May 24, 6:00 PM–9:00 PM

Franklin Street Works is hosting a free, public closing party for “The Sunken Living Room” exhibition on Saturday, May 24 from 6:00 – 9:00 pm. The party will include a bar tending themed performance by exhibiting artist Danna Vajda at 7:00 pm. Enjoy bar snacks, free wine, music while viewing this original, group exhibition that features artists exploring the recession through video, text, printmaking, sculpture, and photography.

Danna Vajda’s performance is titled “thewateringhole” and takes the premise of the post-work drink, the beer, the glass of wine, the cocktail, the shot that creates a possible momentary breakage between a day’s work and oneself outside of work. The performance entails the mixing and serving of a series of classic drinks and cocktails while using a set of institutional letterhead paintings as recipe cue cards. The recipes contents bring together classic ingredients such as aromatic bitters or a cube of sugar, with exhaustion, muddled contradictions, always shaken, stirred and strained.  Much like an instructional video, recipes are read aloud, the drinks mixed, served and then on to the next drink. Each recipe functions as an encrypted resignation letter signaling an impasse in the relation between individual and institutional identity.

Danna Vajda, is an artist and writer, born in Vancouver, Canada and based in Brooklyn,

New York. Recent exhibitions include both institutional spaces and provisional, less institutional spaces.