Rehearsals for "Motion-Line-Form" have started for performance May 9, 2015 at Brattleboro Museum

 Working with Choreographer Candice Salyers over the weekend of September 20th, we began to explore how movement can support the construction and development of the installation "Motion-Line-Form". Choreographer Dahlia Nayar joined us on Saturday for an hour and will be continuing to work with us towards the performance of this piece on May 9th, 2015 at the Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro.

I arrived for the rehearsals with Photoshop renderings of possible forms and models. Based on our work together over the weekend the forms have shifted subtly…I am "lightening” the density of the weave on the left so that a sequence emerges moving from less dense to denser structures left to right. The dance will also move from left to right. We have been discussing ways to encourage the audience to change their point of view as the performance progresses. The work has a completely different character viewed from the "front' as compared to a side or angled view that layers the forms one upon another. We want to emphasize this shift.

We spent a good a mount of time discussing themes in the work and potential points of emphasis across disciplines. It was a really productive dialogue between Candice and Myself. Her questions helped me to articulate the goals of expressing the movement that exists within all forms….even static forms…at an atomic level. We spent time talking about the movement I've experienced as a builder and how "stable "buildings are the result of an intensive accretion of many many movements. The choreography of building is influenced by the sequence in which materials must be installed but also by the weight and dimensions of materials and the strategies for shifting materials into place.

Images below are of the form and some shots of the Choreographers testing out ideas for movement.

My installation "Drawn Out" and my drawings at Artspace in New Haven through January 25th

The exhibit as opened, the installation is complete! here is an image of "Drawn Out", 10' X  13' X 7', Ribbon, Lead, Carabiners and Steel, 2013. Three lead weights create a tensile force on the horizontally woven ribbons; this force helps to shape the main volume of the piece. The counterweights are connected to the main form by satin ribbons strung through a series of carabiners, mounted on the ceiling and the wall, that redirect the tensile force created by the lead weights.

Jeff Bergman, Associate Director  at Pace Prints curated the show "Flat/Not Flat" for which I created this work. The work of Jennifer Davies, Karen Dow, and Martha Lewis is also on exhibit here and it is all well worth seeing. Artspace has some funky hours over the holidays - Artspace is open Wednesdays & Thursday from 12-6pm, Fridays & Saturdays from 12-8pm. The gallery is free and open to the public. Artspace will be closed for Thanksgiving November 27-30th and between December 18th and January 7th."

Below: "Ribbon 13", 22" X 22", Graphite on Paper 2013

Curator Jeff Bergman wrote this on his blog "Atlas".

"Alisa Dworsky built something quite remarkable with Drawn Out.  It conforms to the space without overtaking it, but makes a huge impact.  For me, the piece becomes a one quarter slice of the axis of the planet.  The architecture of our world.  Dworsky and I were able to discuss materials, spaces and methods, but nothing could have prepared me for the physical reality of the piece.  Alisa took ribbon, hardware and weights and made a space born of physics and air.  Her drawings quite literally flatten the piece using ribbon and graphite.  The erasures and the grissale line fills me with the joy that usually only Celmins and Ruscha can."

Studies for Dance/Installation/Weaving

I have been making full scale studies for an upcoming performance and exhibit at the Brattleboro Museum scheduled for  May 31st, 2014- on view through the summer. (note : the project has been rescheduled for May 2015) [gallery type="slideshow" ids="481,482,483"]

I am experimenting with how dancers can participate in the construction of one of my woven ribbon installations by helping to build a work as part of a performance. I am inspired in part by the tradition of the maypole dance in which textiles are woven around a pole as the risidual creation of a movement performance. Due to limitations in time and budget for this round I have been working on developing structures that two dancers can create. The vertical "struts" are fixed prior to the performance and facilitate this strategy.

In the early fall, while the weather was warm, I worked for a few sessions with choreographers and dancers Polly Motley and Hanna Satterlee  at a proxy site in East Montpelier to see how we could integrate dance into the construction of the work. I had developed woven structures for this piece through models and full scale studies. Taking into account the needs and input from the dancers, we changed the woven form they build  so as to allow for a broader scope of movement and movement that the dancers enjoy.

Originally I entended dancers to also construct this form around a tree.  However, I discovered that I could build the work as one person working on my own. Perhaps in the future I will have the chance to explore with dancers how to collaborate in creating this work or one based on it.

The research and early development of  this new body of work has been supported by grants from the Vermont Arts Council and the Vermont Community Foundation. My heartfelt appreciation!