Day 2: In Residence

Flying Falling Flying Catch

(2012)

DATE

April 28, 2012

PLACE

Sullivan Galleries, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, IL

LEAD ARTIST

Victoria Bradford

CONTRIBUTORS

Katie Navarro

PHOTO/VIDEO

Joshua Slater, © A House Unbuilt

contents / thoughts / ideas / stuff:

(Waving But Not Drowning)
• plum feathered boa
• red measuring tape
• white cotton gloves
• sea foam green robe
• mother’s glasses
• red pillow
• pink tutu
• chairs
• walls
• the swing!

tasks / to-do:
a. set gallery space
b. excursion: trapeze class
c. gallery: continue the dance

Begin at the beginning.
That place that you couldn’t leave.
That place where you couldn’t get yourself back into.
Begin at the beginning.
The orange tree.
Everything orange has fallen to the green ground. Everything green has lept high into the orange limbs.
Reach up.
Fall down.
Get up.
Fall down.
Strong hands.
Weak Knees.
Open Expression.
Begin at the beginning.
That place that you could not leave.
You cannot leave it still, you do not leave it still,
Not until all the mirages melt away
The orange trees
The swimming pool
The lines on the page
The journey mapped, the score.
Begin at the beginning
And don’t leave until you can reach up and fall down and drag yourself
and reach up and fall down
and drag yourself
and see the mirror is in their eyes,
their faces, their limbs, …and see the next step in them.

This is no small dance, this is no short piece. It may only be a moment but it’s marking a history, a memory, a present and a future. Need it be couched in miles of research like the miles I’m traveling right now? Or just hours of breath? Hours of shared knowing? An opening, a starting place… Aren’t there enough long-winded stories? And yet, so too, are there enough people willing to start something new without a safety net, with just you and me, these faces and whatever it is we have here, departing and arriving as we do?