Overview
Introducing new projects by:
Jane Jerardi & Ginger Wagg, Washington, DC
Cindy Rehm, Baltimore, MD
Marcus Kuiland-Nazario, Los Angeles, CA
Spill, February 5 - 19, 2005
Jane Jerardi & Ginger Wagg
Building on the success of recent dance events that reconfigured the way audiences experience their performances, Jane Jerardi and Ginger Wagg (Washington, DC) further develop their exploration of multi-disciplinary, participatory performance with Spill , an inter-active event of continuing movement and momentum beyond control. Incorporating the collaboration of several other artists including mixed-media crochet sculptures by Agata Olek (New York, NY), sound installation by dj milo and Jonathan Matis (Washington, DC), and light design by Ben Tankersley (Washington, DC), participants of the initial two-hour performance/action will experience how Transformer's interior and exterior environment shapes a lone dancer's movements pouring in and out of gravity. Documentation of the action and its remnants will be on exhibition at Transformer February 9 , 19, 2005.
Spill is a part of In Site: insightful performance in a three-part series by Jane Jerardi and Ginger Wagg. February 5 SPILL @ Transformer; March 19 LISTEN @ Revolution Records; April 30 & May 1 CRAVE @ The Warehouse Next Door. In Site is made possible through the support of the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, an agency funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities.
Jane Jerardi is a performer and choreographer whose work has been presenter at Dance Place, DCAC, Joe's Movement Emporium and The Kennedy Center (all DC) among other places. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Cultural Studies from Hampshire College, Amherst, MA. She has taught as a guest artist at Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, VA and Earlham College, Richmond, IN, and currently teaches yoga to adults. Ginger Wagg is a dance artist focused primarily on improvisation. She performs with two DC based companies: Sharon Mansur/mansurdance and Daniel Burkholder/The Playground. She has performed with Shua Group (NYC), Amber Kendrick (DC), Marcy Schlissel (NYC), and Havana Select (DC) among others. She received her BFA in Dance from George Mason University, VA and has studied extensively at various improvisation workshops and festivals.
Echo, February 25 - March 5, 2005
Cindy Rehm
To the fatalistic sentiment, "everything has been done", Cindy Rehm (Baltimore, MD) says, "everything can be done again." Exploring performance art as rituals which can be passed on and re-interpreted, in summer 2004 during a twenty-eight day cross-country trip, Rehm enacted performance and conceptual works culled from the history of various artistic movements such as Fluxus. This project entitled Echo, includes Yoko Ono's "Number Piece 1", Ana Medieta's "Silueta", and Takehisa Kosugi's "For Mr. M"among several others which were performed in private and public spaces including hotel rooms, sidewalks, and various urban and natural environments. The works were documented through digital photography and postcard notifications mailed to Rehm's friends, colleagues and others after each action was completed. As part of Echo at Transformer, Rehm will introduce an original performance "Mirror"addressing issues of beauty and female body image through obsessive attempts to delineate the body.
Cindy Rehm is an artist and educator. In 2003, she founded spare room, an installation space located inside her private residence. Her work has been shown at: ARC Gallery, Chicago; Consolidated Works, Seattle; School 33, Baltimore; and at InterActions IV, Sardina, Italy. Rehm is a Lecturer in the InterArts Department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Sacred Chores, March 12 - 19, 2005
Marcus Kuiland-Nazario
Sacred Chore #1 (Grandma Judy) is the first in a series of durational, interactive performance installations by Marcus Kuiland-Nazario (Los Angeles, CA). It is a trans-cultural, bilingual chore/investigation of telenovelic proportions exploring the relationship of a former little Puerto Rican boy (MKN) and the grandmother (Judy) whom he thought hated him. Ironing, soap operas, abstracted spirit traditions of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, lo-fi technologies, family recipes and racing forms are both influence and material, literal and figurative in this psycho/tropical experience.
Kuiland-Nazario says, "the last three times I saw my Grandma Judy I happened to be ironing. When I saw her she said, 'Ayy! Pero mira que lindo tu planchas! Ojala que antes que me muera - tu me planches algo (Oh! But look how nice you iron! God willing, before I die, you can iron something for me!).' When I got the news of her passing, the first thing that popped into my head was that I never got to iron for her. This piece is a response to her passing and the guilt that accompanies an undone chore, especially a sacred one."
Sacred Chore # 4 will be created/performed through formal and informal workshops with the community during Kuiland-Nazario's residency at Transformer March 2005.
Marcus Kuiland-Nazario is a contributor to the LA WEEKLY, one of the Founding Artists of The 18th Street Arts Center, Highways Performance Space and Clean Needles Now (a street based harm reduction program); former co-director of Crazy Space Gallery; co-producer of Max10 performance laboratory; and curator and producer of the critically acclaimed (and over a decade old) performance series Pop Tarts. A seasoned street/outreach worker and health educator MKN has been confuting and confusing his art life and lived life to the consternation and appreciation of audiences everywhere.
