IN OUR GALLERY Watchface: A Performance Collective 1983 – 1991 Featuring photography by Mark Babushkin & Ken Schles, Watchface Archives graphics by Chazz Dean
About This Show
Watchface celebrates the 30th Anniversary of Dixon Place & the launch of the Watchface Archives website. The gallery exhibit showcases two photographers, Mark Babushkin and Ken Schles, who documented the seven-member collective during its seven years together. Schles was a good friend to the group. He was often present & always had his camera. Two acclaimed books of photography by Schles, Invisible City & Night Walk, contain images of Watchface & its environment. Babushkin was introduced to the group through a photo shoot for NY Talk magazine in 1986. Several Watchface shoots for other periodicals followed, along with his promotional shoots for many of their productions. The exhibit also includes many evocative images from the Watchface Archives website by designer Chazz Dean.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Watchface was a seven-member performance collective that performed together in various combinations from 1983 to 1991, creating forty different works. The Watchface identity was clearly evident throughout: an irreverent sense of humor combined with a sincere investigation for the kernel of truth.
Watchface performed at all of the iconic East Village performance spaces of the time, which included Dixon Place, 8BC, La MaMa, PS 122 & The Pyramid Club. They also performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center, Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art, the Alley Theater in Houston & London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts.
All seven members of Watchface have remained in communication in the years since their breakup though their lives have taken divergent paths. Their performance at this Dixon Place 30th Anniversary celebration is their first & only reunion.