This performance was commissioned as part of Lydia Rosenberg’s exhibition, Do this while I wait, now on view in the Monterey Annex through December 2023. The exhibition was inspired in part by a previous work by Wilson performed in Philadelphia, PA in 2014 entitled unsuccess where she swept the floor of a gallery covered in artist-made debris.
About the performance:
“The artist will sweep a bespoke mess until everyone understands that unsuccess is not failure and reunsuccess is even ascension. In addition to the act of sweeping, the piece features an essential audio component which offers the viewer a new and confusing reality. We might ask, which is the performance, the sweeping or the sound? And is the art the objects swept or the artist sweeping? Fortunately, it won’t be unpleasant, because sweeping is just moving stuff around and sound is just science.
Reunsuccess will build something without telling anyone, and is carefully and chemically bonded to Rosenberg’s exhibition. Reunsuccess is something you could do while we wait.”
–Amalia Wilson
Amalia Wilson is a multi-disciplinary artist and performer based in Philadelphia, PA. She has performed original works in 28 spaces across the United States and Canada. Previous works include It’s not, don’t argue., an extended durational piece about humidity, and My Impossible Dream of Doing Nothing Even though I am Exhausted and I Whine About it All the Time Still Impossible, an athletic accomplishment featuring a red chair, among others. Most recently, she performed a new and collaborative piece, Untitled, with vibraphonist and composer Victor Vieira-Branco, creating complimentary instrumentation with a window blind, an alarm clock and a microwave to build a score for a construction project. Reunsuccess is the sequel or pair to her previous work, UNSUCCESS, which was performed once, in Philadelphia nearly 10 years ago.
*Image credit Amalia Wilson