Vaginal Davis and Susanne Sachsse talk about their restaging of The Magic Flute

CHEAP kollectiv—the C in cheap usually appearing as the hammer and sickle of the Russian Revolution—restaged Mozart’s The Magic Flute at New York University's 80WSE gallery as “an opera in six steps,” from December 1–5, 2015, at 6, 7, and 8 PM each night. Jamie Stewart of the band Xiu Xiu composed a new score, and artist Michel Auder shot all aspects of the performance for a film that debuted at 80WSE and was exhibited from June 8–August 13, 2016.

Two of CHEAP's figureheads—performer/writer/artist/bon vivant Vaginal Davis and actress/singer/prankster Susanne Sachsse, CHEAP's fearless leader—here talk with Artforum about their collaboration with Jonathan Berger’s (NYU Steinhardt art department faculty member and director of 80WSE) and Jesse Bransford’s (chair of NYU Steinhardt’s art program) students in the creation of this immersive, built-from-the-atom-up installation/performance/tableau vivant.

Davis's solo exhibition, “Come on Daughter Save Me,” was also on view at Invisible-Exports in New York until December 20, 2015.