Maria Hassabi’s live-installation, PLASTIC reformats the duration of theatrical performance into a month-long museum exhibition, performed throughout the opening hours of the institution. PLASTIC reflects upon conventions of display and pursues an idea of stillness in relation to the physical body. Removing the distance between audience and performer, Hassabi’s sustained movement encourages visitors to closely observe the small shifts in the performers’ motions over time, while addressing the separation between the spectacular and the everyday, between subject and object, between bystander and viewer.

Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Performers: Hristoula Harakas, Maria Hassabi, Molly Lieber and Oisín Monaghan
Additional performers in Gallery 6 include: 
Alison D’Amato, Ellen Gerdes, Casey Lin Brown, Gwyneth Shanks, and Devika Wickermesinghe
Sound design: Morten Norbye Halvorsen
Lighting consultation: Chu-Hsuan Chan
Styling: threeASFOUR
Produced by: Ash Bulayev

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Performers: Hristoula Harakas, Maria Hassabi, Molly Lieber and Oisín Monaghan
Sound design: Morten Norbye Halvorsen
Styling: threeASFOUR
Produced by: Ash Bulayev

Museum of Modern Art, NY
Performers: Hristoula Harakas, Maria Hassabi, Molly Lieber, Paige Martin and Oisín Monaghan
Michael Helland, Niall Jones, Tara Lorenzen and Mickey Mahar
Simon Courchel, Jessie Gold, Neil Greenberg, Elizabeth Hart, Kennis Hawkins, Niall Jones, Shelley Senter, RoseAnne Spradlin and David Thomson

Sound design: Morten Norbye Halvorsen
Song fragments: Marina Rosenfeld
Styling: threeASFOUR
Artist assistant: Kate Ryan

SHOWS

2016
– Museum of Modern Art, New York, US (February 21 – March 20)
2015
– Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, US (January 31 – March 1)
– Stedelijk Museum, The Netherlands (April 16 – 23)

CREDITS

Maria Hassabi: PLASTIC is co-commissioned by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles;
the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
The work has received additional funding from the Jerome Foundation; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Extended Life Program 2013-2014. The artists would like to thank Abrons Arts Center, collective address, The French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), Kaaitheater and MoMA PS1.

* Hammer Projects: Maria Hassabi was organized by Hammer curator Aram Moshayedi with MacKenzie Stevens, curatorial assistant.

* The presentation of PLASTIC in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam was curated by Hendrik Folketrs and assisted by Britte Sloothaak and was made possible with the generous support of co-curator with Mels Evers and Het Veem Theater Amsterdam

* The exhibition at MoMA was organized by Thomas J. Lax, Associate Curator, with Martha Joseph, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Media and Performance Art, and is produced by Lizzie Gorfaine, Performance Producer, with Kate Scherer, Assistant Performance Coordinator.