NEW YORK.-A series of five performances, painstakingly scheduled to occur during specific astrological moments throughout the year. Lisa Paul Streitfeld -- a critic, curator and novelist based in New York City -- will spend five days at a time weaving the real and surreal into her unique literary art form: the blog-novel. The successive installation performances will be based on the four natural elements, culminating with the final element that unifies it all: the hieros gamos. You can catch the artist fasting while plugging away at the keyboard, beginning with Fire (January 23nd-27), then Water (May 7th-11th), Earth (June 18th-22nd), and Air (September 24th-28th). The experiment will conclude under the full moon during January 21st-25th, 2008, where she will mold spirit into matter in the final installment exploring the Hieros Gamos. You will be able to read her updated chapters daily at www.thealchemyoflove.blogspot.com

The series begins January 23 – 27 with “FIRE (Calcinatio)”. This installation/performance presents Streitfeld’s novel, Champagne Tango, and related mixed media evoking the “underground” experience, with Holly Crawford’s “Male Geometry” paintings and Yuliya Lanina’s installation “Eros, You Burn Me!”.

THE LAB (for installation + performance art) is a New York based, converted storefront turned fishbowl producing 30+ fast paced performance art and installation exhibitions annually. Aimed at furious midtown foot traffic, THE LAB’s programming is designed to confront modern relationships between art and audience and seeks to force interaction between high energy, “outropsective” exhibitions and nearly 25,000 daily passersby. It is THE LAB’s goal to reach out through the glass and capture, fascinate, amuse, bemuse, soothe, shake and satisfy any and all who pass within eye or ear shot of the corner of 470th and Lex.