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houston’s downtown tunnels -meet- performance art

2012 August 21
by dena

last thursday i was introduced to the network of tunnels that run underground through downtown houston AND these tunnels were introduced to houston’s performance art community. the event was thought of and hosted by “david” a.k.a. “raindawg” and totally rocked !!!

the group met at a literallyundergroundcoffeeshop, wow  i love the way that sounds, and from there infiltrated different areas of the red line tunnel and DID SOME ART.

Sway performed a let-go-yoga piece in which she stripped out of her business chic down to a tank top and stretchy pants the whole time professing her disgust for her hypotheticalcorporateamerica job. a surprising amount of people walked right past her without doing a double take BUT there were also a lot of people who stared and or whispered. i’m thinking this piece was a success.

for raindawg’s piece he stripped down to a pair of striped boy-short undies, put a leather laceuptheback mask on, and clipped clothes pins to his nipples. he staggered around, blind and aimless for a few minutes. this definatly got him some attention. lots of phone camera’s flashing and confused looks. it was priceless !!!

from there we all started dancing and goofing off. oh and just thought i’d mention i ran into 6 totally random people i knew down there in the tunnels. 2 of the guys worked in city hall and makenzie and i had met them at a happy hour at Haven the week before – 2 other guys were interning for Houston Tomorrow and were part of the same bike/walk count makenzie and i volunteered for – 1 lady i recognized from sunday evenings ar wild west – and the last guy makenzie and i met at the Between the Bayous movie night. small freakin city houston is.

for the last group piece the whole gang, excluding the few photo-documenters, rounded up on the lobby level of some fancy corporate building. we formed 2 lines and began singing, choir style, “will you build a wall // will you build a tower // will you strike us down // with the rich man’s power” (or something to that extent) it turned out to sound really beautiful, super melodic and chant like. we processed down the stairs and into the tunnel. after a few minutes we approached by multiple securities guards and forced to leave the premises. so yep, thats how it ended, we pretty much got kicked. if you know me in real life you know i’m not a bad ass at all – so you know i was the first one back up the stairs and outta the building.

if you’re interested in learning more about houston performance art i’m thinking there is going to be some going on this saturday night at the montrose rock revel – and b-t-dubs makenzie and i will totally be there. otherwise read up on houston’s performance art group: continuum. or check out this post, or this one, or even this one.

.dena.

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