This is not a paywall You can keep reading for free! At Hyperallergic , we strive to make art more inclusive, so you’ll never hit a paywall when reading our articles. But, as an independent publication, we rely on readers like you to keep our high-quality coverage free and accessible. Please consider joining us as a member to support independent journalism.
Already a member? Sign in here. We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, consider supporting us as a member.
Join Us SAN FRANCISCO — David Bayus has his media fun while tweaking it too — in Performance Anxiety, an exhibition at Telematic, he recasts the classic Hollywood musical genre and its associated gender stereotypes. For the show’s eponymous 10-minute video centerpiece (2024), Bayus unspools a lively, dark-edged, and playful mashup that refracts Art Deco and noir melodrama through the late-modern styles of video games, manga, and fantasy horror via Computer-Generated Imagery. In the gallery’s small, moodily lit space, a pair of other objects — a single painting and a small statuette — hover near the screen, casting their own dim glows and fitfully teasing additional facets of the video’s unvoiced narrative.
The video’s animated figures feature Alice in Wonderland- and Ubu roi -like heads, cartoony faces flashing broad expressions. These sit atop exoskeletal bodies in the darker fantasy modes of H.R.
Giger , Robocop, or Terminator �.
