paraphrase/NEXUS

paraphrase/NEXUS was a monthly series in which artists of various disciplines and media created performances that responded and related to exhibitions at NEXUS Gallery in Philadelphia. Tbe last installment was offered in February 2009, but see below for information about past installments of paraphrase/NEXUS.

Established in 1975, NEXUS/foundation for today's art is an artist-run, non- profit gallery space dedicated to supporting local emerging and experimental artists engaged in new art practices.

february 2009

Saturday, February 21st, 2009 8PM
< fidget > performance group featuring dancer Megan Bridge and musician/video artist Peter Price (www.meganbridge.com) and PIMA group (www.pimagroup.org), featuring Melisa Putz performing works inspired by Unintended Uses, a show of hacked art.

january 2009

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 8:00p.m.
$5 / free with DancePass
Inter Continental Collaboration Part 2
An evening co-curated by dancer Allison Lorenzen (Philadelphia) and sound artist Florian Tuercke (Nurenberg / www.urban-audio.org) of Flat Productions ( www.flatproductions.net ) in collaboration with forschungsgruppe-f (Nurenberg / www.forschungsgruppe-f.net ) This performance will respond and relate to NEXUSradio:

NEXUSradio
www.nexusphiladelphia.org/nexusradio.html
NEXUS/foundation for today's art has tranformed its gallery space into a low powered radio station for two months in December 2008 and January 2009. NEXUSradio is a celebration of radio's legacy, the evolution of communication technology, and a reaction to the current state of independent local media. NEXUSradio has two components. A series of single installment commissioned works broadcast on a weekly basis and an ongoing, community participation based "work-in-progress" of free form radio. During gallery hours (Weds-Sun 12 to 6 PM) artists, musicians, performers, djs, activists, poets, scholars, local community groups and other members of the public will be given the opportunity to use the radio broadcast in a manner for which it was originally intended - public enjoyment and information.

december 2008

Thursday, December 18th, 2008 8:00p.m.
Inter Continental Collaboration Part 1
An evening co-curated by dancer Allison Lorenzen (Philadelphia) and sound artist Florian Tuercke (Nurenberg, Germany / www.urban-audio.org) including a performance of CELLS- an intercontinental composition for cell phones by Florian Tuercke in collaboration with Kulturhaus Katana (Nurenberg) urban research institute (Nurenberg / www.urban-research-institute.org ), and NEXUS (Philadelphia)

november 2008

Saturday, November 22nd, 2008, 8:00p.m. / $5
Movement artists Eun Jung Choi-Gonzalez (New York) and Olive Prince (Philadelphia)
Video artist Jennie Thwing and painter Sherif Habashi

About the performing artists:
A native of Korea, Eun Jung Choi-Gonzalez grew up learning Korean traditional dance before she moved to the US in 1991. Since graduating from the North Carolina School of the Arts, she has worked with numerous collaborators artists and dance companies, including Mark Dendy, The Limón Dance Company, Allyson Green Dance, Risa Jaroslow and Dancers, Seán Curran Co., Gerald Casel, Eun Me Ahn, Laura Peterson Choreography, Carrie Ahern, Catey Ott, Airelise, MIRO dance theatre (Philadelphia), Malashock Dance and Company (San Diego), Katija Wachter (Germany), Helena Franzén (Sweden), Pulso Cia. de Danza (Mexico), and many others, performing internationally in Asia, Europe, and North America. As a choreographer, she was a recipient of Union StreetDance Rehearsal Space Grant and has also received funds from Danspace Project's 2006-07, 2005-06 and 2003-04 Commissioning Initiatives, Korean Cultural Services NY and Dance New Amsterdam. Her choreography have been seen in places, such as Sushi Performance and Visual Art (San Diego), dancenOw 2002, Danspace Project's City/Dans, Global Exchange, DraftWork, FOOD FOR THOUGHT, Dumbo Dance Festival, DRA, Mexico Now Festival, Danceworks (Milwaukee), nEW Festival's Dancehouse at the Drake Theater (Philadelphia), Daegue International Festival (Korea), Sexto Encuentro de Nueva Danza y Nueva Musica (Mexico City) and Foro Experimental (Mexico City). She is currently a resident artist at nEW Festival 08-09 (Philadelphia). During Fall 08 and Spring 09, Her work will be seen in various places and festivals in Mexico, such as XI Muestra Internacional de Danza Contemporanea (Oaxaca), Los Talleres (Mexico City), SON/a en Movimiento (Hermosillo, Sonora) and Encuentro Internacional Nuevos Creadores a Escena (Guadalajara). With her diverse background and interests in understanding humanity, communication, and the ability to reach out to different communities and cultures, she seeks to explore new ways of human communication through the use of new media, cultural exchange, and a collaborative process. She lives in New York City and is a member of Actor's Equity Association. www.mutednarrative.com

