spiral and fall

Spiral and Fall video installation 2022 at Sto Lat Gallery, NYC Darkly humorous, Markiewicz’s work infiltrates existing forms — conventional games, performances, and narratives. In the works on view, Markiewicz borrows props and manners from recess games and magic shows to address circular logic and morbid ritual. The gallery space, transformed by a circular wall constructed from a children’s playground parachute, focuses the viewers’ attention on the exhibition’s central video, in which the artist appears as a magician’s dove, chirping on the rim of a top hat. The classic magician’s performance, pulling a bird out of a hat night after night, is a ritual invention of freedom. In reality of course, the bird’s wings are clipped, a process obliquely referenced by the exhibition’s title. If a bird’s wings are not clipped equally, it will fall in a spiral. text by Peter Curtis