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The Refractive Kinescope
A gallery installation with live
performances
(Commissioned
by Downstreet Art*)
Visitor Quotes:
"Ingenious and very fun!"
"A magical little space that was, marrying the mystery of trains passing in the night and flickering films evoking all sorts of emotions."
"I love the journey."
"A real delight- completely engaging… Hard to walk away from."
Notes on the Installation
The history of silent cinema, projector devices, and a curiosity
about the persistence of vision are sources of inspiration for "The
Refractive Kinescope". Our installation is conceived as an
organism that puts the viewer in the belly of a film projector offering
metaphorical interpretations of film experiences and exposing the
choreographic nature of early cinema.
Riffing on the form and function of an actual film projector, "The
Refractive Kinescope"– both fragile and robust, is brought
in motion by model steam locomotives and by the spectators themselves.
The locomotives transport the projector bulbs illuminating over
200 celluloid oversized film frames selected from the silent films
(1910-1928) that form a ribbon spooling between two reels, spanning
the entire space.
The moving lights invite the viewers to walk along. Following the
lights, the viewers become the mechanisms of the projector and bring
the frames into motion. In front of them, scenes filled with the
expressive dance of gestures, looks and postures by famous and forgotten
silent era Hollywood stars pass by. The action in every selected
frame – whether in a solo or a duet, was originally choreographed
with great dramatic precision to express the full spectrum of human
emotions. Moving through the installation, our viewers, like film
editors, assemble frames into the scenes: they actively engage into
re-interpreting and creating new meanings out of the historic material.
"The Refractive Kinescope" revives, inverts and manipulates
spectator-performer-image-projector relationship rejuvenating the
perception of the art of motion pictures
On
July 30, 2009, Kinodance revealed the second part of "The Refractive
Kinescope" installation. It is the "OKNO-Scope."
"OKNO" is Russian for WINDOW. So it is not surprising
that the front window of the Gallery 51 Annex hosts the new piece.
The OKNO-scope is an illuminated film poster in motion comprised
of 48 frames from silent films. The frames are arranged into 6 vertical
filmstrips. The wandering light projects a glow through the images
onto the evening street. A kinetic sculpture behind the glass directs
the light from frame to frame, revealing both short fragments and
elaborate scenes from the silent film era. A human drama unfolds
with full force: love triangle, fiasco of wedding arrangement, crime
scene, burlesque and flirtations... The fragments tantalize viewers'
imagination guiding their mind to piece together stories about the
long-forgotten but strangely familiar world. The OKNO-Scope is on
view after sunset until one in the morning (6pm-1am, Wednesday-Sunday).
Notes on the Performances
For the live performances we mine selected sequences from early
silent films and reconstruct embellished gestures, zealous eye movements,
exaggerated postures and dramatic spatial pathways with manipulations
of speed, focus and movement quality influenced by Butoh and contemporary
dance forms.
On June 25, July 30, August 27 and September 24, Kinodance presents
durational performances that continue Kinodance's choreographic
explorations in the context of the installation "The Refractive
Kinescope". Alissa Cardone, a choreographer and co-founder
of Kinodance, creates a duet between a man (Michael Jahoda) and
a woman (Ingrid Schatz or Alissa Cardone). The duet explores human
emotions that are both clearly revealed and meticulously concealed
in face and body. The performers draw their inspiration and physical
vocabulary from silent films – when emotion and movement were
explicitly amplified in order to communicate a story. They bring
the silent film world to life making it present, palpable and knowable
while fighting the sense of nostalgia, romanticism and decay which
pervade times gone by. The performers invite the viewers to re-interpret
the meanings of early cinema in the context of today.
CREDITS
Concept: Kinodance Company
Sculptural Installation: Dedalus Wainwright and Alla Kovgan with
contributions from Bryan Long and Gideon Weisz
Performers: Alissa Cardone, Ingrid Schatz and a guest artist Michael
Jahoda
THANK
YOU
The source silent film stills were generously provided by Bruce
Calvert (Silent Film Still Archive), Derek Boothroyd and Ken Winokur
(Alloy Orchestra). Kinodance Company would like to thank Stuart
Cody, Anne Lilly, John Powell, Jeff Cleary, The JMRI community including
Ken Cameron, Walter Thompson and the Tech Model Railroad Club of
MIT.
*DownStreet
Art is a program of the MCLA's Berkshire Cultural Resource Center
and its partners, MASS MoCA, the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition,
Scarafoni Reality and the City of North Adams. The program is made
possible through lead sponsorship support provided by Greylock
Federal Credit Union. Additional support is provided by: Adams Co-Operative
Bank, Berkshire Bank, Edward Jones Investments, Gramercy Bistro,
Papyri Books, Photoworks and The Porches Inn at MASS MoCA. - http://www.downstreetart.org
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