AVOIDANCE & PECULIAR
AVOIDANCE & PECULIAR is a performance piece devised in 1984
Much in Mussmann style, the text of the production functions as the underlying structure that initiates the movement, sound, images — without forming a concrete narrative.
AVOIDANCE & PECULIAR was first presented at Robert Whitman’s studio in NYC, what would later become The Kitchen.
Mussmann continued to tour the production all over the U.S. as well as Canada in 1985.
AVOIDANCE & PARTICULAR began showing at the West 19th Street Studio in January of 1985.
“Impelled by the challenge of sharpening our conciousness of our own perception of sound, image and in its broadest sense, ‘meaning’, Linda Mussmann has, since 1969, produced performance which undermine the traditions of theatre. Through an innovative synthesis of art forms and a highly developed philosophical approach, Mussmann has created a novel form of spectacle, a kind of multi-sensory Impressionism.”
-Susan Martin, Press Release, 1985
“Her texts are the result of an architectural process of deconstruction and reconstruction whereby, language now assembled with gesture, music and spatial design, an entirely new edifice of reality proposed. ‘What prevents us from access to the whole of our existence is our tendency to reject thinking about things we consider ‘meaningless’…we insist on keeping ourselves shut within easily accessible particulars".
-Susan Martin, continued from 1985 Press Release
“We don’t fill in all the blanks; the territory is open if the watcher is keen. The structure is highly developed, but how it fits together varies from one performance to the next and from one audience member to another”
-Linda Mussmann quoted in Now Theater article May 9, 1985
Linda standing in front of set from The Kitchen, NYC performance
A&P Publicity photo 1985
Slide from NightWood Theatre, Toronto 1985
Semih sitting at the piano
Claudia Bruce performing at University of Houston, 1985
In 2013, TSL presented a multimedia, interactive performance installation in the TSL gallery space.
The re-envisioned piece had many of the original elements, including the deconstructed piano — a concept developed by John Cage by altering the sound of a piano by placing objects between the strings and hamers.
Linda Mussmann gave a presentation on the work March 29th 2013, which included Claudia Bruce, Bryce Courbois, and Gerald von Stoddard reading and performing in the space.
