The second McCARREN LOVES ART! party titled “Spotlit Shadows” by Mikel Glass took place in the hotel’s rooftop lounge, Sheltering Sky, on Thursday, October 23.
In the video projects by Kurt Ritta, natural human beauty and fluid movement is highly evident in his work. In the projections on view the focus was on human beauty and subtle humor. The projections featured a stark black background and dancers moving slowly and with a curious accuracy. Some dancers wore fancy outfits, donning masks or a patent red mini-skirt. It never felt tacky. In fact, as the party DJ’d by Rob Sperte progressed, the dancing projections became even more profound and curious. Unlike the current moment, which naturally ebbed and flowed from a very crowded dance floor to a nearly empty one, the projections were always there to fill the void, always dancing, never concerned with the naturally social nature of humans. Despite the projections being at true 1:1 human scale, they become otherworldly: who are these dancers with an impossible wellspring of energy? Why won’t they stop? In this way, Glass entered a new level of human beauty: being so dead-set on a passion for something, in this case, dancing.
Beyond this, a model in a projection over the bar stared admirably and positioned herself carefully and suggestively, resetting herself every few minutes. With her projection above everyone’s eye level, it seemed as if this was her party since her projection was above the rest, and from anywhere in the room one could see her rolling around, posing, smiling, occasionally giving a wink, all at a pace of her own. In a way, if she were to speak, with each change of position, she might ask, “how’s this?”, “Are you enjoying this?” Or, “Is this sexy?”
The pieces of performance art by by Ellen Turrietta and Gage Cass Woodle were particularly fantastic as well, that felt very improvised and magical. The environment was suitable, too, with Persian rugs, Moroccan table lamps paired with a backlit box in which guests could dance as a silhouette.
-Benjamin Schmidt
