From Hyperallergic: “What is a DJ? Maybe you can get to an answer by understanding where the DJ is—that pivot point, that hub around which we as dancers oscillate, in the orbit of the music the DJ arranges and organizes. Understanding this, you can see the DJ as a carnival barker, or a sensitive and knowing soundscape designer, or a shaman opening unseen doors to threshold experiences where you just might die a little—that is to say, lose the manic grip on your ego, lose yourself like a raindrop in the thunderstorm.

The language of the disco, of places like the Paradise Garage that flourished in the late 1970s and through the ’80s, is the language associated with spiritual occurrences, the language of ecstasy, of religious experience. Elia Alba, in The Beat Goes On at the SVA Chelsea Gallery—whose installation is the first you encounter walking through the gallery—uses this idiom, describing Paradise Garage as a place of sanctuary. This is why it was called ‘Saturday mass,’ by the people who fell into its groove.

In Alba’s room—the three other artists included in the show all have separate spaces for their installations—her wall text refers to the experience of Paradise Garage as moving everyone in the room toward ‘transcendence’ and ‘joy,’ but also ‘holiness.’ Her installation includes all the technical accoutrements that can bring about the transmutation: a podium and DJ booth, musical speakers, a checkered floor, a video wall, a disco ball in the center like a lodestone, so when you fling yourself out into the furthest reaches of psychic space, you can always find your way back home…” (For the full story and more photos, click here)

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