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Neuberger Museum of Art

Hard Return: Alix Pearlstein

Alix Pearlstein’s Inventory blurred the lines between then and now, self and other, live and recorded by using improvisational exercises to examine a personal archive of objects from previous artworks — props, structures, gestures — with a group of Purchase College student actors.

Improvisational exercises directed by the artist worked to plumb and produce emotional responses to objects or tasks. While the collection was replete with psychological resonance for Pearlstein, the actors encountered it for the first time. As the actions and objects generated new emotional charges, the work grew in excess of what is visible. This work of inventory changed the meaning of Pearlstein’s archive and developed links among the individual collaborators. At the end of each day, a summary performance was committed to video; each video recursively fed back into the work, serving as the next day’s point of departure for further reflection and creation.

Alix Pearlstein in Hard Return

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    Alix Pearlstein, Inventory, in Hard Return

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    Alix Pearlstein, Inventory, in Hard Return

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    Alix Pearlstein, Inventory, in Hard Return

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    Alix Pearlstein, Inventory, in Hard Return

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    Alix Pearlstein, Inventory, in Hard Return

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    Alix Pearlstein, Inventory, in Hard Return

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    Alix Pearlstein, Inventory, in Hard Return

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    Alix Pearlstein, Inventory, in Hard Return

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    Alix Pearlstein, Inventory, in Hard Return

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    Alix Pearlstein, Inventory, in Hard Return

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    Alix Pearlstein, Inventory, in Hard Return

 

Over the course of nine weeks from February through May, Hard Return: 9 Experiments for this Moment will transform the Neuberger Museum of Art into a site of collaboration, investigation, and performance art. Nine artists have been commissioned to create diverse, participatory, durational week-long projects that experiment with a sense of being alive in this moment while probing the influence of history on the present, proposing different ways of shaping and understanding community.

Hard Return: 9 Experiments for this Moment is organized by the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, SUNY, and co-curated by Purchase College faculty members Kate Gilmore, a renowned performance artist, and Jonah Westerman, an art historian who specializes in performance art.

Generous financial support for this exhibition has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art, and the Purchase College Foundation. Additional support of the student participation in Hard Return has been provided by Ivan Bart & Grant Greenberg and Ava & Paul Zukowsky.

 

Related Event: Artist Talk

A Conversation About “Hard Return: 9 Experiments for this Moment”

April 11, 2023 | 6:30pm | Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture