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September 27, 2005

My So Called Wyeth

I've never been a big fan of performance art or contemporary interpretive dance. Something silly about shooting your self in the hand or licking jelly off a '68 Volkswagen bug that just never brushed me as "serious" or important. I am always willing to be proven wrong, this instance probably isn't one of them.

While reading this week's Flavorpill, I came upon this upcoming event:

"Christina Olson: American Model

Andrew Wyeth's iconic painting Christina's World depicts Christina Olson, a young woman paralyzed from the waist down, crawling through a field. Choreographer Tamar Rogoff was inspired not only by the 1948 artwork, but also by Christina's will — she did house chores and even traversed a gravel road to visit friends without a wheelchair. In this piece, created for dancer-turned-actor Claire Danes, Rogoff explores the association between spirit and physicality through her body-centric methodology. Danes dances in front of a video of herself crawling down an East Village street as an eerie homage to Olson, or an attempt to prove her earnestness in returning to her dance roots. (SP)"

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, yeeeaaaaaaaaah. Now, watching starlets crawl down an "East Village" street, hilarious. But deep down in my serious "don't touch me there" place, my little voice says Christina Olson is pissed and would have preferred not to have polio and drag her ass down the gravel road to play bridge than become the subject of "body-centric methodology". I'm sure Claire hit about fifty potholes on the way to artistic self expression.

Posted by urcella at September 27, 2005 09:02 PM

Comments

This is the kind of "work" that I think best benefits from the methodology that I myself developed in college for projects that needed a little help: simply douse in accelerant (benzene, kerosene, or hexane, plus paraffin) and apply flame. Instant art. Claire running down the street on fire? I'd buy a ticket.

Posted by: Eli at October 11, 2005 04:34 PM