Dissemination of the RAW-(Material)
project as a durational performance installation
RAW-(Material): EarthDay at Interlude Asheville
RAW-(Material): EarthDay
was a twelve hour durational performance installation that took place between
the hours of 12 noon – 12 midnight on Earth Day Saturday, April 23rd
2016. The event was part of a month-long series produced by the Black Mountain
College Museum + Art Center, together with the MAP (Media Arts Project) called
Interlude Asheville. This series was named after the periods of time that
Joseph Albers would occasionally declare for the students and faculty at Black
Mountain College – to go off and do their own thing. A break from the regular
curriculum to pursue whatever interested them.
My proposal for this series was to sustain a
performance of the RAW-(Material)
project as a twelve hour installation with performers rotating in and out
throughout the duration. (My proposal was under my organization name Cilla Vee Life Arts)
Most of the RAW-(Material) journal entries have been about going out to
interact with nature in the outdoor environment. But for this event, I gathered
nature objects from the regional Appalachian springtime and used them to create
an indoor environment.
I invited artists who have been participating
in my workshops or who I regularly collaborate with in the Asheville NC and
Knoxville TN arts communities.
There was no rehearsal for the event, instead
I sent the performers specific instructions that they could interpret as they
wished, as long as they kept within those parameters.
Earthday
– performer instructions:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4cHBYnXHpXzY3pWbW5JMi0tNUU/view?usp=sharing
Audience members were free to come and go
throughout the twelve-hour period. I even provided a little picnic area on
white, fluffy blankets with beverages and snacks. I invited my friends to come
and join the “picnic in the woods” and had the event double as my birthday
party!
Earthday
– images (Barbara Schauer, Ashley Long, Joel Parton, Sara Baird & Sienna Weigel)
The following videos show segments of the
installation over the twelve-hour time period. Most of this footage was
captured by a fixed camera set on a tripod.
These segments show how the performance
metamorphosized over time, a constant improvisation in response to a multitude
of contributing factors – both consciously and unconsciously acknowledged in
motion, sound and word.
Earthday
- videos
1
– Call of the Frogs
2
– Water Flows
3
– The Stones Have Voices
4
– A Giants’ Back Obliterates the Land
5
– Community Rituals
6
– Blossom Petals Blow In
7
– Siren Bacchanalia
8
– Voice of the Trees
9
– Ecological Psychedelia
RAW-(Material): EarthDay
performers:
Julie
Becton-Gillum – director of Legacy Butoh
Rachel
Shlafer-Parton – multi-instrumental musician and composer, sign-language
interpreter
John
Brinker – sound artist and DJ “Delta Quadrant”
Randi
Janelle – writer, poet, yoga instructor
Jim
Julien & Jocelyn Reese – performance artists, producers of the Asheville
Fringe Festival
Richard
Brewster – modular synthesizer maker
Diana
Brewster – web and graphic designer
Deb
Pollard – singer and chef
Elisa
Faires – performance artist, singer and music teacher
Cheryl
Barnes – visual artist
Liz
Lang – singer, composer and sound artist “Auracene”
Nina
Furrini – schoolteacher and Chinese interpreter
Chandra
Shukla – musician, composer and record producer “Xambuca”
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