Gay marriage is a hot-button topic in Maine, but to Chicago-based performance artists Dutes Miller and Stan Shellabarger, it is an everyday lens through which to explore what it means to be a person in our society. The husband and husband team's durational and repetitive performances focus "on simple materials and actions pushed to almost Sisyphean extremes." In brief, they show what a committed relationship looks like, lest anyone still doubt the veracity of gay marriage. They will give an artists' talk this afternoon, Sept. 2, at 4:30pm in Osher Hall at the Maine College of Art. The duo will also perform on First Friday, Sept. 3, at the artists' reception at the ICA at MECA for Mind-bending with the Mundane curated by MECA professor and renegade printmaker, Adriane Herman. The ICA show features "a wide variety of media such as photography, performance, performance residue, engravings, bureaucratic documents and installation," and includes works by Miller & Shellabarger as well as Alix Lambert, Allison Smith and Andrew Raftery.

Tags: arts, education, GLBT, people to watch, politics, work in portland