Anatomy is Destiny
View a 10 minute arrangement of this performance at the Church of the Epiphany, Chicago:
http://vimeo.com/12553705
1.1 Introduction:
When Freud coined the phrase "Anatomy is Destiny," he was referring to either having or lacking the phallus, a random act of fate foreshadowing the menace and anguish of the haves and have-nots. The illusiveness of this position, as well as its absoluteness, is well illustrated by chess in which the champion's title is continually lost and obtained from one moment to the next with the imminent determinacy of a clear victor up for grabs.
In my performance Anatomy is Destiny, I utilized as a script the record of Marcel Duchamp's match against himself as Rrose Selavy, his female (and in this game also his aggressive and hysterical) alter-ego. Visually underlining this dialectical battle of destiny and free will in Anatomy is Destiny, I seek to underline the value not only of the end result, but also the importance of experiencing the process and facing the challenge.
Comprised of 32 participants dressed in specially designed garments that restrict their movements, thereby also defining their role within the game, this performance takes place on a life-size chessboard. As the performers make their moves, their journeys on the chessboard are traced by noise-making props attached to their garments, while their feet move through the boudaries of the checkered ground. After 40 motions by each player, lasting approximately 40 minutes, the match ends in a tie.
1.2 Background:
A chess game is something very plastic. You build it. It is a mechanical sculpture, with chess one creates beautiful problems and this beauty is made with the head and the hands. –Marcel Duchamp
The game of chess is like a language. Its pieces are known archetypes that transcend the differences among cultures and generations, uniting the experience of the human kind into the following cycle: pride, conquest, victory, defeat, frustration, withdrawal, repentance, resolution, then once more, pride, the wheel of life. When I study a transcript of a chess match between two players, within a short period of time I can see each person's aggression, defense, victory, and defeat expressed through the language of the relational. In each game, a common narrative begins to emerge, a metaphor for the complex system of life itself expressed through the abstract and silent pursuit of the bottomless truth, or the full acceptance of the absence of it and the continual re-creation of one gradually sculpted in time.
Like painting, drawing, and mathematics, playing chess shuts down the left side of the brain, leading the player to become almost unaware of chronological time. In a chess match, therefore, the player is able to represent "the fourth dimension" in which, via manipulation of mere matter, notions of time and space are removed, resulting in the "now you see/hear it, now you don't" quality of time-based works. When a practiced player is engaged in chess, decisions are made based on relations and the possibilities contained within such relationships, enabling the player to reach the state of "no mind" or "Buddha mind".
This state, where the use of words ceases to be useful, exerted a powerful pull on Duchamp as illustrated by Jacquelynn Baas in the essay "Unframing Experience." The transcript of a chess match between Duchamp and Rrose Selavy recorded by Armand P. Arman is a work of art that takes up a page and a half in the catalogue entitled "Marcel Duchamp, Plays and Wins." It claims to be a record of a game that happened at a swift chess championship in New York. Arman's commentary on each of Duchamp's moves inspired me to manifest the script as a performance, visually interpreting each piece's aesthetic identity through restrictions placed on the body via costumes. The opposing teams are dressed in duplicate, varying only in the type of cloth used—one lighter, the other the darker side. Upper limbs are not essential to moving around the board; I bind the players, thus, accentuating their slightest differentiations each step of the way as as these “pieces” methodically travel the grided space of the board. Pawns for example, wear only shorts and are bound at their wrists to a log displaying a vividly unfortunate dealing of their destiny. Having collaborated with a choreographer Davy Bisaro, a unique series of movements were generated to suit each piece. Artist Sebastian Alvarez contributed to the project by creating sound props that each performer engages as he/she moves on the board.
Inherent in chess, are also issues of class and themes of fate versus free will. Neither one nor the other but both at the same time, the game of chess allows for a pondering of these eternal questions within an area of 64 squares with endless possibilities.
Two versions comprise Anatomy is Destiny. a) An installation entitled The Wardrobe: Game in Waiting comprised of vacant garments housed at Gallery X at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and b) three public performances in which the garments are activated by the participating crew.
a) The Wardrobe: Game in Waiting
Gallery X, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
September 8-October 3, 2009
In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word wardrobe is defined as: 1 a: a room or closet where clothes are kept b: a large trunk in which clothes may be hung upright 2 a: a collection of wearing apparel (as of one person or for one activity) <a summer wardrobe> b: a collection of stage costumes and accessories.
