STATEMENT: I combine butoh and modern dance inspired movement, drawing, painting, animation, motion graphics, videography and sound to create pieces that explore experiences of constraint, shame, self-consciousness, aggression and loss in order to expose the messy, beautiful, scary, pedestrian and extraordinary bits of life.
Another Moment of Silence
drawing, painting, video, motion graphics, sound, 10m 20s, 2013
This video explores the dichotomy between victim and perpetrator. In this deeply personal piece, I asked myself, when am I the perpetrator, the creator of violence? Where is the line between the violence I enact on the world in little ways everyday and what is done to me. I wondered, why do I always think of myself as on the side of the good? Do we all draw that line that way? In a world with so much overt, mass violence, it is easy to be the victim, or at least, not the perpetrator, but I questioned...is this so?
Simulation
video, motion graphics, sound, 9m 2s, 2012
This piece explores expressions of emotion...uncontrolled or manipulative, outwardly-focused emotion and repressed feelings that we only let out in private. We are all capable of using, consciously or not, our emotional expressions to manipulate a situation, assure an outcome...to get our way. Similarly, we have all been in situations where we must hide our feelings for the same reasons. Our emotional lives as human beings shape our thoughts, actions and beliefs. In this very personal work, these expressions are exposed to illuminate just how incredibly vulnerable we are.
Solo Party Dress
video, motion graphics, sound, 5m 11s, 2011-2012
What began as a meditation on and a "I cannot pretend this isn't happening" confrontation with animal cruelty/factory farming, resulted in this "girls just want to have fun, dancing with myself" piece. Over a period of almost a year, I created drawings of piles of discarded animal carcasses, scanned them, then drew the negative spaces between the bodies. Using the Buddhist practice of tonglen to transform suffering, multiple layers of these 800+ shapes were animated, and combined with animated graphics, 1920's inspired movement and gypsy-rag sound loops to create a kaleidoscope of eye candy that transforms my pain over the horrors of inhumanity into a "private moment" kind of joy.
Containments
video, motion graphics, sound, 5m 4s, 2012
Abandonment, specifically early childhood abandonment is the theme of this piece. Using physical barriers as a metaphor for the constructs that are created as a reaction to perceived rejection, the video explores the psychology of abandonment and the behaviors that develop to defend against the massive betrayal a child experiences as a result of abandonment. The soundscape describes the attempt to connect over huge emotional gulfs by layering one voice over another as if trying to reach and sync what cannot be.
Hyfee
drawing, video, motion graphics, sound, 6m 5s, 2010-2012
Drawing is the fundamental element of this piece, which explores the physicality and psychology of children. The piece began with pencil and paper drawings that were digitized and mapped to the bodies in the video to create a visual field of children as the dancer explores movements inspired by infants and toddlers. More drawings were used for the background. Hummed nursery rhymes provide the sound. These elements combine to create a dream-like world inspired by early childhood.
The Usefulness of Persistent Distance
video, motion graphics, sound, 10m 13s, 2012
This video looks at the means by which we use distance to create autonomy. Emotional and physical barriers are constructed for various purposes such as the allowance of intense focus, preservation of sanity or safety and development of the self. The images in this work are metaphorical vignettes that explore distancing behavior.