Author Archives: Barlo Perry

KYLE ABRAHAM — WHEN WE FELL

The dance event of the season, understandably, happens to be a film. WHEN WE FELL—choreographed by Kyle Abraham and directed by Abraham and Ryan Marie Helfant—was commissioned by the New York City Ballet and was shot inside their Lincoln Center home.

WHEN WE FELL is danced by India Bradley, Jonathan Fahoury, Christopher Grant, Claire Kretzschmar, Lauren Lovette, Taylor Stanley, KJ Takahashi, and Sebastian Villarini-Velez. Music for the 16-minute work is by Morton Feldman, Jason Moran, and Nico Muhly.

The film is introduced by dancer-choreographer Wendy Whelan, Associate Artistic Director, New York City Ballet. See link below for free streaming details to the film as well as the short RETURN TO FORM: CREATING KYLE ABRAHAM’S WHEN WE FELL.

WHEN WE FELL

Directed by Kyle Abraham and Ryan Marie Helfant.

New York City Ballet

Streaming through April 22

Kyle Abraham and Ryan Marie Helfant, When We Fell (2021), stills by Helfant. Images © Kyle Abraham and Ryan Marie Helfant, courtesy of the artists and New York City Ballet.

SHATARA MICHELLE FORD — TEST PATTERN

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Some of the ideas that I wanted to express with the character of Renesha come from the many moments in the film where she’s pushed to the background, or to the side, or is out of focus. That’s for a reason, to make you think about how we choose not to see or hear people. Then in the moments where I let you sit with her, what do you notice in what she’s not saying? All of that was intentional. — Shatara Michelle Ford

In her feature debut TEST PATTERN, writer-director Ford presents her case—against the ineptitudes of the health care system, the inadequacies of the police, and the insidious predations of hipster Austin’s bro-culture—against a wonderfully sensitive consideration of the relationship between Renesha (Brittany S. Hall) and Evan (Will Brill), before and after a sexual assault.

Streaming now on the Kino Marquee. See link below for details.

TEST PATTERN

Written and directed by Shatara Michelle Moore.

Kino Marquee

Now streaming.

Shatara Michelle Ford, Test Pattern (2019), from top: Brittany S. Hall; Will Brill; Test Pattern poster; Amani Starnes; Ford. Images courtesy and © the filmmaker and Kino Lorber.

ALISON SAAR AND HANK WILLIS THOMAS

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I want my work to be universally understood. Not necessarily appreciated but somehow to connect with people universally—which I think is a very utopic, if not moronic, approach to making art. [Laughter] But it’s something I aspire to. I think a lot of times, even beyond issues of race and gender and stuff like that, I’m also really interested in issues of humanity, and these utopic, kooky ideas of how [if] we can all come to understand each other, life will be better. — Alison Saar*

Join Hamza Walker in conversation with Alison Saar and Hank Willis Thomas., presented by the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.

See link below to register for this online event.

ALISON SAAR and HANK WILLIS THOMAS IN CONVERSATION WITH HAMZA WALKER

Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon

Thursday, April 15.

4 pm on the West Coast, 7 pm East Coast.

*Alison Saar, from forthcoming feature in PARIS LA 17.

From top: Alison Saar, Queen of the 88s, 2021, multi-block linocut on handmade Hamada Kozo paper backed with Sekishu Kozo, image © Alison Saar, courtesy of the artist and Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland; Saar, photograph by Paul O’Connor, courtesy of Saar and LA Louver; Hank Willis Thomas, courtesy and © Hank Willis Thomas Studio; Thomas, History is Past, Past is Present, 2017, print, lenticular, image © Hank Willis Thomas, courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery.

OSCAR TUAZON — PEOPLE

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Trees are embodied water, bodies of water, petrified fire, water on fire. A tree is a sculpture with no author, a sculpture of water… changing from seed, to plant, to tree, to log, to board, to frame, to building, to pulp, to paper, to ash, to dirt, and back again. — Oscar Tuazon*

An exhibition of new sculptural works by Tuazon is on view in Tribeca through mid-April. See link below.

OSCAR TUAZON—PEOPLE*

Through April 17.

Luhring Augustine Tribeca

17 White Street, New York City.

Oscar Tuazon, People, Luhring Augustine Tribeca, March 13, 2021–April 17, 2021, from top: NO ON, 2021, spruce and cedar; Oil City (Red Oak), 2021, charred wood post with Aqua-Resin; Tree of Smoke, 2021, mixed media; Oscar Tuazon, People, installation view; Sand Hammer, 2021, cast bronze; Natural Man, 2015/2021, bronze, fiberglass concrete, electric water pump. Images © Oscar Tuazon, courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine.

SULA BERMÚDEZ-SILVERMAN — SIGHS AND LEERS AND CROCODILE TEARS

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In the show SIGHS AND LEERS AND CROCODILE TEARS—now in its final week in Los Angeles—Sula Bermúdez-Silverman “explores the expansive use of monsters ––in particular zombies–– and haunted spaces in the horror genre as metaphors for the actions societal systems inflict upon groups of people on a spiritual and physical level.”*

SULA BERMÚDEZ-SILVERMAN—SIGHS, AND LEERS, AND CROCODILE TEARS*

Through April 10.

Murmurs

1411 Newton Street, downtown Los Angeles.

Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, Sighs and Leers and Crocodile Tears, Murmurs, Los Angeles, March 7, 2021–April 10, 2021, from top: Porthole 2 (Parentheses of Blood), 2021, isomalt sugar, found object; Paradise Regained, 2021, isomalt sugar and glass found object; The Monster’s Bride (She’s Alive!), 2020, wool and viscose yarn; Repository II: Dead Ringer, 2021 (detail), glass, Himalayan pink salt, water; installation view with (foreground) Turning Heel, 2021, Himalayan pink salt, isomalt sugar, glass found object, (center) Repository I: Mother, 2021, isomalt sugar, Himalayan pink salt, epoxy resin, found object, and (against wall) Lady with the Ring, 2021, glass, carpenter bee; Carrefour Pietà/Be My Victim, 2021 (detail), wool and acrylic yarn; To Fear a Painted Devil’s Trumpet, 2021, Himalayan pink salt, kosher salt, sea salt, glass, carpenter bees, crushed emerald, Devil’s Trumpet seed pods (Datura inoxia), Devil’s Trumpet seeds (Datura inoxia), raw sugar; Porthole 6 (Julian’s Hatchet), 2021, isomalt sugar, epoxy resin, transparency film. Images © Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, courtesy of the artist and Murmurs.