‘Tracy Weller’ in ‘Found’; all photos by Eraj Asadi

‘Found’ Finds the Link Between Visual and Experiential Art (The NoPro Review)

In poking fun at the idea of capital ‘a’ Art, a world of whimsy is created

Allie Marotta
No Proscenium
Published in
7 min readOct 5, 2019

“Hi, I’m Mikel. Welcome to Heaven.”

Glorious, ethereal music fills the room as we step inside. We are surrounded by lovely, soft white things and have a seat. Mikel excitedly pulls away a curtain to reveal a live harp player. No, this isn’t The Good Place but it might as well be.

Found is a whimsical and perverse look into the world of visual artist Mikel Glass. Developed in collaboration with Mason Holdings, it is also the first immersive experience to take place at the cell, a multi story brownstone art space in Chelsea. The project sparked from a moment in Glass’s real life in which he found a baby doll in a plastic bag abandoned on the street which he originally mistook for a human baby. After having his own children and learning about the importance of comfort objects, Glass began to search for the owner of the baby doll by papering the Upper East Side with found posters with an image of the doll. The owner was never found, and Glass began collecting more dolls off the street, totaling in the hundreds, which are all featured in the exhibit. Considering this background, and that the experience was created in tandem with Kristjan Thor of Blackout, I had very high and very spooky expectations. Despite a room full of abandoned baby dolls and the other extreme oddities introduced throughout the night, it is a pleasant surprise that Found is everything you’d never expect in all senses of the phrase. Glass embarked on the project to stick it to the boring didactic of visual art, and the result is an entirely kooky and ephemeral experience.

Upon entry, guests are greeted and shown around by an incredibly friendly person in a jumpsuit. There are a variety of mixed media art installations throughout the lobby including multiple paintings of a strikingly similar subject in vastly different styles on the walls, a sculpture of a sacrificial doll, and for those curious enough, a small under the stairs cupboard featuring an old school projector with photos for exploring. Our jumpsuited friend leads us behind the back wall of the gallery and says, “If you’d like a drink, I’m sure you can figure it out. But no ice cream yet. Ice cream is for after.” We look up and see a twisting series of industrial pipes with three containers at the top, red, yellow, and blue, and spouts for each at the bottom. At the foot lies a commercial ice cream freezer, the kind with the sliding top that you would find in a corner store, and next to that a small table with an assortment of teacups. At once I know that we’ve fallen down some sort of rabbit hole, but certainly not into wonderland.

What follows is a journey through the wonders of Glass’s world, which is quite like our own but with more beauty and a bit less “sense.” We meet and interact with characters like a starlet in her dressing room who we get to dress and put makeup on, or a young “child” who invites us to play with her toy, a giant sized version of one of those twisted wire toys with the sliding blocks that are in every doctor’s office. On the third floor, we are greeted by a trash monster (Zoe Watkins) inside a gallery of shall we say, up-cycled art. She encourages us to touch the art, which includes a meticulously placed roll of aluminum foil and a giant cardboard packing box upon a pedestal amongst other impressive examples of this very fine and elegant medium. As soon as I reach to touch she screams, “DON’T TOUCH THE ART! OF COURSE YOU CAN’T TOUCH IT, IT’S ART!!!” However if you have something to offer to make it worth her while, she might trade you for three touches of the art. If you’re like me and have a stockpile of terribly punny children’s jokes at the ready, you’ll be granted a touch and will discover the secret behind all art — it’s fake!! And just like that you’re booted out of the gallery.

Across the hallway I am greeted by a strange overly charming and slightly catatonic half Stepford wife/half toddler type (Tracy Weller) who sings a nursery rhyme song to me. She immediately asks for a strand of my hair. “Would you like to hold Speckle?” she asks, holding a dirty baby doll with one eye. Obviously, I would very much like to hold Speckle. She places headphones over my ears and I listen to a profile about Speckle, with an emphasis on how much she likes yellow pudding. I’m instructed to enjoy the art while I hold her and listen, but I’m soon distracted by our hostess staring intently at me as she bottle feeds other baby dolls in the room. When I look over, she looks away. Soon, there is a tapping at what I had thought was a wall but is actually a glass door. I open it and find a grown man in a diaper inside. “That lady (indicating our hostess) is mean!! Here, read one of my stories.” He hands me a piece of notepaper just before our hostess slams the door shut. The hostess then asks me if I’d like to adopt Speckle but it turns out I don’t have the right blood type. However, I can return anytime my blood type changes to match Speckle’s D positive.

This world is a weirdo’s dream. It’s full of absurdity and Easter eggs of bizarre experience with absolutely no reason. I could see this offending some audience participants, but I’m a chaotic neutral so I felt right at home. If you can get on board with the lunacy, you’re sure to have a good time. It’s tempting to say that the point of this project is that there is no point, but there is one. Glass’s objective of turning the world of fine art and galleries upside down is well achieved and offers an opportunity to exist and experience without judgment or justification which is a rare find in today’s world. The audience is also well taken care of throughout the experience, so it was easy to feel grounded should the surrounding craziness manifest in an overwhelming way. In fact, there is such a thoughtful consideration for the audience in the construction of the experience and the physical space. There are gems hiding under the stairs or tucked into corners that make the piece highly engaging and create an atmosphere of curiosity and ambition. Each floor has secrets to be revealed, and they only get revealed if you’re brave and mischievous enough to discover them.

The use of artistic design in terms of space is reminiscent of companies like Exquisite Corpse Company who commission visual artists to create installations for them to lay the immersive experience over. Each new space is its own stand alone work of art and contributes to the feeling of immersion in the experience. Blending visual art and theatrical work isn’t new, but to do so in this fashion is a visionary leap for immersive creators. With a form so heavily dependent on environment, it seems like a natural relationship to develop. Installation artists bring a sense of higher risk, higher reward to the form that traditional set designers seem to lack. The project also reminds me of an immersive “gallery” created by Roll the Bones I recently wrote about, Galleria Esperienza. I was enchanted by the use of experiential art simply for the indulgence of experiencing something.

Found seems to be of a similar mindset, creating moments of experience just for fun, which feels like a bold move in the United State’s highly narrative driven theatre scene. Considering immersive theatre as a storytelling revolution in itself, I suppose bold moves are to be expected. There are a lot of rules to be bent and ideas to be discovered in this field and the work being done by projects like Found is an exciting progression.

FOUND continues through October 31. Tickets are $25.

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Published in No Proscenium

Your guide to the ever-evolving world of immersive art & entertainment

Written by Allie Marotta

Brooklyn based wearer of many hats. Collaborative & immersive theatre-maker/arts educator/researcher.

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