This year Hallwalls’ annual Artists and Models party returns to the Central Terminal. In the past Hallwalls has moved the party around—to the convention center, abandoned warehouses, factories, roller rinks, and department stores.

Lews Colburn in his Strangelovian bunker.

“We’re glad to be back at the terminal, using the same space as last year,” says John Massier, visual arts curator for Hallwalls. “Older buildings have a character that play into the vibe. Artists are excited by the space. Some have never been inside and are amazed.”

The theme this year is Unhinged, and many installations have a psychological bent.

Take, for instance, Office Diva by Dave Pape and Josephine Antsey. The diva is the co-worker who inflates the minutiae of her existence into major melodramas and inflicts her problems onto anyone within audio range through a babbling patter of nonsense you’d prefer to ignore. Here she’s safely projected as a computer animation in a confined space.

Several installations have a more probing nature. Marty McGee and Mick Gross will roam the party offering psychological screenings and analyses. The AWK comprise a literary club who will ask the question to patrons, “Are you normal?” Valerie C. Pawlowski has created a bipolar room. Nancy J. Parisi allows you to experience what it’s like to be strapped in a gurney in a mental ward, recording the episode with a Polaroid.

Some installations take modern media imagery to task in humorous ways. There’s Frank McCauley’s send-up of famous male icons: He project onto himself and parodies uber-masculine superheroes such as Robocop and Captain Kirk. Jim McLaughlin will perform as a mime alongside a troupe of costumed women singing James Bond themes. Lorna Mills has a presentation of morphing, too-cute kittens.

Another piece containing morphing imagery is Michael Bosworth’s projections of the Buffalo skyline.

Funny and a little frightening is Robin Brasington’s Beauty Guide, provided by her nieces, aged three to seven.

Ryan Barone and Anthony DiMezza present a five-hour-long conest called Playing Basketball with Death, a reference to Bergman’s film The Seventh Seal.

The ambitious Stephanie Koenig has created a life-sized interior of a pirate ship, replete with 1970’s décor and a TV playing Three’s Company reruns. She believes we are all thieves and pirates of music, ideas, and movies. Her works explore the notion of “recyclable nostalgia.”

Other works are more political. Lewis Colburn conjures the bunker of Dr. Strangelove, dressing up in military garb and creating a war room that’s plastered floor to ceiling with maps and toy soldiers. Fortuitously, Colburn’s installation is located by a ruined carousel.

Jody Hanson and Mark McLoughlin are bringing 1,000 red, white, and blue balloons to the party for an installation called Slow Rain. The balloons have a celebratory and patriotic aspect, as well as a more somber element—the helium in them will escape over the course of the night, causing them to descend. When they do, revelers will find that attached to each balloon is a card with the name of a soldier killed in Iraq and on the reverse a quotation about peace.

In a more interactive vein is the Tourista Scavenger Hunt led by Matthew Slaats, Tom Hughes, and Jax Deluca. “Visitors like to investigate the space,” says Massier, and taking advantage of the exploratory nature of the space is Avalanche Collective, whose members will launch a polar expedition inside the terminal.

“We never know what to expect. The event is not reliant on subtlety, as there is a lot of noise bleed,” Massier says. “However, last year in the midst of all the furor people were patiently and quietly lining up to look at a piece and peer through a set of binoculars.”

“Every year it’s totally different. The different themes spur artists to go in directions they may never have gone before and they work hard to put on something compelling,” says Polly Little, development director for Hallwalls.

Music acts include jazz musician Eric Crittenden and his band, indie modern punk group London vs. New York, the Reactionary Ensemble, the 12/8 Path Band, and dj ceiba. Putting on some sultry moves will be Eye Candy Burlesque, a group formed from the Pole Play Dance Studio on Hertel.

Food will be provided by the Bijou Café, Sonoma Grille, and Ike’s BBQ.

—lucy yau

Saturday, May 31, 9pm-2am. Central Terminal on Paderewski Drive (buffalocentralterminal.org). Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. Tickets are available in advance in Buffalo at Hallwalls, Talking Leaves Books, Shoe Fly, Rust Belt Books, and Terrapin Station; in the suburbs you’ll find tickets at Pizza Plant, Clarence Center Coffee Co., and Redfish Studios in East Aurora.