project image
Polina West
CONDITIONS & POSSIBILITIES

first performed on September 25, 2021
In front of the New York Stock Exchange, New York City, NY
performed once in 2021

NOAH ORTEGA / APRIL VENDETTA / GERALDO MERCADO / SIMONE JOHNSON / ALICE ASTER

Brooklyn, NY

CONDITIONS & POSSIBILITIES
NOAH ORTEGA / APRIL VENDETTA / GERALDO MERCADO / SIMONE JOHNSON / ALICE ASTER

“Conditions & Possibilities” was a collective protest action held on Wall Street on the afternoon of September 25, 2021. Five performers, each working within our unique modality, occupied the sidewalk in front of the New York Stock Exchange for two hours and engaged in simultaneous actions that commented on labor, commodity markets, debt, and the general violence of capital. The performance began with actions by April Vendetta who displayed and then released a set of letter balloons that spelled out “WAR,” a provocation setting the stage for the rest of the afternoon. Simone Johnson, whose work with water delved into the history of commodity markets and the ways in which water rights are being increasingly privatized, danced and walked along the length of the street all the way to Battery City Park. Alice Aster constructed an interactive, life-size puppet and enacted several scenes about living as a sex worker. Geraldo Mercado donned a Leatherface mask, briefcase painted with the words “Who will survive and what will be left of them?” and enacted gestures that evoked stock brokers, business people, and other corporate employees going about their day. Finally, I (Noah Ortega) locked in hand cuffs, etched the number of total US consumer debt on the sidewalk as I waited for the key to the handcuffs to unfreeze from an ice block hanging around my neck. Our actions this day, while not prescriptive, sought to highlight the cracks in our economic system and offer the public some kind of hope for the possibility of making a change. Together we made a billion tiny points of resistance.