RAW MATERIAL: Re-Wilding The Body
A CALL TO ACTION!
“Look after the land and the land will look after you, destroy the land and it will destroy you.” —Aboriginal Proverb
WHO: Cilla Vee Life Arts
WHAT: RAW MATERIAL: Re-Wilding The Body
a Motion Sculpture Movement Installation
public art installation and performance
WHERE: Chashama at Port Authority Transit Station NYC
8th avenue – south wing 2nd floor
WHEN: August 19 – September 11
performances mon-fri 4-8pm + sat sept 9 12-8pm
HOW MUCH: Free and open to the public
WHY: To inform, enlighten and inspire for Environmental Sustainability
SUMMARY:
Between August 19th – September 11th the interdisciplinary arts organization Cilla Vee Life Arts will be presenting RAW MATERIAL: Re-Wilding The Body – a Motion Sculpture Movement Installation.
A multimedia, collaborative, sensory, interactive, public art installation that simulates a nature environment, melding organic materials with digital audio-visual elements plus live performance – through the NYC arts organization Chashama at their New York Port Authority transit station gallery and performance space. (South Wing -2nd floor)
Performances are free and open to the public. Audience members are invited to engage in creative response and to consider their relationship with nature and environmental sustainability.
CVLA is partnering with local NY based environmental organizations to go beyond just creating awareness of environmental issues and to be a CALL TO ACTION by directly providing resources for active engagement.
DETAILS:
Schedule of Events:
Saturday 19th 12-8pm – Open Rehearsal Day
PUBLIC PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
Monday thru Friday at 4-8pm
(Installation open for viewing from 3pm)
August 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31,
September 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
PLUS FINAL PERFORMANCE Saturday September 9th 12-8pm
Monday 11th – Closing ceremony and 9/11 Memorial
Additional Performance:
Sunday September 10th at 5pm
Aberdeen Street Community Gardens
Soup and Sound series by Continuum Culture
CillaVee with Marianne Giosa and Andrew Drury
https://www.nyrp.org/en/gardens-and-parks/aberdeen-community-garden/
Partners And Collaborators:
ARTS ORGANIZATIONS:
Cilla Vee Life Arts is an interdisciplinary arts organization established in 2002 at H&H Production, Bronx NY by Claire Elizabeth Barratt / aka CillaVee whose mission is one of creative collaboration and boundary-blurring. Now based at The Center for Connection + Collaboration, Asheville NC.
Chashama Since 1995, Chashama has partnered with property owners to transform unused real estate for 30,000 artists and over 150 small businesses, hosted 4,000 public art events, provided 1,500 classes in under-served communities, and reached audiences of nearly a million.
ENVIRONMENTAL PARTNERSHIPS:
We Act – weact.org
Climate Ad Project – climateadproject.org
Green Thumb – nycgovparks.org/greenthumb
Earth Celebrations – earthcelebrations.com
Climate Museum - climatemuseum.org
New York Restoration Project - nyrp.org
ARTISTIC TEAM:
CillaVee – cillavee.com
(Artistic Director, Construction, Digital imagery, Soundscape, Performance)
Fred Hatt – fredhatt.com
(Projection magic, Digital imagery, Performance)
Hisayasu Takashio – shiotakashio.com
(Construction, Live action Sculpture)
Marianne Giosa - vimeo.com/792459486
(Digital imagery, Performance)
Stewart Hoyt – stewarthoyt.com
(Construction, Performance)
Sarah Pope – sarahpopedance.com
(Performance)
Lauren Vroegindewey - laurenvroegindewey.com
(Digital imagery, Performance)
Gwen Charles - gwencharles.com
(Digital imagery, Performance)
MaryLinda Moss - marylindamoss.com
(Digital imagery, Performance)
EXPERIENCE:
You can Write / Draw / Record / Video your responses to the following and share them with us at #cillaveelifearts:
+ Stop for a moment to immerse yourself in the Re-Wilding nature environment.
+ Breathe.
+ Become mesmerized by the slow motion movement of the performers.
+ Relax with the sounds of nature. Birds, Wind, Water.
+ Touch the sensory nature objects. Sand, Earth, Bark, Rocks, Water, Plants.
+ How does this encounter with the Re-Wilding nature environment make you feel? How does it TRANSFORM you? Make you different than you were before.
+ What is your favorite type of nature environment? And Why?
+ Is there one specific nature environment that is your special place?
Describe it and how it makes you feel.
+ Do you feel these special environments are in danger of changing?
+ What are your thoughts about environmental sustainability?
+ Do you practice an environmentally supportive lifestyle? How?
+ Do you want to know more about realistic ways you can make a difference?
+ We have information here from our partnering environmental organizations. Get involved. Community engagement. Personal activism.
+ A CALL TO ACTION! +
“A vibrant, fair, and regenerative future is possible — not when thousands of people do climate justice activism perfectly but when millions of people do the best they can.”— Xiye Bastida
BE A SPONSOR:
Whether you can give $5 or $5,000 – YOUR contribution makes a difference!
