The Human Faux Pas Collective  |  Expect Disappointment
July 21, 01

On July 21 the Human Faux Pas performed in the Ballroom Gallery for a packed audience. Adad Hannah, Clay Hastings, and Mark Neufeld represented the Human Faux Pas, and performed with two local artists, Jacinda Hanes and Alyssa Robichaud. Expect Disappointment is the newest performance by the collective and centres around "The Cube," a 1000 cubic foot transparent inflatable. The Cube is an all season portable performance venue.

The evening started with a screening of a video entitled Dead Clown Disposal, featuring an interview with Wavy Gravy as the soundtrack to images of inert clowns being dropped off in various deserted settings. The performance began in the dark with Clay "hatching" from a bright pink inflatable cocoon. From inside the Cube, Adad called out descriptions of people in the audience by picking them out with a small flashlight. The moveable "pods," Alyssa and Jacinda, then delivered "Art Bombs" to those highlighted in the audience. Once the art bomb shad been distributed, panels featuring three-letter abbreviations were ejected from the cube in rapid-fire sequencing and laid on the floor in front of the cube, forming a continuous run-on sentence/word. The performance ended with all four performers inside the Cube stuttering aural sounds until gradually the words "The Human Faux Pas" were uttered in unison.

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Adad Hannah and Clay Hastings, both second-generation performance artists, established The Human Faux Pas in 1994 as a vehicle to explore innovative techniques in performance art. Now seven years later The Human Faux Pas has grown into an active five-member performance art collective with a mandate to research and create experimental performance works, forms, and concepts in order to challenge the public's perception of everyday life and their role within it. The other members of the collective are David Cheong, Mark Neufeld, and Dione Russell.