Diverging from art institutions that play it safe, “POW!POW!POW!POW!” (“Pow!x4”) is free of agendas and allows artists to present works with no limits and no strings attached.

Curated by gal*in_dog & Laura Poppiti in collaboration with Tina Takemoto, the fourth edition of “POW!POW!POW!POW!” consists of two nights and a cash bar; and will feature local, international, and multi-generational action; artists who are more willing to ask for forgiveness than for permission — expect to see art that pushes boundaries and answers to no one.

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE: FRIDAY, APRIL 29 at the Chapel
Rhine Bernardino, Philippines
Xandra Ibarra with Sophia Wang, San Francisco (SF) Bay Area
Jadelynn Stahl, SF Bay Area
Princess VuVu, Third Moon of Tritonia

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE: SATURDAY, APRIL 30 at Gallery 308
Rhine Bernardino, Philippines
Philip Huang, SF Bay Area
César Martínez, Mexico City
Sofia Moreno, Chicago
José Santiago Pérez, Chicago
Charles L. Rice, Chicago
Minji Sohn, SF Bay Area

The opening night features a newly developed, site-specific movement performance piece by Xandra Ibarra, who has been developing the work in residence at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture (FMCAC)’s Chapel during March and April. In her untitled work, the artist and her associates present a movement-based performance art project about corporeal inhabitation and the concealment of racialized skin. Within skin-toned nylon cocoons, performers create biomorphic shapes of flesh and relationships to each other that occur in tandem with custom lighting, female punk music, and sound technology.

In addition to this performance, artist Jadelynn Stahl presents “As Heard Through the Bedroom Wall,” a body-based ritual that examines the physical and emotional detritus of violent trauma. Stahl agitates her somatic and subconscious memory of personal and inter-generational struggle through the performance of suffocation applied through the relentless advance of a strangulation machine, all watched over by an ineffable, Chicanx specter who determines when to intervene.

The following evening features extreme performance art and body-based rituals with installation-based performances of extended duration as long as three hours. Charles L. Rice presents “The Black Velvet Cocoon” a three-hour endurance performance in which the artist self-induces gagging and choking from chewing six, foot-long rolls of bubble gum at once. By adding a new roll of gum every half hour, this visual restriction of the mouth reflects the action of having to constantly repeat one’s identity, personal history, family structure, and sexual behavior.

Please note Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture anticipates thousands of visitors to our campus, attendees are strongly encouraged to take public transit, walk, bike, or take a taxi/rideshare.