Frock Talk at ESS

photo credit: David Ettinger

A RedShift Production at Experimental Sound Studio for In/Ex/Change
Friday July 22nd, 9am-5pm

ArtStays 9 International Festival of Contemporary Art
Ptuy, Slovenia

In/Ex/Change is an exhibit structured on a respondent network of participation that opens up new pathways for interaction between art organizer, maker, and viewer.  Using fabric as a connective device and social metaphor for this exhibit,  I'm looking at the edges of internal cuts in cloth, areas intentionally perforated, and ruptures that occur as a function of wear and use, as opportunities to create connections socially and materially.   I've made a series of samples and drawings for the exhibit site in Ptuy, Slovenia (a former prison),  inventing a correspondent event here in Chicago called Frock Talk to animate some of the ideas embedded in the art work.

Locating my design practice at Experimental Sound Studio for Frock Talk, I'm offering my alteration and mending services throughout the day to visitors and participants, inviting artists from all disciplines to come and contribute to what I see as a chorus of activities and surfaces. This is a bring your own content event drawing from ruptures, connections, and binding processes where all forms of media and expression are welcome.

The day will unfold as follows...

We'll have a live stream costume alteration with Damjana Mlinaric from Muzikafe in Ptuy, Slovenia for Hole, Lynn Book and Katharina Klement's opera without opera.

Sound artist Alex Inglizain will create an audio response to the production activity by recording the amplified physical movement of hands, needles, scissors, and threads; processing repetitive sounds by use of audio feedback to represent the invariant outcomes of repetitive labor .  The resulting sound scape with video footage and photo documentation from the event will be transmitted to the exhibit site in Ptuy, Slovenia.

Artist Mark Augustine will create urban weaves from three Google site studies.

12:30  ... We'll have a potluck lunch in the garden.

I'll have a make your own party hat table.

Performer Dan Mohr will wrap up the day leading us in Georgian labor songs.

RedShift mending and alteration services will be offered throughout the day.
All proceeds to benefit ESS

Foldings

 220 South Wabash, Chicago

Soft forms in hard places, cloth as kinetic surface, and the body as architectural facade are recurring themes in my work with interdisciplinary artist and performer Erica Mott.  This image from May 2010 is our first public study for Winged Victory of Samothrace.  Performing in an empty Wabash storefront for Chicago's Pop Up Art Loop, I draped Erica in real time before a small audience as we discussed notions of victory and depictions of the female form in relation to war.  Erica became a live replication of the iconic Greek statue, modeled as if taken from the prow of a ship. 

See more photos

I continue my collaboration with Erica Mott this Summer as costume designer on her performance The Victory Project.  Developing costumes in close relation to her choreographic process, I'm attending rehearsals at St Luke's Church in Chicago to observe the energetic techniques, physical structures, and improvised sketches composed with the five dancers who make up her cast.  There's continual discussion in the studio on bodily containment and expansion, energetic and physical arrivals, and finding the voice at landing.

The Victory Project premieres July, August, and September of 2011 in Chicago.

  

"a pose where violent motion and sudden stillness meet" 

 Our second public study for Winged Victory.

July 2010, Dearborn Street, Chicago

all photos by Day Still