“Hardening” by FIN & FlucT at Lighting Studio II, New York

In their newest collaboration, multi-disciplinary Canadian artist Rebecca Fin Simonetti (FIN) and NYC-based performance artists Sigrid Lauren and Monica Mirabile (FlucT) transformed a Bowery chandelier store into an immersive performance-installation. Audiences were directed through the store by a team of anonymous “security guards”, and given brochures made by Monica Mirabile, outlining a series of exercises choreographed by FlucT meant to “prepare the mind and body for commercial overdose”. FIN’s music reverberated amidst a cave of chandeliers while FlucT embodied glitchy identities of a business woman and a yoga girl. Throughout the space, FIN projected video loops of her animation through/into chandeliers – refracting images onto the audience and performers. Combining various mediums, Hardening engages with notions of cultural fantasy, consumer impulses, and the construction of female identity.  For this special hour-long piece, Rebecca Fin Simonetti, Sigrid Lauren, and Monica Mirabile activated the power of a commercial space as a tool for both manipulation and enchantment. Watch more of FIN’s work on purple TELEVISION here. Photo Elise Gallant