An Exhibition & Durational Performance in two parts conceived and directed by multi-disciplinary visual artist David Michalek, D-CELL presented an encounter with deceleration in both dance and visual art.
The project, a hybrid between an exhibition and a performance, was comprised of two distinct but related works:
SlowDancingLive1 (2020 premiere)
Utilizing PS21’s architecture, grounds, and trails as media canvas, dancers from BodySonnet, Peridance, and Gallim perform decelerated sequences on sand-covered raised platforms stationed throughout the landscape. Live music by the Neave Trio accompanied the movement with works by Morton Feldman, whose compositions “seldom rise above a whisper . . . glacially slow and snowily soft (Alex Ross, The New Yorker).”
Portraits in Dramatic Time (2010)
The video installation, commissioned by Lincoln Center Festival and the Lincoln Center Public Art Fund, utilized ultra-high-speed cameras to record scenes with well-known theater and film performers which, when played back, unfold at a glacial pace, thereby creating new layers of scenic content and meaning. Portraits in Dramatic Time featured leading actors including Lili Taylor, William H. Macy, Patti LuPone, Holly Hunter, Alan Rickman, Ludivigne Sagnier, and Liev Schreiber.
A special recital by the Neave Trio
The Neave Trio performed Rebecca Clark’s Piano Trio from their album Her Voice (named one of The New York Times’ best albums of 2019) and Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, their 2018 recording of which Gramophone described as “thrilling,” having “wild energy,” and “electrifying.” Since forming in 2010, Neave Trio – violinist Anna Williams, cellist Mikhail Veselov, and pianist Eri Nakamura – has earned enormous praise for its engaging, cutting-edge performances. New York’s classical radio station WQXR explains, “‘Neave’ is actually a Gaelic name meaning ‘bright’ and ‘radiant’, both of which certainly apply to this trio’s music making.” Neave has performed at many esteemed concert series and at festivals worldwide, including Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 92nd Street Y, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, and many others.
IN RESIDENCY FROM AUGUST 31–SEPTEMBER 12, 2020
With PS21’s architecture, meadows, and trails as a media canvas, dancers from BodySonnet, Peridance, and Gallim choreographing decelerated movement sequences for David Michalek’s D-Cell, a work that combines elements of exhibition and performance. The Neave Trio accompanies the dancers with music by Morton Feldman, whose compositions, which “seldom rise above a whisper . . . glacially slow and snowily soft (Alex Ross, The New Yorker),” provide perfect counterpoint.
DAVID MICHALEK
David Michalek is a New York based artist and director. Michalek’s body of work ranges from photography, drawing, sculpture, video/sound installations and live performance to site-specific works of public art. Much of his work in video has been focused on capturing marginal moments carefully staged that with minimal action develop density through the interplay of image, sound and most especially, decelerated time. Exploring notions of durational and rhythmic time, his works considers the potentiality of various forms of slowness alongside an examination of contemporary modes of public attention.
His performances and installations are presented worldwide in theaters, museums, galleries, and public spaces including Lincoln Center; Opera Bastille, Paris; Tanz Im August, Berlin; The Venice Biennale; The Brooklyn Museum; LA Music Center; Brooklyn Academy of Music; Jacob’s Pillow Summer Dance Festival; Sadler’s Wells, London; Le Laboratoire, Paris; Harvard Arts First; Edinburgh Festival, Scotland; Center of Contemporary Art, Poland; The Kitchen, New York, amongst others.
Michalek has received numerous institutional commissions and in 2008 was awarded a New Media “Bessie” Award for his acclaimed video installation, SlowDancing. He holds a BA from UCLA and has been a visiting professor of Art at Yale (2006-14) and at Harvard in the Theater, Dance and Media Program.
