Theater
The Velvet Lounge
Tuesday 10 February
by Kate McDowell
Review by Antonina Heymanson
If you had one minute to talk about yourself, what would you say? If you had sixty, would that make it any easier? Is it experiences, beliefs, flaws or history that make up what it is to be a human being, or is it all of the above?
An exhibition on humanity, honesty and exploration of performance and the self, Daniel Cabrera explores three dimensions of his personality through skills in photography and storytelling. The narratives of the artist, teacher and performer, enhanced by audience participation and the occasional dance number result in a three act show comprised of a mixture of live performance and film, designed to entertain and provoke thought about the self, as much as the performer.
Though very entertaining, particularly for those of a Latino or Latin European sense of humour, the ingenuity of the performance lies in its honesty and raw confessional quality. Though part scripted performance, Dani allows his life to be picked at; isolated incidences are chosen and spoken of from memory from a slideshow of selfies, audience members become family substitutes, and a father, mother, brother and sister all participate in his narrative to evoke his true thoughts and feelings on certain moments and relationships in his life.
After a while, the performer on stage becomes a man, conflicted and striving. Humans have never been extremely competent in explaining their thoughts and feelings, particularly to those with whom they have close ties, and so, he tells them to strangers: his audience. Though ever the clown and entertainer, his thoughts are always on the value of something outside of its usual purpose, it’s value in the bigger scheme of things. It’s organic, entertaining and melancholy, there is no apology for content nor the time taken to tell a story.
So, who is Dani Cabs? An artist, teacher and performer: Australian born descendant of Uruguayan migrants who has a penchant for selfies and orange (be it the colour or the fruit). Part performance, part biography, part exhibition, it’s self expression in a raw form: entertaining, confronting and provocative, just as life can be.
Who is Dani Cabs? runs until Sunday the 15th of February.
