Noritoshi Hirakawa's 'In Search of a Purple Heart' Performance at Salon 94

Photographer Noritoshi Hirakawa presented his site-specific performance 'In Search of a Purple Heart' twice on Sunday, February 27 at Salon 94 in New York. The event featured choreographed movements by performers including a Latino man with roses, a blond woman, and an African-American man in a bathrobe. They delivered fragmented dialogue from interviews with American Vietnam War veterans while engaging in sexually ambiguous poses and stylized interactions. Hirakawa's photographs of Thom Mayne's University of Toronto Graduate House architecture were displayed on curved white walls, depicting figures in provocative stances. Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn hosted brunch for approximately 40 attendees before gathering them in the exhibition space. A musician played a goatskin-framed drum as performers crawled out spider-like after 20 minutes. The performance occurred in a townhouse gallery with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a garden, featuring a bed covered in apricot silks. Hirakawa's work critiques America's affluent culture through cosmetic environments and appropriated veteran memories, questioning whether the nation possesses a conscience.