Julie Wyman takes video of Anna Azrieli for a canary torsi interactive installation coming to BRIC House (photo by Amir Denzel Hall)
BRIC House Artist Studio
647 Fulton St.
Friday, November 20, and Saturday, November 21, $10-$14, 8:00
718-683-5600
bricartsmedia.org
acanarytorsi.org
In an October 2014 twi-ny talk with Yanira Castro, the founder, director, and choreographer of a canary torsi told me in reference to a question about her relationship with the audience, “I want to create a scenario for them and to be in conversation with them and I want them to form the picture, craft their experience. Their presence dynamically changes what is occurring. That is what ‘live’ means for me. It is dynamic because of the people in the room.” We were talking about her piece Court/Garden, but we could have just as well been discussing her current work-in-progress, Performance Portrait: Live. During a November 10-21 BRIClab residency, Castro will be creating life-sized versions of durational videos made during a summer residency at Gibney Dance, in which Julie Wyman filmed company performers Anna Azrieli, Leslie Cuyjet, Peter B. Schmitz, and David Thomson frozen in individual, single gestures as if locked in a direct, mutual gaze with a spectator. There will be two public showings of the resulting interactive multichannel video installation, Performance Portrait: Live (work-in-progress), on November 20 and 21 at 8:00, featuring interaction design by company composer and pianist Stephan Moore, using a network of Kinect 2 sensors, and audience environment by Kathy Couch. Each showing will be followed by a moderated dialogue with the audience and the artists.
Japan Society kicks off its retrospective of pioneering Japanese experimental filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi with one of the craziest movies ever made, Obayashi’s 1977 cult classic, House (Hausu), which took more than three decades to get its U.S. theatrical release, in a new 35mm print in 2009. Truly one of those things that has to be seen to be believed, House is a psychedelic black horror comedy musical about Gorgeous (Kimiko Ikegami) and six of her high school friends who choose to spend part of their summer vacation at Gorgeous’s aunt’s (Yoko Minamida) very strange house. Gorgeous, whose mother died when she was little and whose father (Saho Sasazawa) is about to get married to Ryoko (Haruko Wanibuchi), brings along her playful friends Melody (Eriko Ikegami), Fantasy (Kumiko Oba), Prof (Ai Matsubara), Sweet (Masayo Miyako), Kung Fu (Miki Jinbo), and Mac (Mieko Sato), who quickly start disappearing like ten little Indians. House is a ceaselessly entertaining head trip of a movie, a tongue-in-chic celebration of genre with spectacular set designs by Kazuo Satsuya, beautiful cinematography by Yoshitaka Sakamoto, and a fab score by Asei Kobayashi and Mickie Yoshino. The original story actually came from the mind of Obayashi’s eleven-year-old daughter, Chigumi, who clearly has one heck of an imagination. Oh, and we can’t forget about the evil cat, a demonic feline to end all demonic felines. The film was released in 2009 prior to its appearance on DVD from Janus, the same company that puts out such classic fare as Federico Fellini’s Amarcord, Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, Jacques Tati’s M. Hulot’s Holiday, François Truffaut’s Shoot the Piano Player, Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game, and Jean-Luc Godard’s Vivre sa Vie, so House has joined some very prestigious company. And who are we to say it doesn’t deserve it? House is screening at Japan Society on November 20 at 7:00 with Obayashi’s 1964 silent short, Complexe; Obayashi will introduce the films and participate in a Q&A afterward, followed by what should be a wild Hausu Party. “Nobuhiko Obayashi: A Retrospective” continues through December 6 with such other films as Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast; I Are You, You Am Me; Sada; The Discarnates; and Obayashi’s latest, the three-hour epic Seven Weeks, in addition to a special conversation and audience Q&A with Obayashi, moderated by series curator Aaron Gerow, on November 21 at 1:00 ($12). As a special early bonus, on November 18, Japan Society will present the New York premiere of Chigumi Obayashi’s 2014 documentary, A Dialogue: Living Harmony, followed by a discussion with the debut director and Richard McCarthy of Slow Food USA and a reception.
