What an experience!
We were at Bramble Arts Loft on Clark in Chicago. Fantastic neighborhood (Andersonville) with tons of great restaurants. The place is beautiful and new. The picture here shows the main areas – a cabaret with full bar and seating (where we had video playing), a larger (thrust) theatre where we had the performances) and the black-box theatre (looks like a rectangle) where we set up the gallery.
We started with a few photos along the stairway as people entered Bramble(some of the less naked ones – other groups use the space)
Adam Fox came up with a design to turn the black-box into a theatrical maze with pipe and drape, and I designed a system using black shower hooks, black wire, and hooks attached to the back of photos to hang photos. The photos themselves were printed and mounted directly onto thin matboard, so we wouldn’t need to buy 160 frames. That’s right – 160 photos in the gallery (that’s a lot of wire and hooks and tape – and volunteer help).
We also wanted to make it interactive. The entry area was a desk that had elements of the history of my photography including my first Pentax K-1000 camera. After the Light and Shadow images, we had an over-the-shoulder light set up with a mirror so you could see yourself in a different light. One section of the projection images had “Guess the Source” cards where you could try to guess what the original texture was that was projected on the body. There was a video of past performances you could sit and watch. There was poetry that related to the area of images you were viewing written by a friend who performed and did photos with me before.
And finally, there was a private room within the gallery (we had a volunteer stationed there to rope it off when you went in) where you could see what you looked like and play in projections, and optionally could get naked to do so (and a lot of people did).
Throughout, there was dim lighting and atmospheric music playing.
I don’t know how many people experienced the gallery, but it was a lot.
Sure, we had hours with nobody, but that’s what happens with a gallery (it was open 7-8 hours a day). We had people walking in off the street just from seeing the sign outside the door, people who heard about it on the internet or through our mailing list, and lots of old friends.
Importantly, people came back. A woman who was in the photos came back with her husband and two young children, because she wanted them to experience the beauty. A walk-in came back with her friend to experience the exhibit, and then they both came back for the performance. And there were many others.
A woman who works as an art restorer in museums talked to me emotionally for half an hour about how The Living Canvas photography was more relevant, important, and artistic than most of the art she sees.
People came up to me visibly moved by the experience. Definitely worth it.
Once the gallery opened, we switched gears and worked on the performances (which were happening in the second week). I created and directed two of the pieces, and others created and directed the other five pieces. There were 8 performers We had our first rehearsal Tuesday night, our second Wednesday, Tech/Undress rehearsal Thursday and performances on Friday and Saturday.
One of our performers traveled from New York to be in the show; another from the Quad Cities (both of those had first done photos with me when they were in their 20s, thirty years ago!).
Our opening show on Friday night was sold out and we had good houses for the other two performances. As usual, at the end of each performance we invited the audience to (optionally) take of their clothes and come up on stage and dance in the projections (probably about 50 did altogether) and then had a Q&A with the cast (always interesting).
Saturday was when we invited anyone who had done a show in the past (or photography) to come for free and we had a big catered party for them. I saw people I hadn’t seen for 20 years. Delightful!
Now, it’s time to start the next project.
A book.