STREB performing Gauntlet. Photo by Tom Caravaglia. Courtesy Tom Caravaglia estate.
Extreme Action: Presenting Elizabeth Streb at the ICA
In my role at the ICA I am responsible for the success of each performance from a technical and logistical standpoint. My colleagues and I work with each incoming performance, artist, and group to establish how to fit their show into our space (which includes looking at lighting, audio, special effects, and personnel) and how to do it on time, on budget, and in a safe way.
Elizabeth Streb, a self-described “action architect,” designs shows that are made to test the limits of safety, comfort, and physicality; through her decades as a choreographer, she has honed a technique that expands the athletic boundaries of dance and has trained her dancers to protect their bodies while executing what appear, at least, to be impossible feats. Still, a show like this makes someone like me lose sleep. How do you present something that looks incredibly dangerous without actually imperiling anyone?
I remember getting the plans for the Streb show in 2009. It’s a show that’s filled with large, potentially dangerous components: an enormous hamster wheel that people climb in, around, and on top of; swinging cinderblocks that dancers dive through; and a thick plexiglass wall that dancers literally splat into. How to fit these into our very new, very delicate, glass-walled space where you can’t attach to any surface was, to say the least, a challenge. It was a million questions for Elizabeth Streb, her design team, our facilities team, our engineers, and our lawyers. It was asking the silliest-sounding questions and then trying to explain the reasoning behind the question. It was pictures and diagrams and video links sent back and forth, and it was, at each junction, saying “….hmmm, ok, but what if we…”
In the end, we found ways to make all of the elements fit. We had to place the giant hamster wheel ever so carefully so that the dancers’ heads, when they stood on top of it, were up between the lighting pipes, and there was a height limit for dancers allowed on top. We had hundreds, if not a thousand, pounds of steel blocks weighting down the plexiglass wall, but we had to spread out the point load so as not to break the floor. We had ground-supported truss holding up the cinder blocks at just the right height so that the arc of the swinging cinderblocks was at the right pace, so that the dancers could execute their (very scary looking!) movement safely, as trained.
At the culmination of months of prep work and a week of installation, I sat watching the show, perched on the edge of my seat, white-knuckled, holding my breath, witnessing incredible athletes do impossible, and crazy, things. It was an amazing show that I was proud to be involved with, and happy to see go.
See Elizabeth Streb and her dancers at work in Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity, streaming through Feb 25.
Hanging Pocket Hearts
Hanging Pocket Hearts is inspired by Cornelia Parker’s artwork Hanging Fire (Suspected Arson), which represents the vulnerabilities of being human and the challenges of our time. Focus on hope and joy by creating one heart or a collection of hearts. Hang somewhere special to inspire you each day.
This activity is designed for children ages 5 and up and their grownups to work on together at home.
Materials:
 String or yarn |
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| 2. Fold the paper in half, bringing the long edges to meet. Cut a semicircle at the top as shown. Reopen the paper and lay it flat on your work surface. |
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| 3. Fold the bottom edge of the paper up to the base of the semicircle. Take the bottom left corner and fold it to the center; do the same with the bottom right corner. Then fold the remaining strip down. Tuck the corners of the strip to the back side of the heart to secure the pocket. |
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4. Decorate using drawing materials. On small pieces of paper, write or draw what you are thankful for or the emotions you are feeling. Tuck these into your heart or attach to the string. Glue or tape your heart to your string and hang it somewhere special! |
TIPS: To make a precise heart pocket, fold slowly and thoughtfully. Use your fingernails or the edge of a pencil to firmly crease your folds. You can make smaller or larger heart pockets by keeping the same measurement ratio. Try working with a piece of paper that is 2” x 3” or 8” x 12”.
This activity was created by Sergio Salicio-Lupiañez, Visitor Assistant.
Share your art with friends and family and on social media with #ICAArtLab or email us at familyprograms@icaboston.org.
Handmade Picture Frame
Inspired by the 30+ portraits hanging in i’m yours: Encounters with Art in Our Times, this activity invites you to create your own handmade picture frame with recycled materials. Make a personalized frame for one of your favorite photographs or even your own drawing.
