BRENTWOOD, Calif. — Round 50 members of the Los Angeles efficiency artwork neighborhood gathered on the Getty Heart’s Tram Arrival Plaza on Sunday, July 14, in a present of assist for performers enacting Joan Jonas’s “Mirror Piece I & II” (1969, 1970/2024) this weekend. Along with allegations of inadequate fee and late contracts, performers declare that their requests for transparency relating to finances, costumes, and transportation lodging weren’t solely dismissed however met with pushback from the establishment.
First carried out in 1969, Jonas’s “Mirror Piece” entails a number of heavy sheets of mirror and glass carried and maneuvered by performers for roughly half-hour. For each weekend performances on July 13 and 14, dancers endured 80-degree temperatures underneath direct daylight for a crowd of over 100 visitors, who have been supplied shade and umbrellas.
The Getty has not but responded to Hyperallergic’s request for remark.
Towards the conclusion of the 4pm efficiency this Sunday, three viewers members unfolded indicators that learn: “GETTY WE C U PAYING PERFORMERS POORLY.” As performers moved alongside the viewers whereas wielding the heavy full-length mirrors, a 3rd signal studying “FAIR PAY 4 DANCERS” held by a sitting viewers member mirrored the message again to the viewers. Throughout a vocalization, one of many performers refused to sing and later turned his again to the viewers throughout the applause on the finish of the piece.
Members of the museum’s safety workers moved via the gang. The efficiency ended by 4:32pm, with no arrests or disturbances.
“I’m right here as we speak as a result of I do know that the Getty is paying their dancers poorly,” 29-year-old Dante Matero, an viewers member in attendance from Studio Metropolis, instructed Hyperallergic. “If the Getty, which we all know has some huge cash, needs to placed on Joan Jonas, they need to be capable to pay their dancers pretty — comparably with different performances.”
One of many performers, who requested to stay nameless for concern of retaliation, described the work setting on the Getty as “disorganized and hostile.” Some artists acquired contracts the day of the efficiency on Saturday regardless of per week of rehearsals, no day charge, and a $1,000 flat charge per performer for the whole week of rehearsals and two weekend efficiency days, they mentioned.
The performer additional alleged that when requests have been made for extra day charges based mostly on the circumstances of the efficiency, along with reimbursement for journey and costumes and transparency relating to pay charge construction, they have been instructed that they’d already agreed to fee.
In distinction, for instance, the Museum of Trendy Artwork revealed a name for dancers to carry out the identical Jonas piece in New York in February of this 12 months and quoted nearly thrice the Getty’s pay — $150 to $200 a day for rehearsals and $750 to $1,500 a day for performances.
In response to Dorothy Dubrule, a member of the LA efficiency neighborhood, former director of Pieter Efficiency Area, and editor of Being Work, a brand new ebook on labor and establishments within the discipline, performers ought to have a contract in hand earlier than stepping foot in an establishment, in addition to day charges and better flat charges for performances, and organizers ought to know higher.
“In case you are an individual who’s making an attempt to prepare efficiency, in case you are an advocate, a part of your work is making certain there’s truthful pay in your staff,” Dubrule instructed Hyperallergic. “It’s a very powerful a part of a efficiency finances and but it’s the almost certainly to get squeezed.”
“I want to see public commitments from the Getty in order that this doesn’t occur once more,” Dubrule continued. “We’re on the identical facet in eager to assist efficiency in LA, so why aren’t we on the identical facet of this?”