Leslie Rogers: Play/Things
September 2015on view September 4th - 20th, 2015Opening Reception, First Friday, September 4th, 6-10pmPerformance: Wed. Sept. 23rd 8pmClosing Reception/Performance: Thurs., Sept. 24th 8pm
Based on the 9000 mile ‘Merikan Merkintile performance tour taken just this July with musician Nelly Kate, Leslie Rogers' PLAY/THINGS invites you to Chase Freedom by swiping the jumbo credit card flag staged atop a wooden puzzle map of the continental U.S., and to conflate sculpture, prop, memento, and regional potato chip. Return for the performances to find potato chip healing crystals, a cop who is sorry, a tiny tour van, western wear, and possible tea bagging.Bio:Leslie Rogers is a sculptor, video, and performance artist with roots in puppetry and fibers. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in The Michigan Society of Fellows, holds an MFA in Sculpture & Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her work draws heavily from slapstick entertainment, collaborative relationships, and gender tropes to disregard or erase perceived hierarchies between performer and object, and amongst art forms and social groups.In Philadelphia, she was a founding member of PuppeTyranny performance collective, curatorial member of Little Berlin Gallery, and a curator and organizer of touring theater for Puppet Uprising. Also in Philadelphia, she exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Vox Populi, International House, Little Berlin, Extra Extra, Practice Gallery, Copy, and Bodega. Elsewhere, she has exhibited or performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; Threewalls Gallery, AcreTV, and Links Hall in Chicago; at the Hammer Museum and Ultrazone Laser Tag with KChung Radio in Los Angeles; Current Gallery and the Trans Modern Arts Festival in Baltimore; Artisphere and Black Iris Gallery in Virginia, The Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, and in New York at St. Ann’s Warehouse for Great Small Works Toy Theater Festival, Secret Project Robot, Christmastown, and Monkeytown.