Hopelessness

The nearly all-devouring darkness of Anohni’s Park Avenue Armory show

Anohni sings in front of a giant videoscreen showing performance artist Lorraine O’Grady lipsyncing

Anohni is the high priestess of an apocalyptic cult. Shrouded in the burqa of her new order, her angelic voice levitates above merciless dance beats and decries everything wrong with this world. Her vision is so dark and all-encompassing and her execution is so stark and close to flawless, over one and a half hours I am on the brink of a panic attack, deeply depressed, sobbing, physically sick to my stomach, seething with rage, hoping for the end of it all, sobbing all over again, and finally utterly exhausted. We will be talking about this show decades from now. Hopelessness indeed. Brava!