Playing with the word as construct, war-d-robe, implies that each garment (robe) contained in the space will be used in battle, elevating clothing to an essential and identity-providing factor in each participant's anticipated confrontation. As such, the static installation of Anatomy is Destiny at Gallery X aspires to be nothing but that: a room (a closet) that will contain 32 costumes and accessories hung upright over a checkered floor awaiting their time to be set in motion by the participating crew.
b) Three public performances:
1. Betty Rymer Gallery, September 8, 2009 at 4pm. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 280 S. Columbus Drive #1130, Chicago, IL 60603
Performers:
Pawns:
Katie Bateman
Benji Pearson
Brook Jonquil
Sarah Ann Morton
Ryan Dunn
Beau Sage
Lilly Sage
Maegan Jenkins
Ya Ting Hsu
Saya Da Jung
Eileen Doyle
Coutney Mackendanz
Jess Standefer
Ali Seradge
Oni Carver
Alicia Elida Acevedo
Rooks:
Greer Beckman
Jordan Scrivner
Hannah Manfredi
Matthew Bourque
Knights:
Adam Rose
Mandy Grace Kelly
Aaron Maier
Alexine Haynes
Bishops:
Nozomi Rose Kato
Allison Fall
Willian Goss
Heather Lynn
Queens:
Lee Blalock
Tommy Heffron
Kings:
Misuzu Aoi
Geoff Hughes
2. Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, September 11, 2009 at 5:30pm. 201 S. Ashland Avenue, Chicago, IL 60607
Performers:
Pawns:
Katie Bateman
Benji Pearson
Brook Jonquil
Sarah Ann Morton
Ryan Dunn
Beau Sage
Lilly Sage
Maegan Jenkins
Ya Ting Hsu
Saya Da Jung
Eileen Doyle
Coutney Mackendanz
Aiesha Dukes
Ali Seradge
Oni Carver
Alicia Elida Acevedo
Rooks:
Jess Standefer
Jordan Scrivner
Hannah Manfredi
Matthew Bourque
Knights:
Adam Rose
Mandy Grace Kelly
Aaron Maier
Alexine Haynes
Bishops:
Nozomi Rose Kato
Allison Fall
Willian Goss
Heather Lynn
Queens:
Lee Blalock
Tommy Heffron
Kings:
Misuzu Aoi
Geoff Hughes
3) Our last location is yet to be confirmed. Please check back for further details...
A 5 minute demo of this performance can be found here (choreography by Davy Bisaro, performers: Tiffany Janeway and Juliana Marko): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
Special Thanks:
Balta Pena, David Grant (make-up), Diego Silva Ardila, Matthew Satz, Elizabeth Dow (elizabethdow.com), Michael Ryan, SUGS Staff, Jason Smith, Joel Kuennen, Mary Jane Jacob, Mark Jeffery, Kari Laine McCluskey, SAIC Fiber and Material Studies Department, Frances Whitehead, Karina Natis, Anna (Bu) Tu, Jeff De La Cruz, Nick Briz, Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Chicago.
http://vimeo.com/12553705
1.1 Introduction:
When Freud coined the phrase "Anatomy is Destiny," he was referring to either having or lacking the phallus, a random act of fate foreshadowing the menace and anguish of the haves and have-nots. The illusiveness of this position, as well as its absoluteness, is well illustrated by chess in which the champion's title is continually lost and obtained from one moment to the next with the imminent determinacy of a clear victor up for grabs.
In my performance Anatomy is Destiny, I utilized as a script the record of Marcel Duchamp's match against himself as Rrose Selavy, his female (and in this game also his aggressive and hysterical) alter-ego. Visually underlining this dialectical battle of destiny and free will in Anatomy is Destiny, I seek to underline the value not only of the end result, but also the importance of experiencing the process and facing the challenge.
Comprised of 32 participants dressed in specially designed garments that restrict their movements, thereby also defining their role within the game, this performance takes place on a life-size chessboard. As the performers make their moves, their journeys on the chessboard are traced by noise-making props attached to their garments, while their feet move through the boudaries of the checkered ground. After 40 motions by each player, lasting approximately 40 minutes, the match ends in a tie.
1.2 Background:
A chess game is something very plastic. You build it. It is a mechanical sculpture, with chess one creates beautiful problems and this beauty is made with the head and the hands. –Marcel Duchamp
The game of chess is like a language. Its pieces are known archetypes that transcend the differences among cultures and generations, uniting the experience of the human kind into the following cycle: pride, conquest, victory, defeat, frustration, withdrawal, repentance, resolution, then once more, pride, the wheel of life. When I study a transcript of a chess match between two players, within a short period of time I can see each person's aggression, defense, victory, and defeat expressed through the language of the relational. In each game, a common narrative begins to emerge, a metaphor for the complex system of life itself expressed through the abstract and silent pursuit of the bottomless truth, or the full acceptance of the absence of it and the continual re-creation of one gradually sculpted in time.
Like painting, drawing, and mathematics, playing chess shuts down the left side of the brain, leading the player to become almost unaware of chronological time. In a chess match, therefore, the player is able to represent "the fourth dimension" in which, via manipulation of mere matter, notions of time and space are removed, resulting in the "now you see/hear it, now you don't" quality of time-based works. When a practiced player is engaged in chess, decisions are made based on relations and the possibilities contained within such relationships, enabling the player to reach the state of "no mind" or "Buddha mind".
