Sunday, April 13, 2014

Chunky Move & Reuban Margolin - Connected - 2011

Just when you though I was done with Chunky Move. But, now you'll see how this all connects as I move from modern dance into kinetic sculptures.








Chunky Move & Reuban Margolin

Gideon Obarzanek is the Australian founder of Chunky Move and was the choreographer and artistic director for Connected. In previous performances Obarzanek has been a master of integrating high tech wizardry with dance. Connected broke out of that mold ... in a way. For this performance, Obarzanek teamed up with American kinetic sculpture artist Reuban Margolin.

Margolin's work was inspired by the movements of a caterpillar. After developing a low tech kinetic sculpture that mimicked a caterpillar's movements, Margolin observed the sine wave like technique that caterpillars use for traction and propulsion. His recent work built upon his idea of biomimickry, in which he translates movements that he observes in nature and the natural physical world into human-made mechanized motion.

Margolin's sculptures are perfectly aligned with the concepts of dance and environment that interest Obarzanek. Obarzanek's method since his groundbreaking performance Glow, has been to create a stage environment where the enviornment of the performance responds to and reacts to the movements of a dancer. In Connected, the movements of dancers are used to drive a kinetic sculpture.

Connected demonstrates how human beings effect their environment; and in turn are effected by their environment. It is a conceptual closed loop. The collaboration of arts involved in this performance demonstrates the immediacy of human actions and the interdependency of life and its physical environment.





No comments:

Post a Comment