Last Day of Magic

Sung-Hee Chang, Emily Hoover, Amy Keefer, Dustin Kelly, Christine Kesler, Stephanie Lagarde, Elyse Mallouk, Amy Martin, Josh Martinez, Lynne McCabe, Piero Passacantando, Brin Webster

Curated by Jan Van Woensel

Last Day of Magic is a one-day closed performance of rituals about departure and transformation. The rituals are designed with a personal significance and shamanic purpose. They examine the artist’s interpersonal experiences with belief, sacrifice, loss, disappearance, and memory. The undercurrent apocalyptic character of this project is based on the belief that after the last day of magic life ends. The project’s focus however, is on the quality of the shared experience of a suspended moment before the end. In-group, the artists sing a song that honors the departed, build a fire, sacrifice personal objects, drink wine, and sleep. Last Day of Magic is a melancholic journey to the metaphoric edge of the cliff of life where the artists take halt, build a secret community and reside.

Each ritual is a performance designed by artists from Last Day of Magic and will only be performed by this group once. The original ritual ceremony will be documented in video form, and as a set of published instructions that can be distributed and reenacted by others.

Last Day of Magic: video: 

Consists of the documentation of the original rituals being performed by a group of twelve artists at Marin County’s Headlands, North of San Francisco, CA on March 28th 2009.

Last Day of Magic: publication: 

Consists of the instructions for completing each of these rituals, as prescribed by the original performers.

Last Day of Magic: exhibition: 

Consists of the re-enactment of these rituals, by a group of volunteers, in a manner consistent with the original performance (i.e. All performed in sequence, in the same location as one another, by a group of the same size.) and based on the instructions of the publication. 

The video and publication elements of Last Day of Magic will be distributed and exhibited separately. The publication will be disseminated according to the wishes of the original performers; it will, for example, be delivered to Miss Rockaway Armada, who will then create a re-enactment with the members of their performance group. The video will be screened at the Venice Biennale’s satellite project, Markers, in the summer of 2009. Another exhibition or re-enactment will take place, with additional documentation, at Orange Alley Projects in San Francisco, CA, on April 25th 2009.

Partners:

California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA, USA

Markers Project at the Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy 

Orange Alley Projects, San Francisco, CA, USA 

Miss Rockaway Armada, nomadic, USA

Last Day of Magic is a project initiated, organized and curated by Jan Van Woensel in the framework of his Spring 2009 cross-departmental class at California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA.