Yesterday my family and I attended a portion of the all day celebrations at the Grand Opening of The Tenderloin National Forest. We enjoyed the hot bread made on the spot in the clay oven, the interesting video installations, vibrant murals and art all around. At the entrance Michael Swaine was stationed with his mobile sewing cart and he was sewing Tenderloin National Forest patches onto garments people brought. Every 15th of the month he is here with his mobile sewing machine.
We especially enjoyed the butoh performance by dancer Christina Braun and musician Jeffery Scott Perry.
Christina Braun before her performance. I loved the green eye make up and her expression. She is wearing my small Sky Viewing Hat made of Asian food wrappers and Japanese ear cleaners.
Above photo taken by Shizue Seigel, an AAWAA artist friend of mine who is a photographer, writer and painter.
http://shizueseigel.com/Index.htm
Above: Christina begins her performance with fabric dramatically wrapped around her.
Above: Christina on the lawn area.
Above: I almost forgot to get out of the way here. Shizue documented this moment. I was so entranced that I only realized when her face was super close, that, "Oh, I got to move out of the way!" The picture below is the one I took right before I moved. She must have been thinking that she was going to have to hop over me!
It was fun to see how the music and dance interacted in this improv piece. It was improv in the sense that they had not rehearsed it together at all, but had collaborated via email sending concept ideas and music files.
Below: Mr. Perry on his electric guitar.
Mr. Perry's music was lovely with Christina's movements and the alley park vibrated and pulsated with the piece. Below: Curious residents peek out their window to listen and watch the performance.
Above photo taken by Jennifer de Graaf, a landscape architect friend.
Below photo by Shizue Seigel
Above: I got a chance to talk with Jeff Brown, one of the landscape architects responsible for the beautiful park. I only got to hear a little bit about the history of the site and its development. I know there is a wonderful long story behind it all. I also got a chance to talk with Rigo, the mosaic/painter artist responsible mosaic pathway. I heard him speak years ago at Fort Mason and it was really nice to just tell him how much I enjoy his work. Many of his murals grace San Francisco and are iconic landmarks.
Below: Christina and Scott after their performance.
More pictures of the event at my Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/corinne_o/sets/72157617888260009/
Christina has named our collaborative work Nectar. Nectar's next project is at the Sub Zero Festival in San Jose on June 5th. One performance will be at 9pm and one at 10pm in front of The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. We'll be right next to the "Absolve Your Sins" dunk tank. Really. I am looking forward to seeing what that looks like. It is all an adventure and I am glad that quite a few friends and familiar faces were at The Tenderloin Opening.
No comments:
Post a Comment