Death Becomes Her.  

Artists’ Statement:

Performers: Bruce Benedict & Pj Maske

      A man and a woman in a defined space interact with objects for visual and/or aural effect.  The music that you hear is original composition by musician Bruce Benedict based on poems about death and grieving by 19th century writer Thomas Hardy.  It is therefore neither entirely contemporary, nor entirely Victorian.  The materials with which the performer interacts and the ways in which she uses them are also neither entirely Victorian nor entirely contemporary.  By interacting with historical objects in a modern setting we are reminded of our cultural identity and the ways in which the past has worked to create the present.  By imposing a nostalgic aesthetic upon the embodied performance of music, and sound-producing physical enactment, the installation invites viewers to consider their own personal or social mourning practices.

Such is the nature of performance installation; because we are persons with bodies, we subconsciously experience an empathetic reaction when we find other bodies in an overtly performative state inhabiting the same space as we are.

Throughout the evening we saw over 120 visitors at the Antfarm. (c) Bruce Benedict, 2011

“So far, so imaginative, in works taking the theatrical into innovative territory.—

This third Urban Garden production [in Raleigh] undeniably raises a number of questions that are particularly pertinent at the start of a new year in regional arts.  Exactly how many local playwrights get local productions, fully staged—once, much less in triplicate—each year? Just how often do actors in any of our regional cities get to perform in another? How many of last Friday’s theater-goers had never been to Antfarm before—and would never have gone there without the multi-media event Urban Garden staged? How many of them now know about

Guests watch the "Outside Iteration." (c)Bruce Benedict, 2011

Gabrielle Duggan’s fiber work, which the actors interacted with—and wore—in the iteration performed in the studio’s gallery?  And what would happen to regional arts—and audiences—if visual, fiber, metal and other gallery artists were regularly welcomed to collaborate, as equals, in interdisciplinary alliances with musical, theatrical and choreographic components, and stage their collaborations in each others’ work and presentation spaces?  All of these questions pose different possibilities (and challenges) in terms of how art grows in this community: how it is made, how it’s received, and how different artists—and audiences—can possibly interact and catalyze.  It’s clear that the last Friday’s viewing gave us a first glimpse of a set of intriguing alternative paradigms in production and performance that Urban Garden is interested in pursuing. We’ll be closely watching its future work. You should probably do the same.”

-Byron Woods

(For The Independent Weekly, Sept. 6, 2011)

A rehearsal in the Gallery. (c)Amy Quinn, 2011

Artists’ Statment

We began with David Rabinowitz’s text.  Because Somewhere Out There was originally written as a radio play, it visually lends itself entirely to the imagination.  When the Antfarmers so graciously invited us to install in their building we realized that the first line of the text, “People don’t know much about space,” could carry as many meanings as this ancient warehouse might allow; outer-space, inner-space, small-white-gallery-space, dusty-artist-filled-studio-space.   We invite you to experience three iterations of David’s text, each crafted, through the offerings of eight local

Sam Corey and Lucius Robinson on trapeze. (c)Bruce Benedict, 2011

artists, specifically for each space – one in the gallery, one in the open studio, and one outside.  Have a chocolate.  Have a beverage.  Take in, perhaps even purchase an Antfarmer’s art.  Enjoy the spaces for yourself.

Curated by ………………………Pj Maske

Text by……………….David Rabinowitz

Fiber Art Installation by ………………………………Gabrielle Duggan

Projection by ………..the performers

Performance by …………….John Jimerson, Paul Kilpatrick, Lucius Robinson, Sam Corey, Alex Young

With generous food donations by PieBird & Escazu

Special thanks to Lucas House, Claire Jacobs, Miles Holst, The Watsons, The Quinns, Liz and the family Kilpatrick, Kathryn LeTrent, CTK Printing, Sarah Powers, Kylie McCormic, David Hill, Sheilagh Duncan, Hallot Parson & Bruce Benedict

