Orange Space in NYC

Styrene Fantastic in the Park

Here's video of our happening in Prospect Park the other day. It seems sidewalks-relevant since it's in the park. Starring Lydia Bell, Mieke Duffly and Josh Rowe. Apologies to those hordes of readers who follow both blogs!

Coming soon: Things that lurk beneath the city! (maybe)

In praise of the Tree Pit

A rhapsody on tree pits -- the urban answer to the lawn. (But aren't the stoop, the park, and the hell strip also the urban lawn? you rightly ask -- yes, yes, all in good time.)

Of course, I love street trees, but I'm not talking about the tree right now. Today I'm celebrating the pit itself.




The way they can be meticulously landscaped, totally covered, whimsically fenced or simply a 36" x 36" square of dust cut out of the sidewalk. Surrounded by stones, littered with trash, planted with flowers. They're almost as varied and individual as the citizens and workers and citizen workers who maintain them.


Although perhaps most of all, I love the pure ugliness of the name. Tree Pit. There's no beauty or romance in that name, just macho city grime. Maybe we need to hide our green behind the language of urban blight so we don't lose our edge.

Tree pit. Tree pit. Tree pit.

In Artforum

There's a nice piece by Claudia La Rocco about the Movement Research Festival's Recessional up at Artforum.com.

http://www.artforum.com/diary/id=22733

It has a great picture of Mieke's shockingly dirty feet:



and ends with me and Josh talking about dance as visual art:

It’s unclear what sort of bridge results from an event like “Recessional.” But at Rachel Uffner's gallery down the street, an alluring synergy bloomed between Josh Blackwell's whimsical works on paper depicting colorful items of clothing and The Styrene Fantastic, a work by Lizzie Scott for two female performers, who alternately hoisted and flopped on their unwieldy Styrofoam-filled garments.

“It’s interesting to see the interaction between my static work and something kinetic,” Blackwell said. Nodding emphatically, Scott added, “It’s where art needs to go: to take into account all that has happened in dance in the past fifty, or one hundred, years.”

A little Non-dancer Dance Practice

My dance costumes are coming along, here's an unfinished "Fainting Couch" modeled by me, non-dancer extraordinaire.

The Styrene Fantastic will premiere at Rachel Uffner Gallery on Sunday April 26th, as part of the Movement Research Festival

Good Fences

I just wanted to give a shout out to the Parks Department for the loving care they give to mending their fences.


Look at how many kinds of fence there are in one 3-foot stretch. Wrought iron, chain link and those wooden slats that arrive in big rolls on the back of Parks Department trucks. I can't decide if this is one complex fix or several attempts to correct the problem.


This one is hard to spot, but it's the most exquisite fence-mending. Two thin, hand-twisted wires spanning the gap horizontally.

Barbies Dance the Styrene Fantastic

A performance (starring the styrofoam) danced en maquette. Actual performance and performers coming soon -- stay tuned for details!

"Fainting Couch"

"Fainting Couch" in action

"Bench" and "Fainting Couch"

"Chaise"

And be sure to stick around for the after party!