Paradise Portals
Video installations in Paradise Portals weave together performance documentation, drone footage, livestream video, and green screen technology to create portals between eight performers’ bodies and the environments that hold personal significance for them. Set within the historically preserved industrial space of AREA 405, the projections loop across multiple canvas and plexiglass shapes suspended in space to create the illusion of portals floating in front of us. Each week, audiences are invited to experience live performances that unfold simultaneously with the illuminated moving images.
“If your body is a portal, where does it lead?”
The term portal was chosen by artist and director Red Rae with the belief that they open into alternative realities, warping fantasies, grief, loss, love and more. Red prompted questions to six main collaborators — queer visual and performing artists Rahne Alexander, Bao Nguyen and Alex D’Agostino, drag queen DJ Aave, scholar Eli Erlick, and tarot reader and intuitive Soleil. They also invited musicians Amy Reid, Pangelica, and Bryce Hample to create original scores for the work. Arit Emmanuela helped create dynamic videography and Max Gregg created a poem with Red. Each collaborator was asked “If your body is a portal, where does it lead?” In response, Red and the others guide us through their portals bending reality and granting us new perspectives on life and identity.
-Joyce Liang Area 405 Curator
“Every person is a portal to their destiny and a portal to their past.”
Go HERE for more info on dates and hours
The exhibition Paradise Portals is made possible by The Rubys Artist Grant Program and the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation.
Access info:
BCFD ADA accessible entrance with ramp from E. Oliver Street.
1 ADA bathroom. Floors are wood, metal and concrete and are a bit bumpy.
Disclaimer: This exhibition contains content related to queerness, nudity, and other adult themes. Visitors aged 13 and under must be accompanied by an adult to enter the gallery.