PBCJamaica "Spotlight" TV Interview Originally aired January 2014 for the solo photo-Based exhibition Cocooning Catharis at HiQo Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica (Dec 19 - Jan 13th, 2014)
This was thankfully a casual but in depth discussion on the inspiration behind the work, and some of the methods used to make the pieces. It was a great hang with the crew too. Select works available at HiQo Gallery
An adorable dance company named Under One Dances (founded by Kyla Ernst-Alper) proposed folks send in choreographic ideas for 1 minute #TweetDances to be performed at this year's #Figment Festival on Governors Island in New York. I thought...what the hey...I'll play. They ended up using the idea and here's what they did...performed by Meladonna. So sweet.
#TweetDance: Meladonna dances "giving in to love..."
from Kygwen on Vimeo. Meladonna Figment, Governors Island, New York, NY
@SeBiArt: 'giving in to love...again'
At the start, every 15 seconds, and at the end of the 1 min dance - cup one hand in the other (gesture of offering) and then cup it over your heart. (so the gesture would happen 5x) For the whole piece - Improv a movement story of heart break followed by a heart riZe to love in between each gesture.
-To learn more about Meladonna visit http://www.underonedances.com/#!meladonna/c1zp
this has everything for me - #MindtheGap when following a dream, DANCE DANCE DANCE, and a story of both from my beloved country Sierra Leone. Thank you Justin for sharing this! Oh my heart...
By the way, another remarkable story of a young phoenix rising from the ashes of Salone's rebel years is world renowned writer Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier who penned his gripping story of survival and evolution in a most heartbreaking, candid, and poetic account: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. A beautifully moving and unforgettable read folks, seriously.
NB. If you are seeing this in your email reader, you must visit blog to view embedded video. Thanks :)
A diva (English pronunciation: /ˈdiːvə/, Italian: [ˈdiːva]) is a celebrated female singer. The term is used to describe a woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, and, by extension, in theatre, cinema and popular music.
Okay. So we know who those are - the far and few between who happen to be celebrated. But we also know the new divas...the Kardashians, the Hiltons, or others who I can't name because frankly I just don't pay close enough attention.
I'm not an avid TV viewer, I go for days, sometimes weeks without touching the clicker. This wasn't always the case. There was a time, back when television and cable programming had more 'original', and gasp (!), creative content, and less mind-numbing carnivals* showcasing the most base of human behavior under the heading 'reality'.
At the heart of this soul crushing content is not the celebration of women but the degradation of them. And though many of us protested this shift that has now become the norm; the reality IS, that this demeaning content 1) entertains the masses, 2) catapults many a vapid being to undeserving supernova stardom from such spectacle, and 3) creates associations for all womanhood that serve more to undo the triumphs for equality and respect so hard won. The new diva represents nothing of any progressive use, and so hurts those of us who have something inspiring, magnificent, or unique to offer. As performer/actor/DJ Amanda Seale (formerly known as Amanda Diva) aptly notes "we're put in this corner where I may have to be less than the woman my mother raised me to be".
This concern is at the heart of her new one-woman show now up in New York, Death of a Diva, directed by Roger C. Jeffrey. Roger is a dear friend, past dance teacher of mine, and an accomplished dancer and choreographer. He has deep social concerns for women, youth, racial inequities, and matters of the soul - he's a gapminder, who works always with superior talent. So no surprise to me that he's a part of a most meaningful project written and performed by this accomplished female talent. Seale's conscientiously written work tackles the attack on the image of women in all media and appears to be every bit as heightened, intelligent, and damn funny in her performance.
Seale takes the stage this month offering ideas, and stories of the woman and the diva, through voices of multiple characters in this performance, each of whom will provoke thought and reopen active dialogue on what appears now to be a frighteningly passive issue. This is too good, and too important to miss. I mean really, have we killed the diva?!
I don't know if I would go so far as to say Nacho Duato is my favourite choreographer...ever...but, he's so very close to being so.
His movement and interpretation of music is so specific yet loose, so perfect yet such a celebration of emotional erratic flaws of the soul. The shapes from the relationships he creates with dancers is a rare beauty to behold; it's heart-stopping; it's heartbreaking.
So usually I'm waxing on about feelings, creativity, shows, or some sort of community project.
