This Thursday night, come see--or even participate--as Baltimore-based performance artists Sarada Conaway, Judy Stone, and Virginia Warwick all perform simultaneously in different galleries inside the Arlington Arts Center.

Sarada Conaway will be offering free makeovers to willing volunteers--and shooting and posting before and after photos of her subjects. Conaway's piece echoes consumer culture's promises of better living and escape from oneself. Yet her makeovers will give each of her subjects a merely different appearance, not necessarily an improved one. The resulting images will reflect institutional uses of photography--for data collection, not glamor.

Judy Stone will continue her ongoing exploration of religion and weaponry. Her piece will include a two-channel video with images of sharpshooting and transcendental meditation, and a live two-person performance providing a literal expression of the Buddhist admonition: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him."

Virginia Warwick performed her piece, Underwater Adventure 2008, during the opening of FALL SOLOS 2008. In that piece, the artist dressed as a sea turtle. She wheeled herself into the gallery on a low furniture dolly, declaring that she was hung over, lost, and desperately looking for the ocean--and made absurd demands on audience members as she tugged at their ankles and moaned.

Warwick will perform a different piece based on the same character on October 30. Her work generally has to do with pairing childish fantasy with traditional elements of performance art, such as endurance and audience involvement or implication. Warwick's works are both humorous and decidedly uncomfortable, as audience members try to imagine what sort of interaction is expected of them or even acceptable for them personally.

Documentation from all three performances will be on view in our experimental galleries on the AAC's lower level through the end of the exhibition.

FALL SOLOS 2008 continues through Saturday, November 29.

Images: Sarada Conaway performing in the 2006 Transmodern Festival; Judy Stone performing her 2005 piece, "Good Job Brownie"; and Virginia Warwick preparing to have another underwater adventure.