13
Jan/16

FELIX BERNSTEIN: BIEBER BATHOS ELEGY

13
Jan/16
Felix Bernstein and Luke Smithers, Bieber and the Elder (promotional photograph for Bieber Bathos Elegy), 2015. Photograph by Luke Smithers

Felix Bernstein and Luke Smithers, “Bieber and the Elder” (photo by Luke Smithers)

Who: Felix Bernstein, Shelley Hirsch, Gabe Rubin
What: Bieber Bathos Elegy
Where: Whitney Museum of American Art, Susan and John Hess Family Theater, third floor, 99 Gansevoort St., 212-570-3600
When: Friday, January 15, and Saturday, January 16, $10, 8:00
Why: Poet, essayist, and author Felix Bernstein has some artful fun at the expense of the Beeb in Bieber Bathos Elegy. Bernstein, a twenty-three-year-old performance artist who has written such tomes as Burn Book (due out February 2) and Notes on Post-Conceptual Poetry, incorporates cabaret, opera, poetry, and more as he deconstructs such notions as anticlimax and mawkishness, turning the twenty-one-year-old “Baby” singer into a prophetic angel. He’ll get help from Brooklyn-born composer and vocalist Shelley Hirsch, installation artist Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, and director Gabe Rubin, who made the short film Boyland with Bernstein last year. Be on the lookout for such tunes as “Tomorrow” from Annie and Cole Porter’s “Every Time We Say Goodbye.”