Now it's time for the business of art people, and no better way to get yourself prepared than to arm yourself with knowledge, specifically legal facts and rights pertaining to your work. I'm talkin' copyright issues, contracts, licensing, advertising, creative commons, rights to credit, patents, etc, etc, et al.
My dear friend Justin Lynch, attorney-at-law AND pianist AND dancer (yes, you read that right) started a blog that addresses all these issues factually, patiently, humoursly, and thoroughly (and always with additional sources) which will leave you less frightened and better armed for protecting your work.
Leap off this page, check it, and Subscribe! Where else are you gonna get legal advice from a lawyer who is also an artist?!
Real quick and at the last minute too (what a surprise!) - my little creative short is getting screened at the AFP's Shorts & Beats Festival Vol VI in San Francisco this weekend!
The festival is at PROJECT ONE (http://www.p1sf.com/) and will feature several shorts from emerging and established filmmakers and video artists from NYC and SF. The film program is curated by award winning filmmaker Daniel Maldonado of Gashouse Films. There will also be nightlong interludes of deep & funky tunes spun by New York and San Fran DJs. Fun times! If you're there - check out the flyer on info for tickets.
It's a small annual global contest with a handful of competitive categories: Visual Art, Music, Film, Fashion, DJ, and Creative. I've put a video in the Creative category. Some of you may remember I won this back in 2008 with a video presentation of my photo series SPLIT.
This video is a new edit of work I directed (shot by Fury Young) last Spring. I prepared a treatment and scripted scenes for this a couple years ago, originally to be part of my CrowDeD series.
I then adapted it for a projection piece used in a 30 minute dance performance at Nina Buisson's Avant Garde Festival in June 09'.
It's a much shorter edit now, at 7 mins, with the new title, LABYRINTH of FOREVER: Doorway for the Spirit Chasers. Mystic Urchin supplemented it with some great text too! I hope you like it.
This is the first set of a no-frills view of images I have lying around. My friends and fellow collaborators Nina Buisson and Devin Pullins got together to do this shoot with me last summer - intended to be a part of Nina's Avant Garde Festival show at JUDSON Memorial in New York. A handful were used in an onstage projection as part of the show, but most of these never saw the light of day, until now.
NB: You will need to update Flash Player to view this. If viewing from Facebook - please click 'Original Post' to see slideshow.
I'll post the other set of colour images when I get a few finals sorted. For those of you following my work - you'll notice that the light, abstract period I'm currently in, directly followed this work. The images were created using a similar lighting style as CrowDeD and other dark and isolating portraiture methods that I employed up until Summer 2009. Things started to get more colourful as my travels began last year in Germany. (Yes, I've yet to post my video diary - but I will, one day. haha! )
Concept and Design:
Berette Macaulay and Nina Buisson with commissioned painting by Cristal Albornoz
Title by Nina
All Photography by Berette Macaulay
Location:
Millenium Studios (arranged by Artistic Dir. Devin Pullins)
Make Up: By Margherita Tisato and Cristal Albornoz
Here are two events coming up this November that will be well worth your time.
Naganuma Dance is a modern dance company here in New York that produces interesting and provocative pieces where movement, imagery, and text are presented on stage in a way to stimulate senses and to spark intellectual examination and discourse. My dear friend Justin became a part of this company a little over a year ago and I'm so proud to support his efforts, but more proud to spread the word so you do too - as honestly, it's not some piece-of-crap company - thankfully!!
Click on the image below to see the postcard bigger and in a separate viewer.
You can also see more of them at thenewNaganuma Dancewebsite!
Photo of Justin from a shoot we did together recently:
Few things make me as happy as dance; it is after all, the love of my life, and has been since I discovered self expression and freedom of the soul through movement at the age of 6.
Since then I have had quite the tumultuous mental, emotional, and physical affair with it - much of this affair has been in the dark, in private corners, in secret spaces. Though I explored movement on stage in high school and during my acting years - it was funnily enough when I was an adult that I finally took on formal training in the art that makes my soul sing.
Living in New York avails one the constant access to the best dance companies in the world, as a student, and as a theater-goer. I have enjoyed this fact for the 10+ years that I have lived here, and have often felt blessed to have enjoyed watching some VERY good performances, and even more incomprehensibly lucky for having broken bread with, learned from, and worked for or alongside some incredible talent on wonderful stages in this city.
