Performance: Nobody Wade Never Too Much
by Geo Wyex at JOAN Los Angeles
Date: Saturday, October 26
Doors Open: 7:30PM
Performance: 8:00PM
Location: JOAN Los Angeles, 1206 Maple Avenue, Suite 715, Los Angeles, CA 90015
During a university staff meeting / at the bottom of a river / at the site of the big bang, an esteemed professor, chair of Muck Studies Dept, collapses through and with a constellation of objects, processes, and material in a murky and gaseous scene of communion with that which is yet to arrive.
A relative of Samuel Beckett’s classic absurdist play Waiting for Godot and Luther Vandross’ 1981 hit single “Never Too Much”, the performance is an extension of Wyex’s ongoing project Muck Study. Muck Study is a leaky method of approach to black and trans life that uses the sensorial as an investigative tool to allow for a certain squelch of history and meaning. Muck Studies Dept, an investigative personality inspired by so-called “muck-raker” Ida B. Wells and the cartoon character Inspector Gadget, conducts this research by “touching the bottom” of shallow, murky water, “looking for stars, outta what stinks.”
This performance is co-produced by ICA LA and JOAN on the occasion of their concurrent Fall presentations of work by Geo Wyex. Click here for more information about Geo Wyex’s exhibition at JOAN.
Written and performed by Geo Wyex
Movement consultation and dramaturgy by Will Rawls
Geo Wyex (writer, performer) is an artist and educator working through music, performance, poetry, and sound. His record ATM FM (2020), was released through Muck Studies Dept. – a constellational narrative framework and imaginary city agent that surveys the bottom of low-lying water areas, “looking for stars out of what stinks.” Muck Studies Dept. as a project is a Weltanschauung, with many forms and formats. Grounded by aesthetics and methodologies of black Atlantic poetics, investigative journalism, and absurdist theater, the project connects mud, water, gas, ass, rocks, coins, keys, extractive industry, and sensual expression of belonging to that flood. Wyex has presented work at MoMA PS1, New Museum, Stedelijk Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Dutch National Opera, L’Arsenic, Joe’s Pub, and many others. He was a resident at the Rijksakademie in 2015-2016. Recent collaborators include S*an D. Henry-Smith, Constantina Zavitsanos, Will Rawls, Every Ocean Hughes, Colin Self, and Tourmaline. He is currently based between Rotterdam, NL and New York City.
Will Rawls (movement consultation and dramaturgy) is a multidisciplinary choreographer, dancer, and writer. In 2023, his performance and video installation, [siccer], toured to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Momentary, On the Boards, and Portland Institute for Contemporary Art. Other recent presentations include the 35th Bienal de São Paulo, Counterpublic 2023, and Liste Art Fair. He has received fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, Herb Alpert Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, United States Artists, Rauschenberg Foundation, and the MacDowell Colony. His writing has been published by the Hammer Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, and Dancing While Black Journal. He is currently Associate Professor of Choreography in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at UCLA.
