Four and a half stars
Indianapolis Museum of Art Event

Saturday at noon, balanced on the guardrail near Virginia Avenue’s breezy overpass, I was a participating spectator in an unexpectedly engaging happening: a parade inspired by parades. Part of IMA’s On Procession, this mobile art exhibition of visual puns, pageantry, improvisation and music merged performers, artists, activists and community participants. The parade route, choreographed by Fritz Haeg, split partakers into east and west brigades that met at the overpass. From the east, protesters in historical garb brandishing signs like “Yes She Can” surrounded giant animal pull-toy sculptures manned by Herron handlers — all part of Allison Smith’s “The Donkey, the Jackass and the Mule!” Performers sporting papier-mâché heads of Hillary, Obama, McCain — and the 1970s smiley face — marched with actual congressional candidates en route, all interspersed with hand-waving and the handing out of candy, flyers, even poems. From the west, a cowboy dragged his white saddle as it crumbled into a chalk-like trail. Michael Runge and Amy Deny’s deconstructed dragon puppet crossed paths with the Indy Art Center’s authentic Chinese dragon. Artur Silva, dressed as a solider and strapped with war-footage video in Teletubby fashion, passed me a toy Army man. Marching piñatas sought pretend revenge by swinging clubs at the crowd. Then at the overpass, performers converged, circled and the line between spectator and participant dissolved into collaboration. www.onprocession.org.