Video Series

On June 5th and 6th, Rapid Pulse will feature two evenings of performance art-based videos that aim to showcase a vast range of styles and forms of performance art, especially those that are innovative and experimental; the video series component of the festival does just this. This series consists of performance works for the camera in which the lens is an integrated and essential element or the action is impossible to present live due to site specificity, extended duration, scale, or other concerns. Curated by Giana Gambino and Julie Laffin, and managed by Samantha Yiyao Chao.

FRI 05 JUNE
Rebirth: Resist, Adapt
SAT 06 JUNE
Anxiety and Other Ways of Being

 

 

FRI 05 JUNE: Rebirth: Resist, Adapt
“Rebirth: Resist, Adapt” looks to the myriad ways in which performance artists use their bodies to cleanse, constrict, conform or combat a new existence or being. Whether psychologically, physically, sexually, intellectually or spiritually intertwined, the body is always relationally dependent on other elements for its definition and survival. Often this tension of symbiosis is enacted through a variety of primal experiences with lovers, strangers, historical events, natural elements or environments, anonymous masses, and most importantly, oneself.

program details
Rebirth: Resist, Adapt: FRI 05 JUNE

  • River Lin- “Take A Shower,” 2011, (5:51)
  • Agatha Brum- “Performance Santa Agata” 2014, (1:26)
  • José Arispe Rodriguez- “SOY (I am),” 2014, (3:24)
  • Kyoung eun Kang- “Islands,” 2009, (4min excerpt)
  • Red Bind- Gilivanka Kedzior & Barbara Friedman- “Double Bind #3,” 2013, (3:50)
  • Maria Raquel Cochez- “Belly” 2013, (3:35 excerpt)
  • Paulo Aureliano da Mata- “ Romance Violentado [Abused Romance]” 2011, (4:29)
  • Noah Krell- “To Move A Body (Washing),” 2010, (4:48)
  • Nigel Rolfe- “Into the Mire,” 2011 (2:17)

AGATHA BRUM, JOSÉ ARISPE, RIVER LIN, PAULO AURELIANO DA MATA, RED BIND – GILIVANKA KEDZIOR & BARBARA FRIEDMAN, NIGEL ROLFE, NOAH KRELL, MARIA RAQUEL COCHEZ, and KYOUNG EUN KANG pay close attention to the relationship the body has to manipulation either from the self or outside forces and the struggle to maintain meaningfully circumscribed boundaries.Agatha Brum and River Lin use religious symbolism to portray the struggle of renewal, through Brum’s manipulation of her breasts or the way in which Lin questions the purification process. José Arispe and Kyoung eun Kang use culturally significant objects from their homelands: Arispe attempts to become one with the material, conflating his Bolivian identity with his body, as Kang struggles to hold onto her identity as she resists walking on foreign soil. Maria Raquel Cochez, Red Bind, Paulo Aureliano da Mata and Noah Krell submit to the dominance of bodily manipulation from the other. Cochez and Red Bind show how multiplicity of character can stretch and skew one’s perception of the body and of beings. Da Mata and Krell put their trust in someone else to make them anew, cleansed or marked. Nigel Rolfe most clearly represents the desire and power of self manipulation. Through the various subject matter and techniques utilized, each of these artists question the notion of dominance, either celebratory or repugnant.

 

 

SAT 06 JUNE: Anxiety and Other Ways of Being

“Anxiety and Other Ways of Being”, features works that expose the universal angst around psychological dualities that exist within all cultural contexts. The polarities between being vulnerable or self-assured, powerful or powerless, and dominant or subjugated are inevitably being played out- essentially literalized by individual beings in a world immersed in, and always dependent upon, hierarchy.

program details
Anxiety and Other Ways of Being: SAT 06 JUNE

  • Adel Abidin- “Ping Pong,” 2009, (3:44)
  • Cara Megan Lewis- “One Side Will Make You Grow Taller, and The Other Side Will Make You Grow Shorter,” 1989/2014, (4:35)
  • Elena Tejada-Herrera- “Man with Toys” (6:42)
  • Maarit Suomi-Våånånen- “In A Musty, Misty Thicket,” 2012, (12min)
  • Con.Tatto- “Equi- Librium,” 2014, (4:27)
  • Alexandra Lerman & Pieter Schoolwerth- “Make Up. (Scene 2Your Vacuum Sucks (“Make Up”: Scene 2)”, 2014, (4:21)

ADEL ABIDIN, ALEXANDRA LERMAN and PIETER SCHOOLWERTH, CARA MEGAN LEWIS, ELENA TEJADA-HERRERA, and CON.TATTO search for alternative ways of being. Adel Abidin and Elena Tejada-Herrera dissect relationships based on power. In “Ping Pong”, a woman is central to the game being played and yet remains immobilized between two competitive men. For Tejada-Herrera, there is the tension between the artist and model or employee and employer. Similarly, Maarit Suomi-Våånånen creates a post-apocalyptic narrative that celebrates the madness of a master-slave dynamic. Cara Megan Lewis’ video parallels Tejada Herrera’s; Both address the experience and burden of bodily awareness in relation to adolescence. While Lerman and Schoolwerth also create a metaphor for human self-awareness, the central character attempts to negotiate existence through visual absence. Lastly, Con.Tatto’s, “Equi-librium” summarizes the themes of this screening, visually laying out the struggle and desire for balance enacted through the social bodies of a duo and the decaying industrial landscape that surrounds them.

featuring:

ADEL ABIDIN (IRAQ) | JOSÉ ARISPE (BOLIVA) | AGATHA BRUM (BRAZIL) | RED BIND: GILIVANKA KEDZIOR & BARBARA FRIEDMAN (FRANCE) | MARIA RAQUEL COCHEZ (PANAMA) | CON.TATTO (ITALY) | ELENA TEJADA-HERRERA (CHICAGO) | KYOUNG EUN KANG (SOUTH KOREA) | NOAH KRELL (US) | ALEXANDRA LERMAN & PIETER SCHOOLWERTH (US) | CARA MEGAN LEWIS (CHICAGO) | RIVER LIN (TAIWAN) | PAULO AURELIANO da MATA (BRAZIL |PORTUGAL) | NIGEL ROLFE (IRELAND) | MAARIT SUOMI-VÅÅNÅNEN (FINLAND)