One-Night-Only Performance by rapper, R&B singer, artist DonChristian in response to Eiko Otake's PLATFORM 2016
Company:
DonChristian
Danspace Project Announces a One-Night-Only Performance by rapper, R&B singer, artist DonChristian in response to Eiko Otake's PLATFORM 2016: A Body in Places
Tuesday March 8, 2016, 5:30pm - 9:30pm
with a performance by DonChristian at 7pm
at Danspace Project, 131 East 10th Street, inside St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery
Download the PLATFORM 2016: A Body in Places day-to-day calendar here
New York, NY, February 29, 2016 - As part of Danspace Project's PLATFORM 2016: A Body in Places curated by Judy Hussie-Taylor and Lydia Bell (February 17-March 23), Bell has invited rapper, R&B singer, and painter DonChristian to respond to Eiko Otake's A Body in Places series on Tuesday, March 8, 2016.
Each Tuesday evening throughout the PLATFORM, Eiko will install images, objects, and videos related to her solo project in the sanctuary at St. Mark's Church, home of Danspace Project. The installation will change, accumulate, and evolve weekly with lighting created in collaboration with Kathy Kaufmann.
For the third Tuesday event on March 8, Bell and guest curator Shin Otake have invited DonChristian to respond in words and music to Eiko's work.
DonChristian's performance will begin at 7pm at Danspace Project inside St. Mark's Church alongside Eiko's Church Installation. The performance will be followed by a conversation with DonChristian, Eiko, Shin Otake, with Bell moderating, about the role of performance in addressing violence, anger, and identity.
"DonChristian, Shin, and I were all watching Eiko perform in Brooklyn the evening that the recent terrorist attacks were unfolding in Paris," explains Bell. "DonChristian was struck by how Eiko's work speaks to the violence inherent in our human history and present lives."
DonChristian will create a new work for the occasion, drawing on what he calls "the culture of violence in America" and "notions of hypermasculinity with regard to the black male body." Otake explains, "I don't think anyone would expect Eiko to collaborate with a young musical artist like DonChristian. They are artists of different generations, cultures and disciplines."
"I'm interested in exploring the connections between Eiko's activist nature to current activist movements, including Black Lives Matter," writes Bell. "DonChristian's work as an artist, exploring the intersection of rap and visual culture, and his service to underprivileged youth populations through organizations such as Groundswell, are vital to this conversation."
DonChristian is a Philadelphia-born visual artist, performer, and producer, having studied painting at Wesleyan University. His work spans musical performance, rap mixtapes, painting installations, and public murals, The Quietus naming the 2014 mixtape 'Renzo Piano' one of the best albums of the year. His work blends the genres of painting and hip hop, referencing both classical and contemporary, The Renaissance and The Harlem Renaissance.
In 2014, Eiko Otake commenced her solo project, A Body in Places, through which she has been creating works that aim to explore the relationship of a fragile human body and the myriad intrinsic traits that are contained by a specific place. While her work with Koma created and used the drama of a duo, performing alone, her partner becomes the idiosyncratic elements of the places she occupies and those who watch.
[DonChristian. Photo: Krista Schlueter]
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