Personal Power Moves — 601Artspace

PERSONAL POWER MOVES
Receive a customized empowerment gesture from Liz Magic Laser and Cori Kresge
Friday, May 1st, 6-8pm
601Artspace
88 Eldridge Street

Please join us at 601Artspace on Friday, May 1st for Personal Power Moves, hosted by artists Liz Magic Laser and Cori Kresge, inspired by their current installation, Power Moves. During "office hours" from 6-8pm, the artists will consult with visitors and determine a personalized hand gesture for each person based on their current needs.

Liz Magic Laser’s research into oratorical gesture began while studying how contemporary politicians perform authenticity on camera. In past works such as I Feel Your Pain (2011) and The Digital Face (2012), she examined the rise of emotionally expressive political performance in the age of reality television and teleprompters. The Digital Face featured Kresge and fellow Cunningham dancer Alan Good performing gestural choreography with rigorous mechanical precision.

Laser and Kresge have continued to develop this inquiry into a contemporary somatic training method for public address. Power Moves adapts François Delsarte’s nineteenth-century system of oratorical gesture into a sequence of codified actions: gestures for setting boundaries, taking control, cutting through noise, and stirring up a new message. Packaging political body language as a self-empowerment regimen, the work guides viewers through a set of gestures that place the decor and body language of political authority in conversation with the aspirational interiors of wellness culture.

Power Moves is part of our current exhibition When Thoughts Are Free, curated by Sara Reisman. Find more information about the exhibition here.

Power Moves, 2026, Liz Magic Laser in collaboration with choreographer Cori Kresge. Single-channel video installation, 35 minutes. Co-directed and produced by Zoe Chait. Commissioned by 601Artspace, New York. Cinematography and editing by Zoe Chait, Liz Magic Laser, and Alexander Mejia. Script by Liz Magic Laser and Cori Kresge. Makeup and hair by Nat Carlson. Sound engineering by Conner Chase. Sound mix by Trent Mazur.