Please join us on Sunday, April 30th, as artist Hanne Tierney speaks about her current exhibition Baby, Said Alice B. Toklas, currently on view at Knockdown Center.

About Baby, Said Alice B. Toklas
Baby, Said Alice B. Toklas is a self-performing object theater produced by artist Hanne Tierney. Installed across the expanse of Knockdown Center’s Annex, a series of vignettes come to life as cloth figures, hula hoops, and satin configurations gesture, twirl, and sway, manipulated by a system of motors and robotic electronics, designed by engineer Oskar Strautmanis. A soundtrack further animates each semi-abstract character, composed of a drifting narrative that stages imagined arguments between Gertrude Stein and her life partner Alice B. Toklas, woven with excerpts from Stein’s early plays, and with music by Erik Satie. Baby, Said Alice B. Toklas will be played on a fifteen-minute loop during gallery hours, offering viewers the possibility of an ongoing encounter with the immersive, ambulatory experience of Tierney’s enchanting work.

Hanne Tierney has performed her puppetry and object theater at The Kitchen, Franklin Furnace, the Queen’s Museum, the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, MoMA/PS1, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Espace Kiron, Paris, the Akademie der Kuenste, Berlin, and at the Jim Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater. Tierney received an OBIE in 2000. Tierney is the founder and director of Five Myles, an exhibition and performance space in Crown Heights that focuses on engaging directly with the community and presenting work by under-represented artists.