Five Fusebox Shows to Get You Buzzing

The fuse was lit in Austin back in 2005 by cultural provocateurs who “wanted to create a robust exchange of ideas across different art forms and geography, with a particular interest in the live experience.” Now, 18 years later, artists and audiences gather from all over the world for this explosion of live performances and art, as Fusebox presents its annual curated conflagration of film, theatre, dance, visual art, literature, music, and more. So much to see, so much to do! And as the festival shifts to a (mostly) paid ticketing model this year, we figured it’d be even more helpful to throw some recommendations your way.

Fusebox International Performing Arts Festival, April 12-16. fuseboxfestival.com

Rude Mechs: Contranyms (A Performance Ritual)

Yes, those ever-exciting Rude Mechs are back (they never really left, y’know?) with a new arch and participation-rich spectacle that’ll bring our current state(s) of political affairs into sharp focus while stretching a grin across even the most typically dour face. Thus: “Remember in the not-too-distant past when American citizens from the far, far left and far, far right who were caught posting violent rhetoric online were sent to Chant Camps? The camps were supposed to retrain people to mean the same thing when they said words like ‘Democracy,’ ‘Love,’ and ‘Justice.’ Rudes revisit this alternative history and recreate the tragic ending that collapsed that timeline with the audience cast as inmates chanting along.”

Lauren Lee McCarthy: Surrogate – Performance in Progress

How much personal control would you relinquish, citizen? For art, for understanding, for deeply human communion? Artist Lauren Lee explores social relationships in the midst of surveillance, automation, and algorithmic living. And now this: “The Surrogate project began with offering myself in a 40 week performance where I’d serve as a gestational surrogate for a parent who would have an app to monitor and control me 24/7. What I eat, what I do, what thoughts I meditate on, and more. The parent would have complete control over the body in which their baby is growing. What began as a speculative proposal became real when a close friend communicated her desire to enact this with me.” And what happened next? McCarthy’s multimedia Fusebox presentation, in partnership with UT’s School of Design & Creative Technologies and the Museum of Human Achievement, will let you know.

Dorian Wood: Anthology of the New Depression

Since early 2021, Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary artist Dorian Wood has recorded a different cover song every Friday for her Patreon subscribers, telling her story through the works of others. More than 100 songs, originally interpreted by artists ranging from Barbra Streisand and Bad Bunny to the Flaming Lips and Juan Gabriel, comprise this Anthology of the New Depression. For Fusebox, Wood brings a selection of these reimagined popular and folk classics to the stage in an intimate voice-and-piano performance.

SJ Norman: Magna Mater

Presented in partnership with Performance Space + Ivester Contemporary, this is SJ Norman’s documentation of durational ritual action performed by a group of 12 interconnected people, all of whom belong to the artist’s circles of friendship and intimacy, all of whom are indigenous to the American continents and the Asia-Pacific region. The 12 channels of video presented here comprise the installation track of each participant over the course of a full moon cycle, during which they committed to having their hair brushed for 100 strokes each day – the strokes performed by the subjects themselves or by a person they nominated as a trusted caregiver in their life, family, or community.

Greedy Peasant: High Gothic Pageantry LLC – Orientation Conclave

You might recall the multitalented Tyler Gunther from Robin Frohardt’s “The Plastic Bag Store” that briefly took over the Blue Genie event space a couple years ago. So, what has the New York-based artist and “tassel archivist” done now? Listen: “It’s 1423. A massive medieval pageant is being planned to celebrate the arrival of Blessed John of Chiaramonte’s incorruptible corpse. The event will take place at our local cathedral, Our Lady of the Sacred Blood of the Most Holy Martyr. The finest costumes, reliquaries and passementerie have been conscripted for the occasion. The audience, ‘hired’ as peasant day-laborers, will experience a thrilling medieval staff orientation.”

This article appears in April 7 • 2023.