Maia Chao, American Idle, 2025. Photo by Maria Baranova. Courtesy of Times Square Arts.

We’re proud to announce WORTHLESSSTUDIOS is joining Times Square Arts to bring Maia Chao’s iconic live performance American Idle to Times Square on August 14th for two performances at 7 pm and 9 pm. 

While in residence with Times Square Arts, Chao shadowed sanitation workers and public safety officers, and studied the daily systems that sustain one of the world’s busiest public spaces. 

Her performance, American Idle, is an hour-long live performance in Duffy Square first performed in 2025, conceived and directed by Chao and choreographed by Lena Engelstein. The performance brings repetitive pedestrian movements, acts of maintenance, and tools of surveillance into focus as a study of public space. 

Join us August 14 to experience American Idle.

ABOUT MAIA CHAO

Maia Chao is an artist making anthropological work across performance, video, sculpture, and public practice. She has been commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art, Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Times Square Arts, The Shed, and MoMA Education. Additional projects have been presented at the RISD Museum, Bronx Museum, Mural Arts Philadelphia, Boston Center for the Arts, Smack Mellon, and Oregon Contemporary. She has completed fellowships and residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center, Pioneer Works, and Queer|Art, among others. Named a Pew Fellow in 2022, she attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2023.​ For the 2026 Whitney Biennial, Chao presented BEING MOVED, a new performance commission. She is currently a 2026 United States Artists Fellow. She is full-time faculty in Interdisciplinary Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore and resides in Philadelphia.