Chan's Mannese Theater

Chann's Mannese theater was a video installation by Chan & Mann, as part of the exhibit "3 Solo Projects: Audrey Chan, Elana Mann, Chan & Mann" at the Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design

Chan's Mannese Theater was a video installation incorporating a painted theater and a video screening room. "Now Playing" in the theater was Chan & Mann's New Fantasy (The Video) (2013), a video which draws upon iconographic tropes of traditional figurative and still life painting to humorously deconstruct discourse in cultural identity. The absurdist video opens upon a painted scene depicting a not-so-ordinary day in the studio with Chan & Mann, whose faces appear as cut-outs in a painting. They converse with a cast of painted characters, such as Dorah the Menorah, Michelle Obama, fortune cookies, and a feminist megaphone. The characters are voiced by established and emerging members of the Los Angeles contemporary art community. Together, they wrestle with issues of feminist and ethnic identity. Live action scenes continue the narrative into everyday and imaginary spaces, including Hollywood's famed Grauman’s Chinese Theater. The video climaxes in a riveting third-wave feminist slam poetry performance by rising star Frank Sánchez.

detail from Chan's Mannese theater, 2013, 33’ x 15’ x 13’, video installation with painted mural
still from Chan & Mann's New Fantasy (the video), 2013, HD single channel video, 16:29 trt