Between the Venice Biennale, the Met Gala, and now Frieze New York, the last fortnight has kept the art world booked and busy. While the concurrent openings of Frieze, NADA, and Esther art fairs may have sent some into a tizzy across West Chelsea on Wednesday evening, a few were happily spirited far from the chaos—courtesy of Christian Louboutin and artist Malú dalla Piccola.
After collecting a signature Louboutin red-hued entry ticket from the United Palace box office, guests gathered in the elaborate lobby of the Washington Heights theater. There, the group sipped Ruinart’s Blanc de Blancs from crystal Champagne flutes while eagerly awaiting the premiere of Table Talk; a four-act performance piece created by dalla Piccola. Aside from promising to surprise and subvert, details on what the evening had in store remained under lock and key.
As call time approached, the theater doors opened to reveal the makings of a night in line with the Surrealist dinner parties of a bygone era. Guests ascended to the stage to find their places at the candlelit table, as dancer Madi Tanguay performed a wistful ballet solo in scarlet pointe shoes. It was a sight fit to make Leonor Fini—the Louboutin muse, Surrealist painter, and gardienne of the theatrical dinner party scene in Post-War Paris—proud.
Dalla Piccola, who is seven months pregnant, enlisted her friend and collaborator Ekaterina Scherbakova in co-creating and executing the work. “I always dreamed of doing a performance while pregnant, and this was the perfect occasion,” she told Vogue. With The Red Shoes—the 1948 film starring Moira Shearer as an aspiring ballerina tragically captivated by the allure of a pair of red pointe shoes—serving as inspiration, the piece placed the audience at the center of an exploration of surveillance, maternity, and the uncanny. “For me,” added Scherbakova, “this is a performance about desire and power that are interconnected.”