Alex Young and Paul Kilpatrick (c)Amy Quinn, 2011

Liz Janes with Urban Garden Performing Arts

Sunday June 26th 7pm

Presented by Musicoal at Burning Coal Theatre

Featured Artists: Liz Janes – singer/songwriter, Bruce Benedict – singer/songwriter, John Miller – percussionist, Pj Maske – performing artist, Heather Cannaday – dancer/choreographer

The venue is a cool, dark, intimate theatre space.  The stage space is sparse but well lit.  The performance is built around the music.  Similar to a typical, contemporary music show one artist opens with a shorter set (in this case Bruce Benedict).  There is a break.  Then the ‘head-lining act,’ Liz Janes, plays a longer set.  This show, however, is different.  Two performers Heather Cannaday and Pj Maske, move simply and naturally in and out of the lit space, during some songs executing simple household tasks; typing on a typewriter, sewing on a sewing machine, folding sheets.  During other songs performing sparsely choreographed dance, or sitting and watching along with the audience.  The household tasks make sound that interacts with the music.  They are performed on/with carefully chosen objects that, along with the instruments, and a few pieces of sound equipment make up the visual element of the show; an ancient Underwood Typewriter, an antique electric Singer sewing machine.  These are both obviously mic-ed as instruments in their own right.  Like the sound-producing tasks and objects, the choreographed dance is both crafted and performed in dialogue with the music.  The musician and their song is primary in this performance.  The experience is intimate and contemplative.  Benedict and Janes interact minimally with the audience, maintaining the ease that classic singer/songwriter audience dialogue brings, but making the whole performance feel a bit more, as Janes put it at the top of her set, “like a one act play.”Click to view slideshow.

(Photos (c) Carol Dukes, 2011)

PDF spectrumspectreFlyer

Fiber artist Gabrielle Duggan made a ‘spectrum’ of eight garments.  They were shown first as part of  The Common Seam Collective‘s debut show at The LoDi Project (gallery) in February 2010.  The garments were displayed in their spectrumial order in eight piles.  Centered above the piles on the wall Gabrielle projected this video, http://vimeo.com/10338629, of a woman dressing and undressing in each garment.

Through viewing the show and a few brief discussions with Gabrielle about her processes in creating the work, PJ Maske saw great performative potential in the Spectrum.  The two began to scheme.

After a few performance workshops with Raleigh model Monica Damron and a generous donation of space from the Raleigh City Museum the pair have made a performance installation called Spectrum Spectre, advertised in the flyer above.

(pictured: Monica Damron, photos by: Amy Quinn)

Artists’ Statement

Because this project is a pure collaboration between fiber artist, Gabrielle Duggan and movement artist, PJ Maske, the following artist statement is in two parts.

About making the garments, Gabrielle says:

This project, a group of eight objects, represents the symbiosis of contrasting attributes found within my work, as well as in garments globally.  Technically, the objects in the Spectrum progress-or regress, depending on interpretation.

Some of the contrasting values addressed in garments are:

form | function     hand | machine      raw | refined  repulsive | attractive

I explore and observe these contrasts through my use of materials and techniques.

About making the performance of the garments, PJ says:

The installation shows a woman moving through Gabrielle’s Spectrum of garments, and reacting simply/briefly to the experience of wearing each one in a traditional living room setting.  These images (of a woman – in the garments – in a living room) and the performer’s responsive actions together call to mind questions about the contemporary dressed woman, the nature of our clothing and our expectations for it.’

(c) 2008 Richard Gatti

First performances at

St. Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch

28 November 2008.

The Performance Site (c) Amy Poulsom 2008

the company in rehearsal (c) Amy Poulsom 2008

Lada Bonacci & Filippos Kanakaris (c) Amy Poulsom 2008

Performed again as a

Southwark Playhouse Secret

28 February 2009.

For this incarnation of Urban Garden’s Leda and the Swan, instead of traveling through a large space, we moved all of the action to a square room and experimented with drawing and erasing chalk circles on the floor to signify the world of the gods. Leda and Hera both draw and erase parts of the circles as each attempt to control their relationship with Zeus.

PJ Maske (c) Amy Poulsom 2009