Originally from Rochester, NY, Olive Prince completed her MFA in dance at Temple University in 2005. She is presently working with Group Motion Multimedia Dance Company, Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers, and Merian Soto. She has worked with many choreographers including, Oscar Araiz, Myra Bazell, Silvana Cardell, and KineticArchitecture. Her work and has been featured at the National American College Dance Festival at the Kennedy Center, the International Contemporary Dance Conference, and throughout upstate New York and Philadelphia. Prince's dance and video works have earned numerous accolades, including the New Edge Residency for Dance, American College Dance Festival/Dance Magazine Award Nominee for Outstanding Student Performer; the Temple University Emerging Choreographer Award; a project completion grant from the Graduate Board of Temple University; and a grant from the Experimental Television Center. Prince combines her studies of the moving body with her passion for education. She has designed and implemented numerous curricula for young children and the arts. Currently, Prince teaches dance at Drexel University.

october 2008

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008, 8:00 p.m. / $10 / $5 w/ DancePass
Presented in collaboration with Soundfield (www.soundfield.org)
Austrian artists Mariella Greil (movement) and Werner Moebius (sound) joined local artists Emily Sweeney (movement) and Bilwa (sound) in a series of collaborations- sections of a project entitled "Philadelphia Bridge: Part 1." Composer Michael McDermott's flute quartet tomas, was premiered by Danielle Brosious, Jacqueline Howell, Heather Fortune, and Bob Carpency. All works were in some way responding and relating to Toyland, a show of toy camera photography.

This program was made possible in part through the generous support of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture, Sound Field NFP, NEXUS Foundation for Today's Art and grants from the Argosy Fund for Contemporary Music.

Artist bios:

Mariella Greil lives and works in Vienna/ A and Chester/ UK: performances, tableau vivantes, installations and collaborations with artists of differing media. Currently lecturing at the Department of Performing Arts, Faculty of Arts and Media at the University of Chester/ UK. She is on the board of directors for the festival moves: movement on screen in Manchester and an active member of the steering group for the SoundNetwork UK) and the Center for Practice as Research. Physical precision and clarity, consequence and proximity to conceptual art are significant for her performances. “For my work was or is it important to use differing expression languages, picture languages, meaning languages to sensitize new interrelations, to consider the fractures of images as transformations, but mainly to open up the borderlands of actual and potential, artistic and artless reality. The idea of the polyphonic, intermedia expanding process is essential for my artistic notion.”

Werner Moebius is based in Vienna and London but has been building an international reputation over the last three years via a series of residencies in Chicago, Liverpool and Mexico City. His work encompasses sound installations, solo performance, ensemble compositions and video. www.wernermoebius.net

Emily Sweeney is a movement artist living in Philadelphia, where she co-directs Perpetual Movement and Sound. She has presented her own improvised and choreographed works around Philadelphia as part of paraphrase/NEXUS, bowerbird performance series, Soundfield Festival, CEC New Edge Mix, and Philly Fringe. She dances with the Emergent Improvisation Ensemble and independent choreographer Brigitta Herrmann. Emily studied dance, literature, and anthropology at Smith and Bennington Colleges. She is a native of Vermont, In her own work she explores systems found in nature, as well as how humans' sensory experience and memory shape our perceptions. She is driven to investigate how humans adjust our physical and sensory interactions to accommodate new technology and the pace of urban environments.

Bilwa is a Philadelphia-based musician, curator, producer, and visual artist. He co-directs the performance collective Perpetual Movement and Sound. Bilwa is also a member and special projects director at NEXUS/foundation for today's art, where he curates the performance series paraphrase/NEXUS. Past projects include Hoopty Heaven, an ambient dub duo, and VERSIONsound, a roots/reggae/dub sound system. In 2007, Bilwa and Mikronesia released perfect seconds, a compilation of their music created inspired by the dancers of Perpetual Movement and Sound, on earSnake records.

Michael McDermott (a.k.a. Mikronesia) is a producer, composer, musician and sound artist. His main project, Gemini Wolf, is an electronic rock band for which he plays keyboards and laptop and arranges. Mike is an original member of Perpetual Movement and Sound. Mikronesia has released two albums with ambient label Gears of Sand. Tissue Paper Ghosts (2006) is an ethereal glitch album about the psychic remains of a car crash, and Iris Or Comfortable Too (2007) is a work that features minimalist piano and warm electronics. In early 2008, he released vxvii on Kikapu. In April 2008, he premiered his first work for string trio, Daemon En Gauze, as part of the paraphrase/NEXUS performance series. Visit www.mikronesia.com to listen to his work.

september 2008

Dancers Rebecca Patek and Emily Sweeney inhabited Bilwa's installation assembling minutiae, created as part of the Fringe performance asNEXUS.

asNEXUS: two works that heighten the experience of the body through technology. Seeking form in minutiae, Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd amplify the movements of dancers using live-feed audio and video, while J. Makary's video-based performance enters a fantasy where youth subculture never dies but instead matures.

previous seasons

may 2008

On Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 8pm paraphrase/NEXUS featured dancer/choreographers Michele Tantoco and Liza Clark, who were joined by violinist Katt Hernandez and dancer Gabrielle Revlock to offer performances inspired by the experimental printmaking of Rebecca Gilbert and the drawings of Virginia Batson, both NEXUS members.

