Voyage Into Infinity (Photo: Walter Wlodarczyk)

I was looking forward to seeing Narcissister’s work again after a number of years. But this large scale take on “collapse” called Voyage Into Infinity, as part of the Under the Radar festival, just felt empty and repetitive.

It is meant to pay homage to the 1987 video (transferred to 16mm film) The Way Things Go by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss where they filmed a series of actions using Rube Goldberg machines. They made each of these machine sequences look seamless, but it was in fact cut together from over two years of filming the machines. Notably, the male artists were not present on-screen in the work.

Narcissister is offering a feminist revision of this video by centering female labor and creators who are very much present, but still using a variety of elaborate contraptions that set off chain reactions, this time on stage.

But nothing really worked for me. Because of the use of the gadgets and gizmos, and the intentional sense of artifice, any impact of “collapse” ends up being artificial as well. This is surely intentional, but I wasn’t sure how to marry this sensation with the serious themes Narcissister looked to bring out in her version. For me, it weakened the power around issues of women’s labor.

Narcissister and her collaborators were dressed in her signature masks (modeled on a 1960s wig form) in crinoline square-dancing dresses with bows in their ringlet hair. The “doll-like” appearance is commentary on female beauty standards. These women begin to engage with a set of pulleys, inclines, and seesaws. They take a candelabra and light a string on fire so it launches one of the machine sequences that topples a statue.

It was a bit like the dolls let loose in the playroom creating a sense of choreographed anarchy. Setting things on fire. Knocking things down. Buckets fly into the rafters. Sparklers spin on a wheel. Pallets fall like dominoes. But also we must wait what feels like an eternity between each sequence and wonder what you were supposed to get from each.

All this movement had the sensation of children’s games. Where you might build a tower of blocks and knock it down. But the harm is zero. Even with fire, why did it feel like it had no consequences? And with the glacial pacing I kept losing focus.

While it was supposed to possess “punk” energy that was fleeting. There is a metal band on stage with live music from Holland Andrews and a mosh pit forms. The dresses come off and the Narcissister signature merkins come out. But even with the sudden loud music, spinning swing, and performer exuberance, I was not convinced of the show’s power or expression.

Only after the rebellious streak, when the women soberly get dressed again, is there a strong sense of conformity and restriction. In that moment, my interest was piqued. But it was a long way to this little payoff.

I appreciate that Narcissister is trying to focus on labor which maybe unseen when women do it. But whatever they were doing on stage felt like something other than work. Sometimes they stacked buckets to be knocked down but most of the time it felt like their labor was to set up the triggers for these machines while the machines executed the trick. Yes, these women are necessary elements to the machines operating but they played a diminished role. I did not feel they were creators. The machines exist on stage before the performers enter. They did not feel in control.

This is also where the gap between film and theater comes into play.

From the clips I’ve seen of The Way Things Go the feel is totally different on film. The ability to lead the audience’s gaze on film is not at all present on stage. The proximity to the machines and framing in film achieves something very different than how this messily plays on stage. You don’t have as much of a strong hand or control over the machine episodes on stage. Here the set-up of each machine does not necessarily have the same kind of build as on film. On stage, I didn’t know where to look and I did not get much guidance from the performers. Again, it was a lot of waiting for “the thing” to happen. And then it happened and we moved on to the “next thing.”

Narcissister intends for Voyage Into Infinity to also live on video as its own counterpoint to The Way Things Go.  Maybe that version would resolve some of the authorial gaps I felt. But this version just isn’t saying enough in its own voice.