Dance

The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns
Wednesday, 13 March 2013

 

I would heartily recommend ‘The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns’ exhibition at the Barbican. Particularly on Thursday evenings and over the weekend as thats when you have the opportunity to see The Merce Cunningham Dance Company perform.

Duchamp’s championing of ‘readymades’ everyday objects as art has had a deep effect on the culture we now live in. In music, for example, sampling (using previously composed beats and rhythms if not melodies) helped shape hip hop and modern pop tunes. In the 1920s many felt that this was the end of art, however it has freed up the artist. If done well it can be smart and fresh, changing our perception of something we had grown used to, giving it a new narrative  and allow for new ideas about its meaning, while its common form is a reference for us to base these high flung thoughts from.

These ideas where taken on my the other artist in the exhibition. Cage presented sounds from the street as music, used everyday objects to compose and developed a Prepared Piano, which by inserting bolts and other objects between the piano strings changed how we view a piano and helped expand what we conceive as music.  Today we wouldn’t even blink if we heard a police siren or a car engine in a song.

Maybe the critics were right, its a bit disturbing to think that the culture we live in was inspired by a urinal! There are a variety of different shows celebrating Duchamp at the Barbican till June, so go and check it out.

Dom

 

 

 

>The Serpentine Dance + Colour Filters
Monday, 16 January 2012

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I stumbled across this video on Bradford Cox’s excellent blog, and like him became ever so slightly enthralled by it.

After a bit of research I discovered that the dancer is Loie Fuller who invented this dance known as the Serpentine Dance. The dance is beautiful in itself, but for me I was more intrigued by the quality of the film and the use of colour filters.  I think the film is probably shot on an Edison Kinetoscope, which was one of Edison’s earliest film cameras, apparently lots of the earliest films featured dancers in flowing robes as the movement was easier to capture. The colour filters, I guess are just to add colour to a black and white film, but I was wondering whether anyone had any further info on this process? Are there any masters of the artform and is anyone doing anything similar today?
  
Here’s another good example, the girl looks a bit like Florence Welsh though!
 
I also came across this photo of an Indian Maharaja which has used the same colouring effects. Again any information would be greatly received: 
Dom

>Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Friday, 26 August 2011

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The Merce Cunningham Dance Company is coming to the Barbican in London from 5th till the 8th of October this year. This will be your last chance to see the company perform in the UK before they disband at the end of the year.
These performances include pieces he worked on with John Cage, Andy Warhol and Brian Eno. Due to the way that this type of dance is taught it is often very rare that they’re work survives after their death, so I can’t stress enough how important it is that you witness this before its lost forever. Videos do not really do his work justice they are pieces that must be seen live. I do however quite enjoy this interview with Merce and John Cage:

Dom

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