work week (2018) 

by Deidre Huckabay, Lia Kohl, Nick Meryhew, Andrew Tham, and Ryan Zerna.

For couch, stereo, tiny drumset, tiny drum stool, cross-stitch painting of two pandas, wicker chair, sod, table, phone, fake plant, lavender paint.

Work Week is a collaboratively devised, durational work in which Mocrep exposes and attempts to repair the violation of time inherent in capitalism. For an uninterrupted week, the ensemble lives inside a gallery, performance hall, or public space, working steadily to paint, then disassemble a collection of everyday objects. Over time, performers expose materials that were previously hidden inside the original tableau—foam, thread, fabric, plastic, nails, staples, wood, wicker—and catalogue them in a display of profound intimacy and care. Both an explicit critique of capitalism and a silent, slowly unfolding ritual, Work Week achieves a powerfully moving equilibrium between protest and peace. By turns loud and silent, expressive and stoic, confrontational and contemplative, it echoes both an occupation and a meditation retreat. Audiences can interact with Work Week by viewing a continuous live stream available online and via social media. Mocrep arranges multiple cameras in the space and broadcasts the performance 24/7. Camera angles are curated to expand viewers’ perspectives on the performance and its materials. Work Week enables audiences to experience a new feeling of the passage of time in their own lives. Previous viewers described the sensation of recalling that the performance was ongoing, sometimes without having to tune in. These participants reported that their own daily routines and obligations took on a new meaning when they felt aware that somewhere, inside a remote performance, time had been moving in a powerfully different way.

Work Week was first performed June 10–15, 2018 at High Concept Laboratories.

The first iteration of Work Week was generously supported through a weeklong summer residency at High Concept Labs. Mocrep thanks Comfort Station Logan Square for providing the opportunity to produce a work-in-progress performance during the May 2018 Force and Motion performance festival.

Photos by Leah Lee and Deidre Huckabay