the urgent artist

Need something to do tonight? Of course you do. It’s not like you live in NYC and are always always busy….oh. Well, regardless of your previous intentions, plan on stopping by Dance Theater Workshop tonight or tomorrow night to check this out:

Dance Theater Workshop presents Tony Orrico in the world premiere of Penwald: 4: unison symmetry standing. With both a live drawing and installation component Penwald: 4: unison symmetry standing will be on view in it’s completion in the Dance Theater Workshop Lobby beginning September 2nd. Tony Orrico uses the span of his arms, bilateral movement, and alternating variables to inscribe a drawing in three parts. During the live drawing open to the public, Orrico sustains a duel focus on his kinesthetic and mental states for 4 uninterrupted hours over three consecutive evenings.

Last evening was the first of three nights, and I had opted to not stay – planning instead to stay for the full four hours tonight (which i still plan to do).  However, after pausing for a brief moment I found it hard to disengage with this work, and ended up staying for an hour or so.  I’ve watched Tony as a performer for Faye Driscoll Dance Group, and seen some of the artifacts of his visual arts practice, but this exhibit was my first time experiencing it first hand.

Watching this type of work becomes very meditative for me – it’s a chance to watch the different shifts in Orrico’s focus and intention as your mind wanders and reconnects across the space.  Almost like timeless out-of-window-staring on a road trip, I found myself enjoying the event simply because of its ability to exist calmly in the present.  The work (or maybe the process, or maybe both) is abstract, and organic, and meditative – qualities which in turn allow it to specific, narrative, emotional, and loaded, if that is what you desire at that moment, and then recede back to abstraction just as quickly.

I found myself thinking a lot about the physical and neurological folds of brain patters (the result of Orrico’s anchored arc starts to resemble a cross between grey matter tissue and a diagram of internet connectivity) and the way thoughts are formed.  Watching, it was as if thoughts began to fold over one another, as if the creases and folds of the brain were one single line, as if the static electricity of the viewer’s wandering minds were in fact being recorded in real time by Mr. Orrico, creating a self-sustaining loop of focus.

It’s lovely to share the space with him as he draws, as well as the guests that wander in from the street (it’s a free event) and DTW regulars.  Lovely too is the experience of the audience’s ebb and flow, their read of the installation.  Intense focus,  calm acceptance, camera-phone snapping, brushed-off disinterest, the creeping gravity of not being able to look away – everyone shares the space as he draws on and on.

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Live drawing will take place in the Dance Theater Workshop Lobby, August 31 – September 2 (Tuesday – Thursday), 5:00 – 9:00pm. A reception will be held on Thursday, November 4 at 7pm. The exhibition will be on display in its completion from September 2 onward, Monday – Saturday 10am – 10pm, Sunday 12 – 8pm. Tickets are FREE to all events.  Dance Theater Workshop is located at 219 West 19th Street between 7^th and 8^th Avenues.

Tags: abstract, art, brain, dance theater workshop, drawing, installation, Recommend, thought, Tony Orrico, visual art