Wedding/Vampyr Circus, a living installation took place on September 16th 2011 at ABC No Rio.

{Photo left: The Wedding, Dylan Morgan, Raquel Mavecq, Emil B Nasty and Miss Suzie Q, photo by Garry Boake}

If you are anything like me, you frequent Chelsea gallery openings and supposedly avant-garde art parties only to leave completely disappointed and weirdly nostalgic for the old New York art scene.  What would it be like to see Ann Magnuson, Kenny Scharf and Keith Haring at Club 57, hang out with Andy and Edie at the Factory or watch one of those bizarre, inexplicable Fluxus performances in SoHo before it was an open-air mall? Well, its time to stop that nonsense whining because a raw, inclusive, totally wild, D-I-Y art show is happening now. Michael Alan’s Living Installation has its roots in that glorious art scene that everyone seems to believe has passed.  Rather than endure another self-involved and nearly delusional Terence Koh or Marina Abramovic performance, art enthusiasts need to wake up and experience the unexpected and nearly unexplainable Michael Alan’s Living Installation, which they did at “The Wedding/Vampire Circus,” which featured two shows at one time, on Friday at legendary punk-art venue ABC No Rio.

Not a play, a performance, a show or a happening per se, Michael Alan’s Living Installation is an art piece where artist Michael Alan turns a group of performers into living art objects, using every material he can get his hands on. A native New Yorker, Alan has distilled the New York art and culture he grew up in and created an entirely new, crazy experience that runs about 6 hours. From paint to glue to baby powder to wild masks made from doll parts, pieces of paper and toys, the appearance of the performers begins to look like an experimental fashion photo-shoot, which is probably why Marie Claire Italy was one of the magazines excited about the Living Installation rather than the ancient, conservative art journals.

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