In the world created by Nancy Bardawil and Matthew Owens the word “colostomize” comes up more often than usual. It’s a world of blood, bile, and feces, where cadavers don’t just walk the earth but talk, philosophize, and carry a tune; where death is king, and life is of little consequence.
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Homicide, suicide, patricide, spermicide–if it has to do with induced death, it falls within the show’s purview. The series, which continues on Saturdays through August, had its genesis in a chance encounter. “We were driving and saw a truck in front of us,” says Bardawil. “On the left it said ‘passing side’; on the right it said ‘suicide.’ I said, ‘Matt, let’s do a cide show!’” The series opened last weekend with an eight-foot-tall cadaverous clown (Owens was inside) intoning, “I could kill you,” and then embarking on a philosophical discourse on the phrase’s casual prevalence. Opening-night attendees saw essays on everything from suicide (a hilarious will read by David Sedaris) to insecticide (Owens as a fly spookily entreating, “Stop spraying! Stop spraying!”) to homicide (an eerie, brutal piece by magician and performer John Keith) to what might be called iconicide (Owens again, brandishing a hapless, crucified Garfield doll).
They use a variety of materials, depending on the project–rubber or foam for full-body creations, the substance used for dentures or prosthetics for small limbs and such, and tubing, latex, and painted cloth for the most gruesome effects. Bardawil once created a life-size dummy out of rubber, based on a mold she made of a friend; it was put to predictably bloody use in an Owens piece about Jack the Ripper. She does her own performances as well; at Lower Links some time ago, she fashioned a seven-foot-tall pair of female legs, attached a correspondingly large skirt, and hung upside down between them playing a fiddle. Owens works with both human and animal figures, but tends to like them dead-looking. His elaborate, corroded cadavers tend to have their skin rotten away, their bones left covered with desiccated muscle tissue. His comic, disturbing performance pieces include manipulating a giant skeletal Karen Carpenter puppet to the strains of “Top of the World” and playing a cowboy astride a gigantic, decayed horse corpse, singing about the importance of keeping one’s steed well fed. (“Don’t forget to feed your horse.”)
“The Cide Show” continues at Club Lower Links, 954 W. Newport, at 9 PM tomorrow, August 24, and August 31. Tickets are $8, and seating is limited, so getting there early is probably a good idea. Call 248-5238 for details.