This activity is designed for children ages 5 and up and their grownups to work on together at home. Please note that this project involves using scissors to cut cardboard.
Materials:
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| 2. Cut a stand for your frame: Using a new piece of cardboard, measure and cut a rectangle that is roughly half the size of your frame. Using a pencil and ruler, draw a line from the upper left corner of the rectangle to the bottom right corner. Next, cut on the line. You only need one of the triangles for your frame. |
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3. Using drawing materials, decorate the frame. Center your artwork on the back of the frame. Place the front of the frame on top so that your photo appears through the opening. Adjust until artwork is centered, then glue or tape the artwork in place onto the back. Tape will make it easier to change drawings or pictures in the frame. |
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4. Use glue or tape to attach the triangular piece of cardboard to the back of the frame. Attach the narrowest part of the triangle to the center of the backing for the frame to stand. Bend the cardboard stand as needed for the best angle for your frame. |
This activity was created by Sergio Salicio-Lupiañez, Visitor Assistant.
Share your art with friends and family and on social media with #ICAArtLab or email us at familyprograms@icaboston.org.
Courtesy of Ellice Patterson of Abilities Dance Boston
Stretching and Storytelling
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Founder and Director of Abilities Dance Boston Ellice Patterson will take you through gentle stretching for every day. She will also walk you through telling a story through movement that is accessible for all bodies! |
La fundadora y directora de Abilities Dance Boston te guiará para hacer un estiramiento suave todos los días. También te introducirá en la narración a través del movimiento que sea accesible para todo tipo de cuerpo. |
Materials / Materiales:
Only your body!
¡Solo el cuerpo!
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Note from Ellice: Please adapt all of these movements to whatever works for you. I use a mobility aid, so experiment how you can adapt if you use different mobility aids or, if you are a nondisabled person, how you can translate. Have fun and be creative! |
Nota de Ellice: Adapta estos movimientos a lo que funcione para ti. Yo uso una ayuda para la movilidad, así que prueba cómo se pueden hacer adaptaciones si se usan diferentes ayudas de movilidad o, si no eres una persona con discapacidad, mira cómo puedes interpretarlo. ¡Diviértete y usa tu creatividad! |
Stretch / Estiramientos:
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1. Start with making a fist and placing it against your chest. Then take four deep, slow breaths in and out. Use this time to push out all of the negative internal and external thoughts and just focus on being in your body. 1. Para comenzar, coloca el puño contra el pecho. Luego toma cuatro respiraciones, inhalando y exhalando de manera lenta y profunda. Durante este tiempo, libérate de todos los pensamientos negativos internos y externos, y concéntrate solamente en estar con el cuerpo. |
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2. Take your hand and gently stretch your head side to side. Then roll your head slowly twice in both directions. 2. Apoya la mano sobre un lado de la cabeza y haz estiramientos de un lado a otro. Luego gira la cabeza lentamente dos veces en ambas direcciones. |
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3. Take your hands and curl as if you’re wrapping your hand around an ice cream cone finger by finger. Energize through your finger tips and build warmth in your hands. 3. Toma tus manos y haz como si estuvieras envolviendo tus manos alrededor de un cono de helado, dedo por dedo. Siente la energía a través de los dedos y acumula calor en las manos. |
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4. Take a stretch, bending forward as far as is comfortable and stay there for 5 sec — onds. If standing, ensure legs are straight and for an extra stretch bend your knees 5 times while bent over. Rise and take a stretch bending backward as far as is comfortable and stay for 5 seconds. 4. Estírate, inclinándote hacia adelante tanto como te resulte cómodo y permanece en esa posición durante 5 segundos. Si estas de pie, asegúrate de tener las piernas extendidas, y si necesitas estirarte un poco más, flexiona las rodillas 5 veces a medida que te inclinas. Levántate e inclínate hacia atrás tanto como te resulte cómodo y permanece en esa posición durante 5 segundos. |
