Lauren Marsden & Mike Bourscheid @ Trench

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Pair of performances draw on the elements of absurdity to challenge contexts of the contemporary art gallery

Photos by Ash Tanasiychuk

On Thursday July 25 2013, a night of performance art took place at Trench Gallery in the Railtown district of Vancouver BC. VANDOCUMENT’s Ash Tanasiychuk was there to photograph the event.

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From the event’s media release:

Night of Performance art featuring:
Die Wurst als Zeitmesser (The Wurst as a timer), Mike Bourscheid
Auction # 1, from The Auctions Series, Lauren Marsden

Thursday, July 25th
7:00- 8:30 pm
Trench Contemporary Art
148 Alexander St.

Trench Contemporary Art is pleased to announce an exciting night of performance art as part of our ongoing summer exhibition MONOMANIA II: Vancouver Emerging. Featuring the work of Mike Bourscheid and Lauren Marsden, each performance draws on the elements of absurdity present in the act of performance and the context of the contemporary gallery.

Die Wurst als Zeitmesser (The Wurst as a timer)

Mike Bourscheid’s Die Wurst als Zeitmesser (The Wurst as a timer) is a performative sculpture divided in two separate performances. In the first performance Bourscheid is a door attendant at the gallery space for an unspecific time. Wearing a suit with a sculpture attached to it, the so called Wurstzeitmesser (The Wurst Chronometer), he conducts the flux of people entering the gallery and setting the tempi of the performance.

In the second part, Bourscheid plays the saxophone through a glory hole-like curtain. Bourscheid performs a musical improvisation on the theme of Wurst and its abilities of conduction and rhythm.
-Mike Bourscheid

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Auction # 1, from The Auctions Series

The Auctions series is both a reaction to the shadowy presence of performative and time-based works in the contemporary art market (a challenge to the apparent pricelessness of a performance) and an exercise in self-reflection. The Auction #1 (of 3) presents itself within a specific historical, economical and narrative framework, and with it, we will see the worth of an artwork unfold before our very eyes.
-Lauren Marsden