Material Deviance in Contemporary American Culture / You are not your car

Material Deviance in Contemporary American Culture takes a sideways look at our object-based reality. Reflecting stuff-centered culture back to ourselves, this dream state passes through shame, nostalgia, patriotism, and the weight of inheritance. Choreographer and hybrid performance artist Alice Gosti asks, Do objects imbued with so much of our worth start to take over and take on a life of their own? This cluttered landscape expands like a hoarder’s collection and contracts like an immigrant’s suitcase. It breathes like capitalism, filling an existential void whose appetite is endless. Material Deviance helps us uncover what is buried under the steep piles along the path from our bed to the bedroom door. We hold it in our hands.

Material Deviance in Contemporary American Culture is funded by NEFA’s National Dance Project, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture. It also has support from the Vermont Performance Lab (VT), which is funded by the NEA. Developmental residencies included Linda Austin’s Performance Works Northwest, Slate Theatre, BASE: Experimental Arts + Space. With additional production support from Velocity Dance Center and Seattle University. 

Material Deviance is partially funded by the New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project Presentation Grant, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture. It was developed at On the Boards through the Performance Production Program, made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.