Donate at: https://gofund.me/4742825a
VOLUNTEER:
We are seeking volunteers to assist with different aspects of this project – including: Audience Coordination, Installation Help and Documentation (video and photo) PLEASE CONTACT: cillaveelifearts@gmail.com
PROJECT EXPOSITION:
Performance Philosophy and Aesthetic:
On a philosophical level, the RAW MATERIAL project approaches concepts of transformation, metamorphosis and transcendence through the relationship of the raw materials of the Self with the raw materials of Nature. Drawing on mythological themes of the transformation of human-body to nature-body, as presented in Ovid’s Metamorphoses where humans transcend their mortal form in order to escape trauma and find sanctuary in nature (eg. Daphne-tree, Syrinx-water), RAW MATERIAL: Re-Wilding The Body is a performance installation that offers the raw materials of an organic environment as a place of refuge, healing and recovery.
Aesthetically, the objective of the performance is to MELD with the environment. Not as a human-being in response to nature, but as a nature-being existing in time and space as part of its environment.
PERFORMANCE METHODS:
Motion Sculpture
The principle performance form will be that of Motion Sculpture – a dance/movement method developed by CillaVee that is sustainable for extended periods of time. Combining concepts of the body as a living sculpture with philosophies of movement as meditation, this practice is used for durational performance as a form of installation.
Extended Music and Sound Techniques
Live sound will be vocal and acoustic instrumental. All instruments/sound-making objects will be built of natural materials as much as is possible. All music will use extended non-traditional techniques to be in-keeping with the organic nature environment.
Public Engagement:
INVITATION and EXPERIENCE:
As travelers pass through the busy hub of Port Authority, they will be invited to step into a simulated nature environment - an installation of music, dance, video projection, sculpture and organic materials. They are encouraged to stop and breathe, listen to the soothing music and nature sounds, watch the slow motion movement of the dancers and to engage with an interactive sensory station – feel the textures of organic materials – to run their fingers through sand, be gently misted by water, to smell the earth and moss.
INQUIRY and RESPONSE:
We will invite them to share their experience by describing how it TRANSFORMS them – how it makes them feel different than before. Also to describe their favorite nature environment and how it makes them feel. They can write, draw or record their responses and upload them to a database.
ACTION and COMMITMENT:
Partnering environmental organizations will provide resources. Representatives will be available to talk about methods of protecting our nature environments, discuss realistic, sustainable individual goals and offer their own local community programs (for NYC residents) plus information about partners in other locations (for visitors).
Cilla Vee Life Arts will request participants contact information so we can stay in touch and encourage their progress.
Environmental and Social Impact:
The emphasis of RAW MATERIAL: Re-Wilding The Body is one of environmental ACTIVISM through the engagement of environmental PARTNERSHIPS to:
1. CREATE AWARENESS of how our nature environments benefit us physically, mentally and emotionally.
2. PROMOTE ACTION to preserve this precious resource.
Ultimately the mission and purpose of “RAW MATERIAL: Re-Wilding The Body” is to create awareness of nature as sanctuary and the necessity to protect our precious environment. And that EVERYBODY can do SOMETHING!
Often people feel that environmental problems on a global scale are something they have no control over, so in partnering with local environmental organizations we can help to personalize realistic everyday habits and activities that are accessible to the individual.
We are partnering with local NYC based environmental organizations to join us and provide information to the public about their programming – such as opportunities for hands-on participation, like volunteering in local parks and gardens or attending their educational and training programs, as well as daily choices and political actions each of us can make towards the progress of environmental sustainability.
The social impact target is on INDIVIDUAL EMPOWERMENT for EVERYBODY: providing information about SUSTAINABLE INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY as well as providing options for local COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT.
The resources shared with the public are relevant to both residents and visitors alike of all ages. Individual responsibility actions are global. Partnering environmental organizations will share their knowledge and information of local and global opportunities for community engagement.
“All we have to do is to wake up and change.” —Greta Thunberg
Sponsors and Acknowledgements
Chashama
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
MOMA A/V department
Anita Durst
Liza Kruth
Jake Rich
Julie Becton Gillum / Legacy Butoh
Jayne Harnett-Hargrove
Chloe Harnett-Hargrove
Robyn Thomas / Re-Cultivating Compassion
The Giosa Penthouse
David Barratt
Tom Law
Catherine Meryl Bennett
Nature Field Recordings by:
Liz Lang
Elisa Faires
Scott Gornick
Tom Bickley
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Congratulations and a deep bow of gratitude to Claire/Cilla Vee and the whole team who brought this project together.
ReplyDeleteIt was hard to imagine, reading about it and seeing the images from home, how well the spirit behind the work would feel amidst the busyness of the bustling transit hub.
What a thrill to find that the work – with its high level of craft, conceptual integrity and heart - succeeded so well. Not only did the spirit of the project come through; the contrast with the Port Authority location gave it even more power…. like a ritual invocation, opening a portal between our 2023 world and an earlier time when this place itself was still wild.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful words and understanding of the work Stuart.
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