On a dance mat in a cavernous rehearsal space in downtown Los Angeles, the actor Abbott Alexander put on a battered green bowler hat, last worn onstage 33 years ago. Nearby, two drummers perched behind their kits and, to the side, two dancers stretched against the wall.
Directing the proceedings were Stephen Prina, a conceptual artist and musician, and Anita Pace, a choreographer; they, along with the protean artist Mike Kelley, devised this elaborate performance, “Beat of the Traps.” It has been staged only four times: in 1992, in Vienna and Los Angeles.
For a five-decade survey of Prina’s work, opening Sept. 12, the Museum of Modern Art in New York has commissioned its revival, part an extensive musical performance program that includes a new composition and a rearrangement of a Mozart string quartet scored by Prina in 1976 when he was just 22.
Like all Prina’s art and music, “Beat of the Traps” reconstitutes cultural artifacts from the past, with fresh sounds, images and forms in the unfurling present. The ensemble had just three weeks before showtime, scheduled for Sept. 18.
“One more time!” Prina commanded.
Since studying at CalArts in the late 1970s with conceptual artists such as John Baldessari, Douglas Huebler and Barbara Kruger, Prina, 70, has developed what he describes as a “post-conceptual” and “project based” art practice across multiple mediums.
There’s no recognizable look or sound to a Prina project; perhaps this is why he is not known more widely, despite representation by Petzel Gallery, Sprüth Magers and Galerie Gisela Capitain, and an emeritus professorship at Harvard in art, film and visual studies.
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