-
Amphibian (1985)
- PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art
- The MIT Press
- PAJ 71 (Volume 24, Number 2), May 2002
- pp. 18-19
- Article
- Additional Information
PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art 24.2 (2002) 18-19
[Access article in PDF]
Amphibian (1985)
Mary Lucier
[Figures]
Amphibian (1985) is a collaboration designed for two channels of simultaneous, synchronized video projection and live dance performance. Elizabeth Streb performs on a steeply raked ramp with a small stage jutting out towards the audience. This form is flanked on either side by two 5" x 7" projection screens through which recorded images of Elizabeth's body move as she interacts on video with various natural elements such as rocks, water, trees, sky. The top of the ramp is level with the bottom of the screens, creating a horizontal flow which can be regarded in video installation terms as three equal channels of events. The lighting, by Heather Carson, is confined to a tall rear scrim, the ramp, and the platform, at a level of intensity no brighter than the projects themselves. Sound occurs only at the beginning and the end so that most of the piece is performed in silence. The task for Elizabeth is to perform in sync with the adjacent recorded images as they progress from one environment to another. It is essentially an abstract, temporal composition suggesting an obscure evolutionary narrative.
This pastel sketch is part of a series of drawings in which I attempt to envision the overall configuration of the piece, conveying something of both its formal and kinetic properties. This particular drawing is typical of the process I use to pre-visualize video as (performance or installation) space. Other kinds of notation—single image renderings, sequential sketches, scale plans and elevations, and voluminous written material—accompany each phase of every project. It is a way to arrest the flow of time, making the ephemeral more concrete; a way to get some mental traction in a slippery cerebellum and help the mind penetrate the matter.
...