Massage Portal, 2009
Performance/Installation
Massage table, copper, Himalayan salt lamp, Scotch
Henthorn and La Rocque create a site of potential anxiety for participants, who are invited to unwind but only while on display.
During the performance, participants have the option to be massaged with ghee, a form of clarified butter used in South Asian cooking and Hindu anointment rituals. Furthermore, the masseuse—also a professional dancer—relishes the role of performer, masterfully contorting his body to better reach the sacral region of the spine and to engage viewers' attention. The sacral region has been targeted by masseuses over time due to the tension that builds up in the lower vertebrae of the back.
Similar to the unanticipated performance anxiety that visitors encounter when experiencing Massage Portal, Henthorn and La Rocque's inclusion of whiskey at the bottom of the copper cylinder acts as a physical and conceptual foil. In acknowledging the shortcomings of both remedies, Henthorn and La Rocque neither entirely mock new age and self-help trends nor blindly subscribe to their alluring claims.
- Katherine Pill and Francesca Wilmott, Concertina Gallery