But with that said - there are few nights like tonight, for tonight I had a smile pasted across my face for two hours straight as I watched at the JOYCE Theater - the Nederlands Dans Theatre (NDT II). This was a limited engagement (they have not been to the United States in 10 years!!) with 2 extended performances - that all sold out FAST! Scores of heartbroken people were turned away from the theater box office. The staff at the JOYCE (with whom I've become quite familiar from my frequent visits to attend shows) were giddy from the excitement rarely seen in the theater. We were after all, gathering in sweet anticipation of one of the most innovative ballet companies on the planet - to see a group of dancers with incredibly diverse facility of movement, boasting as their resident choreographers one of the most celebrated and revered in the world - Jirí Kylián (who - as rumor has it, will be retiring next year) and the beloved Lightfoot/León!! Well - they DID NOT DISAPPOINT. I quite literally squealed in delight when I read the program - I could not have asked God or Fortune for more!!! All my favorite (straight dance) pieces from these choreographers that I've seen video of countless times I just saw LIVE!! OMG!!! Yes - I just said "OMG"!!! I leave you with YOUTUBE snippets of each of the pieces I saw tonight - and not another word...
In order of appearance:
Said and Done (2001) - Lightfoot León
Sleepless (2004) - Jirí Kylián
Shutters Shut (2003) - Lightfoot León (poem written & read by Gertrude Stein about her friend Pablo Picasso) Sad Case (1998) - Lightfoot León (full piece shown in two parts)
For this video - Said and Done is the third clip in...
How do I know what I think until I see what I write. ~Unknown
Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up. James Baldwin
For an idea that does not at first seem insane; there is no hope.
Einstein
no one ever really criticizes those who live out their dreams. but some will curse the courage it displays that they have yet to adopt. share not only your dreams but your daring to realize them. go forth and inspire. build together.
~Scoop i•ma•gine | e•volve
People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.
~James Baldwin~
The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating -- in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life.'
~ Anne Morriss
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
~Albert Einstein
When you stay awake, you see the sun. Anywhere you are, you have to make it your paradise.
~Joseph Buchanan
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
~Albert Einstein
Tomorrow will bring different questions and answers. OWN NOW.
~Scoop
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
~ George Bernard Shaw
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.
~Martin Luther King, Jr.~
Live with your toes digging into the earth, with your eyes open wide, and your heart warm. This way you won't miss a thing little one. :)
~Scoop
The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.
~Daniel J. Boorstin
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
~Steve Jobs
Art is a microscope which the artist fixes on the secrets of his soul, and shows to people these secrets which are common to all.
~Leo Tolstoy
I'd rather be busy than bored; I'd rather burn out than rust out.
Whatever you ardently desire, Sincerely believe in, Vividly imagine, and Enthusiastically act upon, Must inevitably come to pass.
- Sybil Leek, Diary of a Witch
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
~Oscar Wilde
For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.
Ivan Panin
Remember to play after every storm.
~Mattie Stepanek~
The most original thing you've ever come across is actually yourself.
~Saul Williams~
Why fight it? Be seduced by your purpose.
~Scoop~
The light at the end of the tunnel is not an illusion. The tunnel is.
~unknown~
Fear is just another word for ignorance ... Freedom is something that dies unless it's used
~Hunter S. Thompson~
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
~Marcel Proust~
Unexpected beauty in life shatters our monument to suffering.
~Scoop 2001~
Once you label me, you negate me.
~Kierkegard~
The worst realities of our age are manufactured realities. It is therefore our task, as creative participants in the universe, to re dream our world. The fact of possessing imagination means that everything can be re dreamed. Each reality can have it.
~Ben Okri~
Cautionary actions to prevent future pain or loss may also function as obstacles to any happiness you could have presently.
~Berette Macaulay~
Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections.
~unknown~
We shall not cease from exploration, but at the end of all of our exploring will be to return to the place from which we originated and to know it for the first time.
~T.S. Elliot~
Isn't it funny how the word 'politics' is made up of the words 'poli' meaning 'many' in Latin, and 'tics' as in 'bloodsucking creatures’?
~Anonymous~
"You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he, "it makes you quite invaluable as a companion."
~Sir Arthur Conan Doyle~
Magic becomes art when it has nothing to hide.
~Ben Okri~
[I am] not so interested in the length of the road so much as the width.
