2012 Exhibition
18. Open
OPEN is a performance event conceived for the courtyard of the Cathedral of St Paul. Harnessed to the backs of dancers, light and projected images will trace movement pathways and wash across the walls of the cathedral’s recessed courtyard, while momentarily illuminating the performers and audience members. As physical, embodied extensions of the dancers’ movements, all light will be invested with a mobile kineticism. OPEN articulates a play between light and movement as it is deflected from the body of the performer to be dispersed outward and graze the performance site. Dancers carve and careen through the darkness, dragging worlds of light and projected environs behind them. A large, pneumatic structure in the middle of the space subtly glows as a temporary harbor for the performers throughout the duration of the piece. OPEN is envisioned as both a dance and environmental installation, including periods of repetition and stillness, enabling the performance to continue for a three hour-long duration.
Artist Information
Biba Bell
Biba Bell (b. 1976, Sebastopol, CA) is a choreographer, dancer, and writer based in Detroit and NYC. She is a member of the collaborative trio MGM Grand (Modern Garage Movement) with Jmy Leary and Paige Martin, represented by Callicoon Fine Arts in NYC. She is a PhD candidate in the department of performance studies at New York University writing her dissertation about issues of site specificity in contemporary choreographic practice. She teaches at NYU and Wayne State University. Bell’s work has most recently been presented at the Garage for Contemporary Culture in Moscow, and The Garage in San Francisco, Roulette in NYC, and the Jam Handy and the Detroit Institute of Art in Detroit.