EMPAC HOSTS SALTY Kitchen Chaos

"Evidence of Labor: State of the Kitchen" takes a chaotic approach to the heart of the home.

 The kitchen is many things. For the sentimental, the kitchen prompts memories of warmth, nourishment, enticing aromas. The heart of the home.
 
But it also has a nexus for social and, ultimately, political power -- the woman’s domain, the arena for table talk and the portal to hand down heritage.
 
Anyway you look at it, the kitchen provided much fodder for Michelle Ellsworth and Satchel Spencer's performance piece “Evidence of Labor: State of the Kitchen.” Their plywood kitchen, erected at EMPAC in Troy on Friday night, was a room of chaos where salt was generously sprinkled by climbing, crawling and cabinet-slamming performers. And despite much contemplation, it’s difficult to lift the veil of the work that combines movement, a rambling word salad and video.

As I walked about this performance, I kept thinking it would combine into something hearty and healthy, for example, a recipe for life, but it never arrived.
 
Perhaps that is the point. The program notes tells us the creators see kitchens as socially and technically complex. Maybe they are too hard to understand – like their hour-long work.
 
Here’s a basic description that might help the reader understand what was happening. It opens with a man holding an alpine horn that is blasting. (He is not blowing into it.) He stands next to the wooden kitchen in which dancers, dressing in white jump suits, climb into ovens and cabinets to enter the central box.
 
They come and go as Ellsworth repeats phrases like “great, oh good,” “are we ready,” “perfect” and “let’s have borders.” As part of her rambling, Ellsworth also talks about the inadequacy of language, couples therapy and coming out of the oven. Talking over her is a voice that stays “5 seconds, 3, 2, 1 start.”
 
Meanwhile, the audience meanders around the set that also includes little video terminals where one can tune-out, with earphones, the kitchen and watch dancers skipping in bowling lanes, combing a fuzzy fringe hanging off a mantle or running with their arms spread wide in a grassy field.
 
There are an endless array of dish towels too. Dancers ironed and hung them about the room. Each is painted with patterns, words and technical drawings. Each towel is own piece of art.
 
The room also includes large traffic mirrors, allowing audiences to see another, distorted side of the construction, life-like video cameras made of wood and large screens on either side that show images from the interior kitchen box – some live – most pre-recorded.
 
While baffled by the concept, “Evidence of Labor: State of the Kitchen” was ultimately thought-provoking. With so much to see and hear, the piece will keep me wondering for quite some time.