document of and a response to their current struggles as indicated on their form.
Be the cult leader you wish to follow
(2 hr performance)
This interactive piece was originally designed for artists and cultural producers in order to teach them the secrets of BYD: BUILDING YOUR DREAM. Learn what artists have in common with cult leaders and use their tips & tricks to cultivate a following! Stop self-sabotaging and start to BYD today. Protégés will learn (and be subject to) brainwashing techniques, aesthetic overhauls, manipulating group dynamics, and harnessing the awesome power of one’s own neuroses! This workshop will require your physical involvement in art making, writing, public speaking, improvisation, public humiliation, group critique, group movement, and so much more!
Dominate Yourself
(1 hr performance)
DOMINATE YOURSELF, is a program composed of 1-hour sessions designed to bring you face to face with the worst you have to offer. Part artist talk, part group exercise class, part D/s sermon, this participatory performance is an experiment in using physical education to transcend traditional notions of self. As a participant, wear something easy to move in so that you can properly surrender to forces greater than yourself. Come prepared to delve through your personal baggage so that together, we can conquer insecurities, internalize reality’s inherent contradictions, and come out the other side stronger than ever imagined!
Femme Gaze Fotobooth
(4 hr maximum performance)
The Femme Gaze Fotobooth uses the traditional party photo booth as its starting point. However, instead of participants styling and posing themselves–with the various props, costume elements, and accessories provided–here, they are positioned and photographed according to where their figures and my desires overlap. Offering up their body as an object to be projected onto, art viewers become art objects as individual curiosities in front of the camera commingle with those from behind the camera. Nude or clothed, anonymous or identifying, the boundaries of each scene are established through a brief negotiation immediately before the shoot. Through this gesture of consent, an ethical power exchange takes place wherein the art viewer embodies model and muse. The resulting image eliminates the distance between object and subject, presenting an opportunity for the participant to look at themselves being looked at…