REMEMBERING AWE is a collaborative film, dance, and narrative project based on Forms for a New Mythology (solo 2016). With Keenan Parry, Anna Zekan, and Sarah Sargent.
The concept first arose while documenting Luminous Room, the focal piece created for my 2016 solo Forms for a New Mythology at Sweet Briar College in Virginia. The studio shots had captured the piece well but I had also noticed how the piece changed with people visiting the studio. How magical it was seeing others through the changing densities of hair and the hair swaying with human bodies moving around it. Out of the desire to capture these qualities as much as the desire to circumvent 'documentation' came the impulse to incorporate dance, work with a filmmaker, and through conversation, address the context that gave rise to this work. For part of one day, Keenan Parry filmed Sarah Sargent, art critic, and myself in conversation about the exhibition, its source and process. Anna Zekan, dancer/choreographer, held the boom microphone. This was their first physical meeting with the work, the story, and the challenging logistics of the space. The second day Anna and Keenan, who are also partners in life, had the gallery entirely to themselves to explore, respond, and collaborate with the work, the stories it held, and with each other as artists. From those two days of raw footage came this 35 minute film: a poetic interweaving of documentation, conversation, and the pure expression of emotion, Anna's body moving through the space, responding, and being seen with such intimacy by Keenan's camera work. Remembering Awe is a tribute to collaboration and imagination. My deepest gratitude to and admiration for Keenan, Anna, and Sarah for their creativity and generosity. This work was funded in part by a Professional Artist Fellowship from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
