Jeffrey Augustine Songco

And We'll Have a Real Good Time

And We’ll Have a Real Good Time takes its title from Gypsy, one of the most iconic American musicals, in which I once performed as a teenager. Night after night, I inhabited a story about transformation, desire, and performance — a narrative that continues to shape how I think about identity and spectacle. In this exhibition, I draw from that legacy to explore performance as both entertainment and ritual, positioning the body as something rehearsed, presented, and validated through repetition and choreography.

For the first time, I offer visitors a glimpse into a ritual ceremony of the Society of 23. While the brotherhood’s story unfolds non-linearly, I know this much: the brothers affirm their identity through choreographed movement. The exhibition includes a choreography playbook of chalk-pastel drawings that merge dance notation with football plays, alongside photography, sculptural objects, and a floor-based installation of spike marks that transform the gallery into a stage mid-performance. Visitors enter during a single scene of an unseen six-part production, left to imagine what came before and what follows after. Together, the works reflect my ongoing interest in how we perform for one another — at home, at parties, and in public — and how easily we shift between who we are and who we present ourselves to be.

choreography playbook (Numbers 1 through 10), 2018. Chalk-pastel on Stonehenge paper. 18" x 18" edition. Edition 1 of 10.

holmol chair, 2018. Bible pages, plastic, metal, wood. 19" x 18" x 32".

Brother Andrew Ethan is seated on the holmol chair, a mixed-media sculpture that is also presented as an object in this exhibition. The holmol chair (short for holy molded chair) combines an Eames-style plastic molded chair with shag texture created from hand-cut Bible pages — the perfect objet d'art for a fashionable evening of hosting and entertaining in one’s home.

spike marks, 2018. Vinyl tape. Variable dimensions.