This state, where the use of words ceases to be useful, exerted a powerful pull on Duchamp as illustrated by Jacquelynn Baas in the essay "Unframing Experience." The transcript of a chess match between Duchamp and Rrose Selavy recorded by Armand P. Arman is a work of art that takes up a page and a half in the catalogue entitled "Marcel Duchamp, Plays and Wins." It claims to be a record of a game that happened at a swift chess championship in New York. Arman's commentary on each of Duchamp's moves inspired me to manifest the script as a performance, visually interpreting each piece's aesthetic identity through restrictions placed on the body via costumes. The opposing teams are dressed in duplicate, varying only in the type of cloth used—one lighter, the other the darker side. Upper limbs are not essential to moving around the board; I bind the players, thus, accentuating their slightest differentiations each step of the way as as these “pieces” methodically travel the grided space of the board. Pawns for example, wear only shorts and are bound at their wrists to a log displaying a vividly unfortunate dealing of their destiny. Having collaborated with a choreographer Davy Bisaro, a unique series of movements were generated to suit each piece. Artist Sebastian Alvarez contributed to the project by creating sound props that each performer engages as he/she moves on the board.
Inherent in chess, are also issues of class and themes of fate versus free will. Neither one nor the other but both at the same time, the game of chess allows for a pondering of these eternal questions within an area of 64 squares with endless possibilities.
Two versions comprise Anatomy is Destiny. a) An installation entitled The Wardrobe: Game in Waiting comprised of vacant garments housed at Gallery X at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and b) three public performances in which the garments are activated by the participating crew.
a) The Wardrobe: Game in Waiting
Gallery X, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
September 8-October 3, 2009
In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word wardrobe is defined as: 1 a: a room or closet where clothes are kept b: a large trunk in which clothes may be hung upright 2 a: a collection of wearing apparel (as of one person or for one activity) <a summer wardrobe> b: a collection of stage costumes and accessories.
Playing with the word as construct, war-d-robe, implies that each garment (robe) contained in the space will be used in battle, elevating clothing to an essential and identity-providing factor in each participant's anticipated confrontation. As such, the static installation of Anatomy is Destiny at Gallery X aspires to be nothing but that: a room (a closet) that will contain 32 costumes and accessories hung upright over a checkered floor awaiting their time to be set in motion by the participating crew.
b) Three public performances:
1. Betty Rymer Gallery, September 8, 2009 at 4pm. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 280 S. Columbus Drive #1130, Chicago, IL 60603
Performers:
Pawns:
Katie Bateman
Benji Pearson
Brook Jonquil
Sarah Ann Morton
Ryan Dunn
Beau Sage
Lilly Sage
Maegan Jenkins
Ya Ting Hsu
Saya Da Jung
Eileen Doyle
Coutney Mackendanz
Jess Standefer
Ali Seradge
Oni Carver
Alicia Elida Acevedo
Rooks:
Greer Beckman
Jordan Scrivner
Hannah Manfredi
Matthew Bourque
Knights:
Adam Rose
Mandy Grace Kelly
Aaron Maier
Alexine Haynes
Bishops:
Nozomi Rose Kato
Allison Fall
Willian Goss
Heather Lynn
Queens:
Lee Blalock
Tommy Heffron
Kings:
Misuzu Aoi
Geoff Hughes
2. Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, September 11, 2009 at 5:30pm. 201 S. Ashland Avenue, Chicago, IL 60607
Performers:
Pawns:
Katie Bateman
Benji Pearson
Brook Jonquil
Sarah Ann Morton
Ryan Dunn
Beau Sage
Lilly Sage
Maegan Jenkins
Ya Ting Hsu
Saya Da Jung
Eileen Doyle
Coutney Mackendanz
Aiesha Dukes
Ali Seradge
Oni Carver
Alicia Elida Acevedo
Rooks:
Jess Standefer
Jordan Scrivner
Hannah Manfredi
Matthew Bourque
Knights:
Adam Rose
Mandy Grace Kelly
Aaron Maier
Alexine Haynes
Bishops:
Nozomi Rose Kato
Allison Fall
Willian Goss
Heather Lynn
Queens:
Lee Blalock
Tommy Heffron
Kings:
Misuzu Aoi
Geoff Hughes
3) Our last location is yet to be confirmed. Please check back for further details...
A 5 minute demo of this performance can be found here (choreography by Davy Bisaro, performers: Tiffany Janeway and Juliana Marko): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
Special Thanks:
Balta Pena, David Grant (make-up), Diego Silva Ardila, Matthew Satz, Elizabeth Dow (elizabethdow.com), Michael Ryan, SUGS Staff, Jason Smith, Joel Kuennen, Mary Jane Jacob, Mark Jeffery, Kari Laine McCluskey, SAIC Fiber and Material Studies Department, Frances Whitehead, Karina Natis, Anna (Bu) Tu, Jeff De La Cruz, Nick Briz, Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Chicago.
