RELAX . . . YOU’RE SOAKING IN IT!
The Loofah Method at Chicago Filmmakers May 8-9, 14-16, 22-23, and 28-30
With Relax . . . You’re Soaking in It!, the group’s latest offering at Chicago Filmmakers, Loofah is now showing signs that it’s making a transition. In fact Relax is a showcase of Loofah’s best and worst, offering a firsthand look at artists grappling with the next step, with managing their maturity. What to keep? What to let go? In other words, Relax is not to be missed.
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Also involved in Relax is photographer Sue Walsh, whose work is the focal point of “Memory,” arguably the show’s best segment–a breathless piece about the death of Salach’s grandmother. More than a dozen other local artists, many well known, also participate in videos and live performances throughout. In other words, Loofah’s not so marginal anymore. The input from other artists–including Joan Dickinson and Paula Killen–has probably contributed to the group’s greater polish and sophistication. But it may also have been an influence in some of its new self- indulgence.
Imagine the stage wall of Club Lower Links covered with xeroxes of a bottled embryo. Imagine the stage layered with sand, a sprinkling of white and red balloons floating over it. Stage right, there’s a forest of real Christmas trees. Booming from the speakers is Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers.” Into this surreal scene enters a . . . person. We know it’s a woman because she’s holding her white dress up–way up–and displaying her naked genitalia. But she also looks, eerily enough, like a giant, beautiful flower.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Debra E. Levie.
