About

Links in the Landscape highlights small slices of Philadelphia’s performing and visual arts history, with a particular focus on the late 1990s, roughly 20 years ago.

I’m interested in artists who have lived and made work in Philadelphia, with a primary, but not exclusive, focus on dance and theater. 1995-1999 is an especially rich time to explore; many institutions now occupying important places on the city’s arts landscape were just getting their start.

This project is intended to celebrate and honor that history through reflections from some of the artists who were active at the time about their own work, and through viewing some of the original work—linked from the site of its performance or creation.

Links in the Landscape – fall 2016 edition

I chose these five artists or events for a variety of reasons. They represent only a very small sampling out of a universe of possibilities. Asimina Chremos, the Painted Bride, Kumquat Dance Collective, Greg Giovanni, Paule Turner, the Big Mess Orchestra, Mark Lord, Philadanco, New Paradise Labs, and many more, were vital parts of the dance ecosystem at the time and I would love to feature them and many others in future editions of Links in the Landscape. The five included here are meant as a prototype.

Pig Iron, Headlong, and Rennie Harris are some of the most recognizable Philadelphia exports in the circles I travel in. If outsiders know anything about Philadelphia performing arts, these are among the small group of organizations or artists that they name. Even so, how many current Pig Iron fans know about or saw 1998’s Cafeteria? Is it time to revisit Rennie Harris’ Rome & Jewels, the work that critic Elizabeth Zimmer said at the time of its 2000 premiere would “put black Philadelphia on the international arts map”?

I’ve worked in a development capacity with both Headlong and Pig Iron and am deeply impressed with the artists at the core of each organization, both celebrating 20-25 years of creating work in Philadelphia. With both organizations now offering university education programs, I’m interested in how they are teaching their own history and transmitting artistic values and legacies. This project is my own attempt at contributing a few drops in the bucket of honoring those histories.

The other two entries (Winifred Lutz at Eastern State, “Stepping in Time” at the Arts Bank) follow interests and research pursued during my time at the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance at Wesleyan University. I was woefully and shamefully ignorant of tap history until about a year ago, and I became fascinated with the history of rhythm tap in Philadelphia through writing a paper for the graduate program. The documentary “Plenty of Good Female Dancers” was one of my key sources and is a moving and masterful record of one slice of Philadelphia’s dance history, and the lead-up to a reunion show in 1995 entitled “Stepping in Time.”

I’m amazed by the quality of the contemporary art installations at Eastern State Penitentiary, and was fascinated to learn that the program began with a landmark installation in 1995, “Prison Sentences : The Prison as Site / The Prison as Subject.” Current exhibiting artists are not allowed to alter the physical space at Eastern State, but were under no such constrictions in the first show. I was drawn to Winifred’s large-scale work because of the way it powerfully addressed broad themes while also responding to Eastern State’s particular history.

Motivations

I moved to Philadelphia three years ago, drawn by the vibrant cultural scene. Links in the Landscape comes from my interest in exploring the creative work that has been made in this location, investigating the spark that I often feel witnessing work in this city. What was the city like 20 years ago? What was the art that was being produced at that time?

I’m also interested by the traces left by companies, artists, and organizations that are not active in 2016, but were a dynamic part of the arts ecosystem 20 years ago. What do they tell us about that time? Why did they flourish at that moment in the city’s history and not this one?

My curatorial practice is inspired and informed by this history of rich collaborations. It is explicitly dialogic, shaped by the artists around me and working to deconstruct the image of the lone genius toiling away in a solitary studio. I want to work against isolation on multiple levels: my own, that of artists, and in our culture at large. As a result, Links in the Landscape is designed to animate the ideas of the original works, to create a record, and to share the results and curiosities in a dynamic and social way.

I am particularly interested in the sections of the Philadelphia arts ecosystem that were creating original dance work or devised theater work, rather than staging existing work.

I believe we often relentlessly focus on the next show or the next project, without adequately discussing or digesting that which has come before. I want us to take our own work and our own histories more seriously. I want us to articulate our own value in part through discussing our cultural contributions and honoring our legacies.

I believe that our performance history matters, and deserves to be remembered, discussed, and honored.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to all of the artists who agreed to be interviewed for this project, generously sharing their time: Suli Holum, Rennie Harris, Amy Smith, Winifred Lutz, and Germaine Ingram. Thank you to Ben Grinberg for the crash course in video editing.

Additional thank yous are owed to Sarah Bishop-Stone, for being an excellent research partner and collaborator, Sean Kelley, for facilitating access to Eastern State Penitentiary, Laura Vriend, for help with the Headlong archive, and to Pig Iron, for general support.