Fragile Forms

  • Category: Community
  • Address: New Westminster’s Anvil Centre
  • Date: 2017 /2018
  • Credits: ph5, Architectural Collaborators; Machine Noisy, Director and Choreographer; Natalie Purschwitz, Visual Artist; Conor Moore, Lighting Designer; Nancy Tam, Sound Artist;

Fragile Forms was a site-specific, 360-degree contemporary dance performance tailored for New Westminster’s Anvil Centre and presented at the 2019 Push Festival. Ph5 collaborated with MACHiNENOiSY (director and choreographer), dance professionals from Vancouver and Helsinki, visual, sound and lighting artists and designers.

The work was inspired by the writings of Finnish theorist and architect Juhani Pallasmaa. The process provided a forum for each of the contributing artists to define and express how their artforms comprehend and interact with aspects of the built environment – volume, movement, materiality, sound – and the ways in which the constraints and opportunities of architecture inform their responses. Observations and analysis of the space were synthesized into the performance piece, Fragile Forms.

For the performance audience members accompany the artists as they move between various locations throughout the Centre. As the piece unfolds, it evolves into an interplay between the architecture and one’s embodied perception of it.

The work was presented at the Push Festival in 2019. Audience members accompany the artists as they move between various locations throughout the Centre. As the piece unfolds, it evolves into an interplay between the architecture and one’s embodied perception of it.

…an exploration of interdisciplinary communication and translation of sense-based experience.

Voirelia: Dance, Psychology, & Philosophy Hub – Fragile Forms: Reflections on Dance and Architecture

 

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