“Be my time travel companions for these stories that will transport us as ill-fated pilgrims hiking the Camino de Santiago in Portugal and Spain, back to a 2020 pandemic romance in Asheville, North Carolina, a pivotal July heatwave in Chicago, and the unhinged inner dialogue of relationship purgatory.”
This is how Gina Cornejo—a writer, performer, artist, and storyteller—invites a crowd of us to engage with the story she is about to tell, happening inside a ceramic studio that features an installation displaying objects from the unfolding narrative.
Tooth + Nail studio and gallery in the Lincoln Warehouse (2018 S. 1st St., Suite 308) is decorated with confidence that attendees to Cornejo’s solo performance and exhibition are composed enough not to knock over anything fragile. Far as I know, the ceramics around the room in various states of fired completion stay intact, as well as Cornejo’s artifacts consisting of orange mugs, romance novels, and a full wedding dress displayed on the wall across from where she sets up to perform. This installation, and the narrative/spoken word/musical element we all have come to see—called “It Hurts Now Like It Did Before”—is collectively titled “Screwball,” an apt theme for the night’s tone and dress code.
About that dress code. Think the opposite of black tie and formal wear. Think even zanier than “casual Fridays.” Patrons to the performance on October 18 were encouraged to come in outfits befitting 1980s ice cream truck core, sleepyhead seaside, human animal, Harvest Moon, Fosse dancers, farmer’s market sapphic bliss, late bloomer baddie, and Thelma and Louise. If you were to make an eight-ringed Venn diagram of these dress code suggestions, the only accessory you’d find in the center would be a handkerchief. Just wear one of those to the next performance on November 15.
After the crowd settles and Talking Heads’ “Once In A Lifetime” fades out, the story begins with an orange mug. Cornejo takes the audience through the early stages of a relationship, just as infatuation begins to molt and twist into something deeper, and concludes on a scientific observation that elevates the orange mug into oneiric poignancy. Act II follows the artist a week into her pilgrimage up the Camino de Santiago, where she and a friend are vocally missing their familiar creature comforts. Later, the narrative picks up again in Chicago at the end of a relationship. Cornejo employs a train metaphor throughout this autobiographical journey, interwoven with anecdotes, poetry, and songs. She uses minimal props, such as a tiny megaphone, to break up the spoken elements, and encourages snaps, scoffs, and outbursts when the narrative moves the crowd into genuine reaction. There is a participatory nature to this performance that doesn’t goad the crowd for validation. Cornejo doesn’t seem to need the approval anyway.
I won’t give too much away from the performance itself. Cornejo’s presence is soothing and her delivery is that of a practiced storyteller. The experience allows one to step away from their own life dramas and accompany the artist through an hour-long retrospective of her own, but in a way that places a goofy, big-top framework over the ups and downs of a personal history. She tends toward the reflective and, at times, sentimental. But it’s funny and harmless and quirky.
Cornejo will perform “It Hurts Now Like It Did Before” again for the public at Tooth + Nail on November 15 at 7 p.m. The art and artifacts that make up the rest of “Screwball” will remain on display through the same evening.
And from now on, I urge—nay, require—more local events to make up their own dress codes.
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