Monumental Gestures (excerpt); multi-screen public art installation; Atlanta, Georgia; commissioned by CORE Dance; 2022.
Premiered April 1, Decatur Square, Georgia
Performers:
Karen Miller
Omar Shekhey
Doris Mukangu
Rickie Willis
Alexia Jones
For this project, I was thinking about the idea of “heroes”, about care-givers and teachers and those who have supported the community in which this work will be displayed. Who gets to be on public view, whose image do we think of when we think about who values, whose life matters? In each performer, we find a corporeal landscape where the smallest gestures become monumental, thus we could say that such gestures become elevated and begin to "speak" in ways not necessarily noticed in our everyday life. We begin to see the intimacy in that which is ordinary or quotidian. We see the humanity of the individual in epic scale, speaking back to other monuments that often diminish those in whose communities they are located.
Special thanks to Sue Schroeder of Core Dance and to Michael Eckblad for his exquisite work as the Director of Photography for this project. Also, thanks to Aaron Granat who thoughtfully edited the material.