Wyatt Kahn: WORK

For Performa 15, Wyatt Kahn takes on the role of puppet master with a tongue-in-cheek performance in which his paintings come to life and argue violently with him, their maker, rising up against him in a comical climax…

Manipulated by the artist, these irascible paintings-as-puppets critique Kahn’s creations, mimicking the language of daytime talk shows on WNYC that fill his real-life studio, generating a conversation between artist, artwork, and audience about the various stages of artistic production. Each puppet—a small copy of a large-scale painting—is modular, post-Minimalist, and shifts between illusions of depth and flatness through the sculptural collaging of white panels. Animated, they take on the high-spirited personalities and states of mind that brought them into existence in the first place—complex, humorous, and entirely the product of an irrepressible imagination.

The script for Kahn’s performance is co-written by Veronica Gonzalez Peña.

The Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre
November 2015
Role: Producer

St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum
December 2015
Role: Puppeteer and Producer