Slow Dancing is a series of 46 larger-than-life, hyper-slow-motion video portraits of dance artists from around the world, displayed on a triptych of giant screens. Each subject’s movement (approximately 5 seconds long) was shot on a specially constructed set using a high-speed, high-definition camera recording at several thousand frames per second (standard film captures 30). The result is approximately 10 minutes of extreme slow motion. As the films unfold, gesture by barely perceptible gesture, viewers can choose to focus on one dancer’s complete performance or observe the interplay among the screens.
What at first appears to be a series of still photographs unfolds gesture by barely perceptible gesture—a motion portrait in which each dancer’s unique artistic expression and technique are revealed. Viewers can choose to focus on one dancer’s complete performance or observe the interplay among the three screens. The extreme slow motion enables the viewer to share privileged information about the complexity of the simplest gestures, catching details that would normally escape the naked eye.
Slow Dancing has been exhibited in 28 international cities, most often as a work of public art. As such, it functions as an opportunity for empathetic viewing and contemplative observation in the midst of a busy city center.
It will be on exhibit from Wednesday, September 10 through Tuesday, September 16 from 8pm-11pm nightly. It is a free event and can be viewed outdoors at Cross Campus of Yale University (in front of Sterling Memorial Library, 120 High Street, New Haven).
On Friday, September 12 from 3pm-5pm at the Yale University Art Gallery (1111 Chapel Street, New Haven) artist David Michalek will host a panel discussion about Slow Dancing with Yale faculty members
- Daphne A. Brooks, Professor of African American Studies and Theater Studies
- Margaret S. Clark, Professor of psychology and Master of Trumbull College
- Emily Carson Coates, Lecturer in Theater Studies, Moderator
- Martin Kersels, Associate professor and director of graduate studies in sculpture, School of Art
- Richard O. Prum, William Robertson Coe Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology; Curator of vertebrate zoology, Peabody Museum; Professor of Forestry and Environmental Studies
- Joseph Roach, Professor of English and African American Studies; Sterling Professor of Theater; Professor of American Studies
- Laura Wexler, Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies and American Studies
This project had a long gestation period before coming to fruition several years ago. It’s not always easy to point to the specific factors that bring a new work, or the impulse to create one, into being. The overlapping issues, passions, and fascinations that merge with willingness, opportunity, and aptitude are not always obvious.
One impulse was clear. I love dance. I love watching it. I love what dancers do, who they are, and what they stand for. Dance is an underappreciated art form—the NEA tells us that only eight percent of the U.S. population will ever see a live dance performance. This led me to the idea of making a visual statement centered on celebrating dance — but not limited to any one kind of dance—to try to capture the “essence” of dance in a different medium.
A second impulse was my natural urge to make portraits. The best portraits teach me how to look longer and harder and deeper at my fellow human beings. As a portrait artist, this is what I strive to do. I could make a portrait of anyone, anywhere and be happy doing so, but there is a certain pleasure in having dancers as one’s subject.
Common to almost every work I undertake is the desire to engage the beautiful, to spark people’s creative imagination, and to fill them with a sense of wonder and even love. So much of what I’m ultimately interested in is the sacred potential of art—work that not merely beautifies but also beatifies.
No comments:
Post a Comment