DESTINY GAME: Daria Pugachova Brings Intimate Performance to The Dome at Notsuoh
On a Sunday afternoon in downtown Houston, brave visitors climbed the narrow staircases of Notsuoh and entered the Dome one at a time, leaving behind the sounds of the bar outside for an intimate, artist led encounter-- stepping into the dome that was turned into a kind of life sized crystal ball, holding a fortune teller inside.
Ukrainian performance artist Daria Pugachova presented DESTINY GAME, a one-on-one performance that marked her final Houston appearance during her U.S. tour with CEC ArtsLink. Rather than gathering a large audience together or creating another one of her public actions, the work unfolded through a series of quiet, intimat individual encounters. Each participant entered alone, sat across from the artist, and became part of an improvised divination--- guided by conversation, intuition, and chance.
Pugachova spent the week leading up to the performance collecting pieces of Houston. She wore a layered costume assembled entirely from clothing gathered during her visit, while the space around her was filled with objects borrowed from the people she met along the way. Family heirlooms from her new Houstonian friends, cherished keepsakes, and small personal treasures—each carrying its own history—became part of the installation itself, energetically charged items shared by local residents who chose to entrust the artist with a fragment of their lives.
Even the deck of cards reflected a sense of place. A found pack of Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader playing cards became the foundation for a divination system Pugachova developed specifically for DESTINY GAME. Through symbolic interpretation, storytelling, humor, and careful observation, she created a different reading for every participant. No two encounters were the same.
The performance never relied on spectacle-- although she became one surrounded by atmospheric starry lights and piled items of felt intrigue. Each session unfolded in near silence, interrupted only by Pugachova's voice and the subtle sounds woven into the experience, found audio tapes being just one tool in her collected repetoire. Sitting beneath the Dome's curved ceiling, with its soft colored lights and enclosed architecture, it was easy to feel as though you had stepped inside a crystal ball—a small world where time slowed down and conversation became the work itself.
Many participants lingered after their sessions, quietly comparing experiences while realizing that everyone had encountered a different performance. What they shared was less a fortune than a conversation—one that invited reflection, vulnerability, and an openness to uncertainty.
Much of Pugachova's artistic practice explores the space between artist and audience. Her performances have activated fountains, city streets, and civic spaces, often asking strangers to become collaborators rather than spectators. In Houston, that same spirit took on a more intimate form. By inviting residents to contribute objects, stories, and moments of trust, she created a work that could only have existed here, shaped as much by the community as by the artist herself.
The Dome within Notsuoh proved to be a natural setting for this kind of encounter-- playing off the artistic assemblage of the entire building, she built a sacred, elevated space within the protective globe of the dome. Full of collected eccentricity like the rest of Notsuoh, but within her installation, intention enhanced the energy and meaning of each chosen heirloom. The journey upstairs, the circular architecture, and the room's quiet intimacy in contradiction to the bar outside of the closed doors encouraged visitors to slow down and give their full attention to another person. It became more than a backdrop for the performance; it became part of its rhythm, creating a space where artist and participant could meet without distraction. A protective bubble.
For me, DESTINY GAME also reflected something we hope the Dome continues to offer artists: a place where ambitious ideas can take root through genuine connection with a community. Rather than presenting a finished work unchanged from city to city, Pugachova allowed Houston itself to shape the performance. The borrowed objects, shared histories, and one-on-one conversations became part of the artwork. Site specificity and social sculpture in full swing.
DESTINY GAME was a beautiful conclusion to her time in Houston and a powerful start to a new series of curated performances inside the dome.
We are deeply grateful to Daria Pugachova for sharing such a thoughtful and generous work with Houston, and to everyone who contributed keepsakes, stories, curiosity, and trust to help bring DESTINY GAME to life.
Special thanks to Dean Liscum for his thoughtful writing on the performance and to Kylie Sivley for beautifully documenting the event.
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