Shadow Pool: A Natural History of the San San International. Performance by Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe featuring the band Black Bananas at the Miami Beach Edition in Miami Beach, presented by Marlborough Chelsea. December 4, 2014. This video is an excerpt, the complete video available below.
Shadow Pool: A Natural History of the San San International. Performance by Noah Freeman and Justin Lowe, December 4, 2014, Miami Beach.
PS: If you like this, maybe you like that as well.
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The work employs a mix of theatrical genres ranging from the slide lecture, the fashion show, the sculptural display, and the live musical act as a means to illustrate the fictional parallel world of the San San International, a “hallucinatory mega-convention of staggering proportions”. Conceived in 2008, this multisensory extravaganza has traveled to sites ranging from MOCA Los Angeles to Ballroom Marfa.
Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe create immersive environmental installations that play on ideas of drug culture, psychedelia, architecture and film. Beginning with their first official collaborative piece, Hello Meth Lab in the Sun, the artists have created a series of recurring narratives that are present throughout several connected works, most notably Black Acid Co-Op and Bright White Underground.
Black Bananas is the latest band from legendary frontwoman Jennifer Herrema and bandmates Brian Mckinley, Kurt Midness, and Nadav Eisenman. With sonic influences ranging from hair metal to digital funk to 70s bar bands, Black Bananas creates an unforgettable sound in their unmistakably unique voice.
Report by G. R. Oker:
Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe, known for their unconventional art projects, delivered a unique performance titled “Shadow Pool: A Natural History of the San San International” during Art Basel Miami Beach, an event not known for its quiet, reflective moments. On what was arguably the biggest party night of the week, they chose to present a faux historical lecture on the nonexistent San San International, a fictional expo covering topics from technology to pornography. Their presentation, rich with irony, was a critique of the art world’s extravagance and the very essence of art fairs like Basel. Held at a time when attendees could have been indulging in the lavish Dom Perignon party at the W South Beach, the performance was deliberately out of sync with Basel’s party atmosphere. It featured no cocktails or typical party fare, instead offering a cerebral, almost satirical take on the concept of international expos. Freeman detailed the San San International with images and narratives, creating a meta-commentary on the art world’s spectacles, which many attendees found perplexing or simply boring, leading them to leave early, possibly missing the nuanced humor and critique embedded in the performance. The irony peaked when models paraded through the audience in a mockery of fashion trends, culminating in a nude model carrying food, a stark contrast to the expected Basel glamour. This act was almost an anti-Instagram moment in an event otherwise filled with photo-worthy scenes. Post-performance, the scene shifted dramatically to the actual Dom Perignon party, where the art world’s elite, celebrities, and billionaires engaged in unabashed revelry, embodying the very excess Freeman and Lowe critiqued. This juxtaposition highlighted the dual nature of Art Basel: a place for both deep artistic critique and the pinnacle of social extravagance. The party, with its celebrity sightings, champagne showers, and loud music, stood in sharp relief to the earlier intellectual mockery, illustrating the diverse, often contradictory experiences within the art world’s biggest stages.
