Performance anxiety

By Ken Miller (contact)

Thursday, April 2, 2009 | midnight

I’m far from what you’d call an arts connoisseur (I have the bare walls at home to prove it). And I’m liable to turn and run if you mention the words “performance art,” suffering flashbacks of the movie Se7en. But even an art naïf like me can appreciate how cool Off the Strip sounds, a two-week convergence of the world’s more prominent performance and visual artists from April 2-17, courtesy of the Contemporary Arts Center.

I’ll admit my curiosity is piqued to see how Malcolm Smith uses masks, mirrors, signals and noise to blur the lines between humans and animals in his “Humanimalgamble” performance. And Laura Napier’s visual presentation, “Project for a Street Corner: WTC Path,” manipulating the way people organize in public spaces, sounds pretty damn fascinating.

Three venues will host Off the Strip, all within walking distance of each other: The Contemporary Arts Center (107 Charleston Blvd.), the Aruba Hotel (1215 Las Vegas Blvd. S.) and the Onyx Theatre (953 E. Sahara Ave.). There’s a $5 charge at the Onyx, and half the proceeds go to the CAC. For a complete list of participating artists and performance times and locations, visit lasvegascac.org.