Robin Rhode for Performa15

November 7th, 8th, 2015

As part of the performance biennial Performa15, South African artist Robin Rhode transformed the public space of Times Square into an operatic venue. On stage, Rhode's rendition of composer Arnold Schönberg's Ewartung, a one act opera about love, loss, sorrow and grief. For Rhode, the protagonist of Ewartung, preformed by soprano Carole Sidney Louis, echoed the desperation and hardships faced by many South African women after the fall of the Apartheid as men were exiled or left home in search of work. Originally set in a moonlit forest, Rhode draws likeness to the artificially lit, towering space of Times Square, weaving layers of contemporaneity and allegory into an age-old narrative.  

Read more about the performance on Broadway World and the New York Times.

Robin Rhode participated in the Ver List Art Project in 2015 with his edition Wall of Water, available here.

Above: Robin Rhode, Arnold Schönberg’s Erwartung, A Performa Commission, 2015. Photo by Paula Court, courtesy of Performa.