Margaret Chase
She | Her | Hers
Allentown, PA | Lenapehoking
Artist Statement
The impulse toward transcendence and how that quest affects behavior captivates me. I savor the rogue’s gallery of humanity, and probe what drives people to give themselves over to a vision. Environments that catalyze breakthrough are compelling to me, from odd dystopias to sumptuous dreamscapes. As a teenager I began doing political street theatre, and was forever imprinted by its immediacy and raw audience reaction, simultaneously thrilling and terrifying. Later, working with Polish avant garde actors, I learned the impact of moment-to-moment intention and honesty. I am curious about transgressors, about the ghosts and demons of history. I’m also influenced by the boundary-smashing of the Dada art movement; the incorporation of ceremony and absurdity; and the intersections of art, disability, and human rights. Having bilateral hearing loss and being bionic as a cochlear implant user, I experience a complex communication landscape. As a performer, I enjoy intense collaboration as well as solo work. As a writer, I seek solitude until it is time to share material. I am willing to be vulnerable and to take risks in writing and in performance, and seek unexpected theatrical combinations in physicality, voice, characterization, and interaction. All artforms are living languages, and expand the vocabulary of the imagination.
| Image Description: Photographed in color, Margaret Chase, a white woman with long brown hair, gestures with her right arm as she performs her poetry in “Signal Malfunction,” a spoken word creation by the Digital Symbiotes Ensemble. She speaks passionately into a microphone. |
Artist Bio
Margaret Chase is a performer, writer, and director. She believes artists have a critical role in advancing racial, social, and disability justice in America. She is a resident artist of Socially Distant Art. Margaret belongs to the Day de Dada performance art collective, featured performers at the 2022 NYC Annual Figment Festival. In 2021 she was directorial consultant on Jazz Hands, performance artist Milenka Berengolc’s multi-media exploration of living with Parkinson’s disease. Manhattan Repertory Theatre produced Pendulum in 2019, Margaret’s play about mind games in the age of terror. Her interactive Mandala Dreams was selected by the Asian American Arts Alliance for its “Locating the Sacred” festival in NYC. Her work has been featured since 2020 in: the breaking point project; NON:op open opera works; NYSAI Press; Silver Birch Press; DisArt’s DisTopia podcast series; MAC museum arts culture access consortium; Brooklyn Book Festival in collaboration with Alice Austen House, and the zine To Be Young (and Disabled). Margaret co-curated Artists Undeterred and RE/Configurations: art, disability, identity in 2018, a year-long project that showcased radical work by 75 diverse disabled artists, in multiple venues including the Newhouse Museum for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, and the Pride Center of Staten Island. Margaret relies on a cochlear implant and a hearing aid, and likes being bionic. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Boston University. Margaret is now writing Resurrecting Lady Dada, a play for 3 women.
Artwork + Blog Posts
Socially Distant Art Exhibitions + Projects
Blog Posts
