Dozens of performers noiselessly cluster backstage waiting to go before the audience at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in a performance orchestrated by Brazilian artist Laura Lima. All actors, or ‘ballerinas’ as the gallery terms some of them, are sculptures created by Lima’s studio and include beekeeping clothes modified to suggest a space suit, a hammer and a sickle, each sporting a long ‘Greek’ dress, and a black and red cross a la early 20th century artist Kazimir Malevich. Sent out on a pulley system along one gallery wall and powered by an offstage bicycle, the inanimate figures are given life by lights, sound and careful movement of the pulley. Strangely absorbing, the installation and its dancing figures reward visitors who are game for interpretation. (On view in Chelsea through May 30th.)
