Matty Davis to Present a Site-Responsive Performance on The High Line During Frieze Week

Photo by Jonah Rosenberg. Courtesy of Friends of the High Line and Frieze.

The High Line announced that artist and choreographer Matty Davis will present Die No Die (The High Line), a site-responsive performance undertaken by Davis and five collaborators on the evenings of April 30, May 1, and May 2 during Frieze Week. Die No Die (The High Line) is a co-commission by High Line Art and Frieze and is being curated by High Line Art’s associate curator, Taylor Zakarin. Each performance will see the artists and audience traverse the length of the High Line together, from the southern entrance at Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to the north end of the park, where the performance will pass by The Shed at Hudson Yards and culminate at the Spur. With a four-part choreographic score performed with intense physicality by each artist in succession, and accompanied by an original publication, Die No Die will explore freedom, demand, and connections between people as they move forward through space and time.

“Matty Davis’s engagement with the High Line, both physically and through insightful research, has culminated in a performance that is highly specific to our space, its history, and the people who make the High Line what it is,” said Taylor Zakarin, Associate Curator of High Line Art. “Die No Die (The High Line) offers an exciting and revelatory experience of this environment, amplified by Davis’s captivating physicality. The High Line is grateful to partner with an organization as vital to contemporary art as Frieze to realize Matty’s vision.”

Matty Davis is an artist and choreographer engaged in collaborative explorations of risk, trust, responsibility and empathy. He works predominantly in performance and dance, foregrounding the body as a means to activate tensions inherent in our being. Davis often orchestrates performances to be directly responsive and engaged with his audience, characterized by their intense physicality and inventive choreography.

Continuing in this vein, Die No Die (The High Line) will be performed by Davis and five collaborators Nile Harris, Chloé Cooper Jones, Anna Thompson, Taylor Knight, and Bryan Saner. The performance will begin each evening at 5pm. Each performer navigates the work’s choreographic structure in four parts: “The Critical Gesture of Arrival,” “The Gem,” “Send the Heart Deeper,” and “Oppositional States.” This happens one performer at a time, in linear succession, at six pre-determined stops, including:

• underneath The Standard at Little West 12th Street, performed by Matty Davis
• the 14th Street Passage, performed by Anna Thompson and Taylor Knight
• at 22nd Street, performed by Chloé Cooper Jones
• on the 23rd Street Lawn, performed by Bryan Saner
• opposite the Shed on the High Line at 30th Street, performed by Nile Harris
• at the Spur on 30th Street, performed by Matty Davis.

Each performer signals to the next through the felt beat of their hearts the heart signifying a baton in the relay of life and in the forward motion of performance itself.

Supported by an original publication that mirrors the path of the performance, Die No Die engages a wide range of concerns: architectural, historical, ecological, and personal. Together, the performance and publication explore freedom, demand, and our responsibility to the transference of life between and among bodies that propel all of us forward.

In conjunction with Die No Die (The High Line), Davis also presents a large-scale wall work at The Shed for Frieze New York. Using site-specific images scaled 1:1 with the artist’s body, original photographs and drawings, and other materials sourced directly from the High Line, Davis articulates Die No Die’s choreographic structure in installation form.

The event happens rain or shine. Free and open to the public, visitors are encouraged to RSVP online in advance.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Matty Davis (b. 1989, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) lives and works in New York, New York. Davis’ work has been featured at institutions including Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, Texas (2023); The Momentary, Bentonville, Arkansas (2023); Center for Performance Research, New York, New York (2022); Kanal Centre Pompidou, Brussels, Belgium (2021); The Miller Institute for Contemporary Art, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (2019); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2019); and The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (2018). He has participated in prominent international artist residencies, including at The Momentary, Bentonville, Arkansas (2022); Ucross Foundation, Clearwater, Wyoming (2022); Art Omi, Ghent, New York (2020); and The Watermill Center, Watermill, New York (2016).

ABOUT HIGH LINE ART
Founded in 2009, High Line Art commissions and produces a wide array of artworks on the High Line, including site-specific commissions, exhibitions, performances, video programs, and a series of billboard interventions. Led by Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Director & Chief Curator of High Line Art, and presented by the High Line, the art program invites artists to think of creative ways to engage with the unique architecture, history, and design of the park, and to foster a productive dialogue with the surrounding neighborhood and urban landscape.

For further information on High Line Art, please visit thehighline.org/art.

ABOUT THE HIGH LINE
The High Line is both a nonprofit organization and a public park on the West Side of Manhattan. Through our work with communities on and off the High Line, we’re devoted to reimagining public spaces to create connected, healthy neighborhoods and cities.

Built on a historic, elevated rail line, the High Line was always intended to be more than a park. You can walk through the gardens, view art, experience a performance, enjoy food or beverage, or connect with friends and neighbors all while enjoying a unique perspective of New York City.

Nearly 100% of our annual budget comes through donations. The High Line is owned by the City of New York and we operate under a license agreement with NYC Parks.

For more information, visit thehighline.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

SUPPORT
Lead support for High Line Art comes from Amanda and Don Mullen. Major support is provided by Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip E. Aarons, The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston, and Charina Endowment Fund.

High Line Art is supported, in part, with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council, under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne Adams.

Matty Davis, Die No Die (The High Line), 2024, is co-commissioned by Frieze.

@HighLineArtNYC @mattywilliamdavis