Multimedia artist and designer Ayana Evans closed her “I Don’t Want Bent Foil” performance series Saturday night at the Falchi Building in Long Island City with an event that examined the enduring and confounding event of marriage, one that is additionally complex for black Americans given the country’s history of slavery and its ongoing fall out and reinforcement through laws and practices designed to maintain white supremacy. Dress in full bridal regalia (albeit in a gown that had seen better days and sans a groom) Evans jumped the broom and in a small, foil-covered space, proceeded to bash open a suspended foil-covered heart filled with retro candy. “Guests” were invited to jump the broom and join Evans in the space, eat the candy and speak freely. And while the event showed the trappings of weddings to be mere shallow rituals, people are brought together, bonds are formed and memories are made, which is perhaps all that is supposed to happen. See more images below.
