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Edgar Arceneaux, Until, Until, Until . . .

October 17, 20247:30 pm

October 18, 20247:30 pm

October 19, 20247:30 pm

The October 18 performance includes an artist Q&A after the show.

About the Performance

Edgar Arceneaux is a contemporary artist working in Los Angeles, whose primary materials are histories and memories marred by gaps in logic, clichés, and erasures. Working within these gaps, Arceneaux applies a surreal, dream-like lens to pry open the messy contents of history, and pull what we think we already know into new shapes.

Arceneaux’s live performance Until, Until, Until . . . restages Broadway legend Ben Vereen’s infamous 1981 blackface performance at Ronald Reagan’s inaugural gala, and its aftermath. As an homage to vaudevillian Bert Williams, one of America’s first mainstream Black entertainers, Ben Vereen performed a moving tribute to Williams on national television, donned in blackface make up, as was required of Black vaudevillian performers in the early 20th century. In the first half of his performance, Vereen performed a song and dance routine in the vaudevillian style. The second half of his show contained biting commentary about the history of Black performance in the US, assimilation into white norms, and white supremacy, but woefully, that section was edited out of the national broadcast, leading to a national outrage and Vereen’s career derailment. Vereen was never allowed to tell his side of the story . . . until now.

A multilayered, abstract fever dream of a play, Arceneaux’s Until, Until, Until . . . invites audiences to directly experience Vereen’s censored performance, deemed too dangerous to air on national television.

Edgar Arceneaux’s Until, Until, Until . . . was commissioned by Performa and MIT’s Vera List Visual Arts Center for the Performa 15 Biennial. Now, 10 years since its debut, this restaging is an opportunity to reflect on what’s changed in the years since.

The MCA presentation is organized by Laura Paige Kyber, Assistant Curator of Performance.

Note: This performance begins with a cocktail hour inside the theater.

Immerse yourself in the world of the performance while listening to a vaudeville-era playlist. Audience members are welcome to arrive up until the performance officially kicks off at 8:30 pm. Light snacks and drinks for audiences age 21 and over are available for purchase. The performance has a run time of 50 minutes.

A post-show Q&A with Edgar Arceneaux immediately follows the performance on Friday, October 18.

Access Information

Seating is general admission. Some seats include access to café tables, and will be offered first-come, first-served. If you need mobility assistance, please speak with an MCA staff member.

English CART captioning and audio description are available for the performance on Friday, October 18.

Audio description available.

About the Artist

Portrait of a man with short curly hair in an outdoor location

Edgar Arceneaux. Photo: Sage Causie.

Edgar Arceneaux (b. 1972, Los Angeles) works in the fields of drawing, sculpture, installation, performance, and video; often exploring connections between historical events and present-day truths. Arceneaux has had solo exhibitions at The Kitchen (NYC), Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; the Vera List Center at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Basel, Switzerland; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Linz, Austria. His work has also been presented at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), Bronx Museum, Performa 15, the Whitney Museum, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Art in Oslo, San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts, among other venues. Arceneaux’s work has been collected at the Whitney Museum, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Ludwig Museum, Cologne; Walker Art Center; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Orange County Museum of Art, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Arceneaux attended the California Institute of the Arts (MFA, 2001), Fachhochschule Aachen (2000), the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (1999), and Art Center College of Design (BFA, 1996).

Funding

Lead support for the 2024-25 season of MCA Performance and Public Programs is provided by Elizabeth A. Liebman.

Generous support is provided by Ginger Farley and Bob Shapiro, Martha Struthers Farley and Donald C. Farley, Jr. Family Foundation, N.A., Trustee; Anne L. Kaplan; and Carol Prins and John Hart/The Jessica Fund.

The MCA is a proud member of the Museums in the Park and receives major support from the Chicago Park District.