Of Serra, 2018

“Especially in his early Prop pieces, Serra reenacts this drama of primordial tectonics, of rising up and remaining up, as a struggle between verticality and horizontality, structure and gravity… again, with the body as measure.”

–Hal Foster, Richard Serra, Early Work

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Restagings No. 2: Of Serra begins at the moment of precarious balance enacted by Richard Serra’s Prop Pieces. The performance makes a substitution of materials, replacing Serra’s steel forms with human bodies. For four hours each day, three dancers perform looping solos and duets that put Serra’s ideas about gravity and verticality, interdependence, labor, and direct, bodily encounter to new tests. Paula Matthusen’s sound design thickens the space and underlines the experience of change over time. Each dancer wears a radio transmitter; as they move, their changing positions is reflected in changes in sound.

Choreography & design: Abigail Levine
Performance: Vitch-Boul Ra, Maho Ogawa, Abigail Levine
Sound : Paula Matthusen
Duration: 45 min cycles, 3 hours daily
Vox Populi, Philadephia/ Fridman Gallery, NYC
June 2018