Photo by Paula Court

Clearly contemporary art can have anything as its subject matter and can execute it in any form. “Big Eater” does just that, situating a performance piece on David Hasselhoff’s demoralizing video, taped by his young daughter, in which he’s eating a hamburger on the ground completely wasted. Through the device of appropriation choreographer David Neumann makes everything suspect: his dancers’ moves suddenly disintegrate like they’ve stopped believing in them when sections of classical music fade into NatGeo style “tribal” rhythms; we witness again the Hasselhoff moment and listen to juxtaposed TV dialog from crime shows. Appropriation demands that the viewer ask what is real and by using this device Neumann created a space for the topics of death, nature, philosophy, and reality to become something both playful and sobering.

The Kitchen presents Big Eater by David Neumann March 4-13th.