Brooklyn Academy of Music
We sit in darkness and numbers. Lights flood the stage revealing three dancers lying on a canvas that shifts with the morphing projections that dance across it.
No wait—they are hanging!
Anchored by holes in a large set piece, they look like childhood toys: Barrel O Monkeys hanging from a Connect Four Set. Black and white costumes divide their bodies front and back but as they move, distinctions blur and they become bodily mobius strips, carefully negotiating gravity and the projected landscape. They rush through space (while moving slowly), lie in the fetal position underneath distorted footage of a woman’s legs, then fly through the air many miles above ground. They share space with a developing fetus and then wander barren earth, the images (16mm footage by experimental video artist Jud Yalkut) define them as well as their spatial orientation. They flip between walking, flying, and lying down. As we watch, and as our brains attempt to reconcile these changes, we undergo similar changes. The effect is one of being on an elusive, illusive roller coaster in which we fly while sitting still in our seats.
What are the building blocks of a human being?
The Human experience?
What are the building blocks of our environment?
In their pared-down costumes, the dancers become elementary units of life amidst the various forms (projected on the wall) that life takes. Animating the changing landscape with these dancer bodies, Brown weaves space travel with being born.
We hurtle to earth and crash into consciousness. What are the implications of this?
