
Ann Hamilton’s art installation “the event of a thread” has taken over the Park Avenue Armory between now and January 6. A gigantic white curtain bisects the space.

The curtain rises and falls and billows in response to the movements of audience members swinging on 42 swings hung from the ceiling.

Just inside the entrance, two actors from Anne Bogart’s SITI company sit at a table reading to carrier pigeons in cages.

The two performers are reading different philosophical Gertrude Steinian texts, both printed out on long scrolls. (click on the picture to enlarge and read it for yourself)

What they’re reading into the microphones is broadcast to 42 transistor radios inside paper bags that the audience can carry anywhere in the space.

A popular activity is to lie on the floor looking up at the curtain with the murmuring radio/bag nearby. This is my friend David Haiman — he’s the one who suggested we check out the show between dress rehearsal and our gamelan concert at the Indonesian Consulate on E. 68th Street.