Jordan Strafer, PUNCHLINE
January 5 – February 20, 2022
Opening Wednesday January 5, 5-9pm
Appointments are required. Make one here.

Some kind of thing is going to happen. I think we might be flying over Florida. The inrushing air sounds like a waterfall.

I’m with the men. I’m lying down and they are standing up. One of them has diamond brooches on his shirt. Behind him there’s a pregnant woman and another man. One of them says, “put two fingers in your mouth and tell me a terrible story.” 

I am wearing a short-sleeved mini dress. “He takes the joy out of everything,” I think to myself as he waits for the story. Then I say with my mouth full, “No matter how bad things are, they could always get worse. And behind every cloud… there's a lot of rain.” He says, “You’re kidding.” I pause and say, “Happy birthday daddy. This flight is an explosive bomb.”

The group is laughing. I think to myself, “I am really funny.” I say, “Let's tell each other something about ourselves.” Everyone starts butting in. I say, “Hold on, hold on. Let’s go in a circle.”

Then we make a circle of different things becoming the same thing. I dance on the line of this circle, but I do not cross it. It is lit only from the inside. 

“For the love of horror puppets and reenacting trauma,” PARTICIPANT INC begins 2022 with PUNCHLINE, a solo exhibition by Brooklyn-based video artist Jordan Strafer that will premiere the artist’s new video and related works on paper. Ambitious but not obnoxious, Strafer’s recently completed video work PEAK HEAVEN LOVE FOREVER is based on a true story of kinship and betrayal aboard a transatlantic air ambulance from London to Miami. Including life-size dolls and starring live actors (in order of appearance) Marti Wilkerson, Jim Fletcher, Alexandro Segade, and Cammisa Buerhaus, the video is a psychological thriller that takes place in flight—while time moves glacially, reality becomes suspended. 

PEAK HEAVEN LOVE FOREVER

Written and Directed by Jordan Strafer
Cast: Cammisa Buerhaus, Jim Fletcher, Alexandro Segade, Marti Wilkerson
Producers: Jordan Strafer, Lizz Astor, Emir West 
Assistant to the Director: Emir West
Director of Photography: Carl Knight 
Assistant Camera: Godfred Sedano
B camera & Sound Recording: Larry Bovik
Gaffer: Collin Leitch
Set Electric: Jonah Peterschild
Lead Props & Costumes: Vita Kurland
Props: Anne Cousineau, Chloe Cerabona, Dante Hussein, Mariana Sanchez
Lead Makeup: Caroline Mills
Makeup: Aine Vonnegut
Makeup Assistant: Dante Hussein
Production Assistant: Carlos Negron
Original Soundtrack: Wibke Tiarks
VFX: Alex Bliss
Sound mix: Aron Sanchez
Color: Alex Zandi, Carl Knight 
Flight path animation: Aron Sanchez
Production stills: Mariana Sanchez
Movie Poster printed co-designed by Inpatient Press

Supported by:

Participant Inc
The Renaissance Society
Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant
Rocking R
Elissa Mogilefsky & Len Weiselberg
Matthew Goedecke
Bruce Hainley
Kabir Carter
AK Burns

Special Thanks:

Lia Gangitano
Glen Fogel
Jonathan Berger
Lazar Bozic
Brooke Nicholas
Kyle Dancewicz
Sohrab Mohebbi
Isabel Mallet
Alex Zandi
Alan Segal
Bill Dietz
Bard MFA
John Brattin
T De Long
Harry Kleeman
Andrew Norman Wilson
Marbles
Juliana Garcia
In Loving Memory of Holly Skolnick & Guy Strafer

Concurrently, Jordan Strafer will occupy HOME Gallery as the first organizational partnership between PARTICIPANT and HOME.

Jordan Strafer’s PEAK HEAVEN LOVE FOREVER will be streamed on Renaissance TV, an online platform and production fund created by the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago and dedicated to moving image.

Safety protocols: Appointments are required and are limited to 4 people. Visitors and staff must wear a mask and practice social distancing. NYC requires visitors to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter.

Jordan Strafer’s PEAK HEAVEN LOVE FOREVER was supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant and by the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago through Renaissance TV.