april 2008

The one-year anniversary installment of paraphrase/NEXUS took place on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 8pm. Dancers Jil Stifel and Paul Struck performed a duet, and dancer/choreographer Zornitsa Stoyanova offered a new solo work. April also featured the world premiere of Daemon En Gauze, a string trio by composer/musician Mikronesia performed by violinist Carlos Santiago from Normal Love (High Two), violist Martha Savery from Gemini Wolf (earSnake), and cellist Eve Miller from acclaimed post-rock band The Rachel's. All the performances were inspired by the photography of NEXUS members Susan Abrams and Tasha Doremus.

march 2008

On Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 8pm, paraphrase/NEXUS featured work by members of the map dance collective: Ashley Anderson, Jung-eun Kim (aka je), Jen McGinn, and Danielle Paloumpis. They explored the exhibition "8 Artists - 8 Viewpoints: Recent Fiber Grads from Philadelphia."

february 2008

On Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 8pm, paraphrase/NEXUS featured singer/songwriter Bianka Brunson of Lillie Ruth Bussey, theater artist and choreographer Kathryn TeBordo of Workshop for Potential Movement, and movement based performance artist Jaamil Kosoko. All performers explored the work J. Makary, Leah Reynolds, and Blaine Siegel, three new NEXUS members working in performance, video, sculpture, installation and drawing.

january 2008

On Wednesday, January 23, 2008, paraphrase/NEXUS featured breakfastest; a performance piece by Audrey Culp, Katie Miller, Jay Purdy, and Brandon Joyce of the Philadelphia Institute for Advanced Study; and cooped; a solo dance and video performance by choreographer Scott McPheeters, performed by dancer Sara Nye. All performers explored the art of “YUMMY: a celebration of craving, compulsion, and culture.”

december 2007

On Wednesday, December 19, 2007, paraphrase/NEXUS featured Philadelphia-based dancer/choreographer Meg Foley performing 19.12.07; as well as dancer/choreographers Allison Lorenzen and Rebecca Patek performing Say she ate; in response to "YUMMY: a celebration of craving, compulsion, and culture"

november 2007

On Wednesday, November 28, 2007, paraphrase/NEXUS featured Kathy Ochoa, a Canada-based dance artist, with musician Travis Boa, and Philadelphia-based performance artist J. Makary, a new member at NEXUS, with drummer Gary Dann exploring the work of Bonnie Brenda Scott, Tasha Doremus, and Bilwa, also new members at NEXUS. Bonnie's drawing and video installation, "ALERT! THE MEDIA!," Tasha's series of photographs entitled "A Poor Memory For The Future," and Bilwa's installation, "set," which invites the viewer to become a performer, provided the inspiration for an evening of original dance and performance.

october 2007

Soundfield@paraphrase/NEXUS

On Wednesday, October 24, 2007, paraphrase/NEXUS featured a special evening with Soundfield.

Missing Links, Part 1, part of Soundfield's "Crosswork" program series, featured a new composition for instruments and knitting ensemble by Gene Coleman in collaboration with Sarah Mann O'Donnell, performed by Ensemble Noamnesia:
Kevin McFarland (cello
Ari Striesfeld (violin
Jason Calloway (cello)
Katt Hernandez (violin)
Evan Lipson (bass)
Gene Coleman (conductor/bass clarinet)
Sarah Mann O’Donell (amplified knitting needles)

september 2007

On Wednesday, September 26, 2007, paraphrase/NEXUS featured members of Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd inhabiting Jody Sweitzer's installation entitled Crowd: stumbling through displaced intimacy. In Crowd, the human figure is represented by giant inflatables that create an environment in which to investigate voyeurism and the human reaction to the invasion of personal space.

Electronic musicians Bilwa and Mikronesia were joined by dancer/choreographers Rebecca Patek and Emily Sweeney in a performance intended to shift the relationship of the stagnant viewer to an active, self-reflecting participant.

may 2007

On Wednesday, May 23, 2007, paraphrase/NEXUS featured Philadelphia-based dancer/choreographers Devynn Emory and Christina Zani performing "holding pattern," "divine cathedral," and "apples," all based on investigations of select photographs from the Philadelphia Center for the Photographic Image's annual PhotoImage '07 competition. The evening also featured live musical accompaniment by Sam Miller and the Spinning Leaves.

april 2007

On Saturday, April 28, 2007, paraphrase/NEXUS featured members of Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd. Dancer/choreographer Emily Sweeney and electronic musician Mikronesia performed their exploration of Yukie Kobayashi and Elsabé Dixon's collaborative show, Kumo Cloud Wolk, an installation of handmade paper and silk weavings inspired by the ways in which the processes of paper making and silkworms' weaving are similar to the formation and lifespan of clouds. That same evening, dancer/choreographer Rebecca Patek and electronic musician Bilwa offered their interpretation of Matthew Pruden's Magnetic Sleep, a multimedia piece exploring 19th century spirit photography, parapsychology, and Spiritualism – the belief that the human personality continues on after death and can communicate through the agency of a "medium."