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Once again I must admit that I went into San Diego's famed "Sushi" performance space with a bit of a prejudiced mind. After all, I've been to so many vapid "performance art" wastes-of-time, that I've pretty much decided that most of this genre is not (a) art nor (b) performance.
Leave it to energetic, funny, loud, sexy, slightly mad and hugely talented Stanya Kahn to change my mind in one brilliant swoop!
Kahn, who writes her own scripts for these demented performances, is an interdisciplinary performer and writer from San Francisco (although she currently resides in New York), whose work/performance Delirium has played in front of sold out audiences in San Francisco, New York and Dallas.
What a bundle of brilliant energy this woman is! Can I just say WOW! I realize that this is not a very artsy/criticky thing to say, but it delivers the raw punch which this spunky artist has brilliantly brewed for her audiences.
She starts by ambling from the side, stumbling drunk with her spike heel shoes wrapped around her ankles; she is tipsy and a pillowcase covers her head; she walks painfully on the ball of her feet, her elegant dancer's calves standing out in tension (at this point I was thinking "Here we go again with the obscure artsy crap." However, within minutes she was shocking (green slime pouring from her mouth, then making the audience laugh, then cry then laugh again! A dizzying ride of emotions!
The second act of her performance was much better than the artsy introduction. It was sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always tinged with a bit of madness. Kahn's body acrobatics were somehow glued to a elegant string of cacaphanous language which still mananged to rivet the audience's attention and make them laugh (nervously) at times.
She also belts out some good songs with a strong, cultivated voice; the artist can sing! And can she write! My favorite line was [being] "oiled with the chaos of partially digested information."
The 4th act is even more deeply immersed in madness (not to mention a tub). Dark eyes, exaggerated lipstick, black electrician's tape tightly binding her breasts. To make this more memorable, she adds lights in primary complementary colors which make her body vibrate in the background of a mad bath scene.
This woman is brilliant and Sushi is easily one of San Diego's best art jewels.