~A. Regsmith~
Losers fold; winners take hits.
Forget the odds; draw, raise, bluff, call, stand.
~unknown~
Great ideas are no different from useless thoughts until they are put to use.
~Kynan Cooke, 1994~
In life you don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.
~anonymous~
It takes courage to push yourself to places that you have never been before, to test your limits, to break through barriers. And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
~Anais Nin~
Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. …the willfully unimaginative see more monsters, they are often more afraid.
~JK Rowling~
Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people.
~Marcus Garvey~
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. ~Elbert Hubbard~
a simple guide: no NOW...no JOY...no LIFE.
~Robert Holden~
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
~Bertrand Russell~
Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.
~John Lennon~
Being proactive instead of reactive always lessens the pressures of adversity.
~Kevin C. Robinson~
There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation. It's a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die.
~Hunter S. Thompson, 1988~
The minute you try to prove yourself is the moment you've lost the point. 'Doing it' moves you forward, 'proving it' takes you back.
~Berette Macaulay~
I want death to find me planting my cabbages.
~Michel de Montaigne~
I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by.
~Douglas Adams~
In my sex fantasy, nobody ever loves me for my mind.
~Norah Ephron~
Every time you don't follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness.
~Shakti Gawain~
Can you get over Something you truly enjoy And if indeed, why?
~Mystic Urchin~
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
~William Shakespeare, "Hamlet"~
There are indeed a thousand ways of acquiring an opinion that have nothing to do with rational thinking.
~R.J. Hollingdale~
There is need to sway Naked Rhythm summons blues Wind and Whispers dance.
~Mystic Urchin~
Chill out somewhere for a minute. Things get clearer when you get quiet.
~Scoop~
Love is rarer than genius itself. And friendship is rarer than love.
~Charles Peguy~
We are so accustomed to disguising ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.
~Francois de La Rochefoucauld~
A man is not an orange. You can't eat the fruit and throw the peel away.
~Arthur Miller~
There is no truth; everything is permitted.
~William S. Burroughs~
Nothing is true or false but thinking makes it so. You believe you have appeased the thunder and lightening and the ground that grows your grain; you believe it, you have. ~Shakespeare~
Knowing how to see is much more important than what kind of camera or lights you have.
~ David Harry Stuart~
Every work comes into being in the same way as the cosmos – by means of catastrophes…
~Wassily Kandinsky~
Every man takes The limits of his Own field of vision For the limits of the world.
~Arthure Schopenhauer~ 1788-1860, Studies in Pessimism
Pick a theme and work it to exhaustion... the subject must be something you truly love or truly hate.
~Dorothea Lange~
Writing, I think, is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living. The writer experiences everything twice. Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind.
Catherine Drinker Bowen
Nature Will Hold You Live within Integrity Sweet Dew Forever
~Ku by Scoop~
No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master. ~Hunter S. Thompson~
I refuse to lose my mind to the sadness locked in the illusion of my finitude.
~Chuma and Fiswe~
fear of mediocrity creates it by narrowing your vision of yourself. get as far away from fear as you can by daring your ass to face it everyday.
~Berette Macaulay~
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming -WOO HOO what a ride! ~JAH – E~
Kill the arrogance. It will never serve you in the long run - as ultimately it acts as an inhibitor.
~Berette Macaulay~
Desire is a magnificent nomadic energy.
~Scoop, inspired by Nietzche~
Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.
~Lou Holtz~
There’s no great genius without some touch of madness.
~Seneca~
Live for the truth or lie What are the consequences? RECIPROCITY
~Ku by Scoop~
The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.
~Hunter S. Thompson~
Water marks the way, We wander thru wet slipways, Happy to be damp.
~ Ku by Steve Wilson, nee Mystic Urchin ~
“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”
MIND THE GAP
The delights of self-discovery are always available.
-Gail Sheehy
"Watch Your Thoughts, They Become Your Words,Watch Your Words, They Become Your Actions, Watch Your Actions, They Become Your Habits, Watch Your Habits, They Become Your Character, Watch Your Character For It Becomes Your Destiny"
One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind.
-Dorothea Lange-
“Fear is temporary. Regret lasts a lifetime.”
“Caution is the death of Creativity”
Let your deeds themselves praise you, for here I leave them in all their glory, lacking words to extol them.
