Peter Rehberg, Stephen O' Malley, Dennis Cooper and Gisele Vienne, Last Spring: A Prequel, 2011,
 Installation shot, currently on view at the Whitney Biennial 2012
(Image taken from Gothamist photographer Katie Sokoler )

Peter Rehberg, Stephen O'Malley,
Dennis Cooper,
and Gisele Vienne:
Last Spring A Prequel
Currently on view at the Whitney Biennial
March 1st- May 27th 2012
945 Madison Avenue at 75th St.
New York, NY 10021


  Up on the fourth floor of the Whitney Biennial, amidst the performance spaces lies a collaborative piece by Gisele Vienne, Dennis Cooper, Stephen O'Malley and Peter Rehberg. It sits almost within a little white walled cubicle, like a transition space from a video piece to a dressing room for performers. There is one little white bench for viewers to sit on and everyone else has to stand up against the wall.
     Last Spring: A Prequel makes use of a small animatronic youth with a Chuckie-like doll attached to his arm. It has the feel of a horror movie and the sound of a schizophrenic person talking to themself. It starts out with the animatronic boy opening his eyes and breathing, it doesn't sound like a lot but the mannequin is engineered to do both of those mimicking how humans do it; he blinks and his chest expands and contracts. When I first saw it I was conflicted, I kept expecting this thing to start walking around, to realize that it was an actual person dressed as a mannequin, but my expectations were not met yet I was not disappointed. The young boy goes through a manic story of youth being ripped away, of finding this demonic doll, of killing (and enjoying it), and of being possesed by the doll on his arm... all the while he is fighting with the blood soaked doll for confirmation that he is a real human being. It was so unsettling and uncanny that this animatronic would be so vehemently wanting it to be known that he was a real boy, while this doll (who is not supposed to be real either) cuts him down and reminds him that he is not real. The various layers of artificiality juxtaposed with the uncanniness of the illusion of reality made for an engrossing installation and performance. I felt, watching it, that I was being transported into this labrynth with the mannequin; I was in his world questioning whether or not I was real. Maybe I was the mannequin and he was actually the live being. Uncanny does not begin to pinpoint exactly the uneasiness that this piece created, but I think it will have to suffice.