Interlude

Marianna Simnett is known for her provocative multidisciplinary work that explores vulnerability, pain, metamorphosis, and care. Her work blends dark humor with elements of music, theater, and horror to present psychologically charged scenes and surreal environments. For the High Line, Simnett presents _Interlude_, an installation of two concession stands. A screen housed inside each of these radioactive-orange resin carts displays a looping video that depicts a food vendor at work. As the metal shutters rise, each reveals a solitary figure—one blonde, the other redheaded—bathed in neon and fluorescent light, engaging in the rhythmic, seemingly rote task of preparing stadium food. The characters squirt condiments onto piles of French fries and sweating hot dogs while singing an eerie and melancholic song, whose chorus goes: "You can win, you can sin, you can do anything, in the next life." The stands have a haunting, viscid quality; even when the shutters are closed, the grime on the metal and the buzz of the cheap light bulbs remain. By spotlighting this space and the vendors—ones who are typically relegated to the background to a point of invisibility—Simnett turns the workers' shifts into a powerful and humanizing performance of agency, despair, and survival.