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Ellice Patterson founded Abilities Dance in 2017 as a space for diverse artists to train and perform. Through their work, they use art as a tool to promote intersectional disability rights. They have performed at the MFA, Peabody Essex Museum, Wimberly Theatre at the BCA, and Gibney Dance in NYC, among other venues. |
Ellice Patterson fundó Abilities Dance en 2017 como un espacio de capacitación y actuación para artistas diversos. A través de su trabajo, usan el arte como una herramienta para promover los derechos de diversas clases de discapacidad. Han actuado en el MFA, el Museo Peabody Essex, el Teatro Wimberly en el BCA y Gibney Dance en la ciudad de Nueva York, entre otros lugares. |
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Find Abilities Dance Boston on social media on Facebook and Instagram. Find where they will be next at abilitiesdanceboston.org |
Descubre a Abilities Dance Boston en las redes sociales, en Facebook e Instagram. Obtén información sobre dónde actuarán próximamente en abilitiesdanceboston.org |
Still from Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, The Mistress and The Tangerine (2008) directed by Marion Cajori and Amei Wallach
Working with Louise Bourgeois
As I write this, I sit facing a small print by Louise Bourgeois that hangs in my home office. It is a blood-red flower with a bulbous bloom and four tendrils. Deceptively simple, it makes a strong statement – emotional, suggestive, graphic – and was a Christmas gift from Louise many, many years ago. As we make available to our audiences the documentary Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress, and the Tangerine, I can’t help but remember the years I spent with Louise as her assistant, which always brings a smile to my face. My work with her began when I was a graduate student in New York and saw an index card pinned to the school bulletin board: “help wanted moving books.” I needed a job, so I called and went to interview at her 20th Street home in Chelsea. I had the charge of organizing Louise’s collection of books on all aspects of women’s work and her late husband’s library of art books. I was immensely happy immersed in all those books on her top floor. Gradually, with the libraries in hand, I moved down to the first floor, working alongside Louise as her personal assistant.
I hope you enjoy the film and the time spent on screen with this extraordinary woman and artist. She was full of spit and spirit, complexity and creativity, humor and hubris, and loyalty and love.
Photo by Maya Rafie
2020 [re]vision
2020 has been an incredible year, unlike any in our history. This writing exercise and open mic activity calls for individuals to reimagine their present in order to dream toward a brighter and more autonomous future. Let’s get writing and enjoy an open mic for the entire family!
2020 ha sido un año increíble, como ningún otro en la historia. Este ejerci-cio de escritura y actividad a micró-fono abierto invita a volver a imaginar el presente para soñar con un futuro mejor y más autónomo. ¡Comenc-emos a escribir y a disfrutar de un micrófono abierto con toda la familia!
Materials/Materiales:
- Writing Utensil / Útiles para escribir
- Paper / Papel
- Make-shift “microphone” (any household item will do!) / “Micrófono” (¡cualquier artículo del hogar servirá!)
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Instructions:
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Instrucciones:
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Porsha Olayiwola is a writer, performer, educator, and curator who uses afro-futurism and surrealism to examine historical and current issues in the Black, woman, and queer diasporas. Olayiwola is the author of i shimmer sometimes, too and the current Poet Laureate for the City of Boston.
Porsha Olayiwola es una escritora, intérprete, educadora y curadora que examina temas históricos y actuales de las comunidades negras, de mujeres y homosexuales a través del afrofuturismo y el surrealismo. Porsha es la autora de i shimmer sometimes, too (a veces, también yo brillo) y es la Poeta Laureada actu-al de la ciudad de Boston.
Memory Meditation
If you could use a meditation to help you enter this new year and have four minutes, try out this Memory Meditation. I originally recorded it for a gathering of ICA Educators and Teaching Artists and thought you all might enjoy it too.
John Houck, Petals and Interleaves, 2016. Archival pigment print, 27 × 32 inches (68.6 × 81.3 cm). Promised gift of Abigail Ross Goodman and Mark Goodman. Courtesy the artist and On Stellar Rays. © John Houck
The Future in Hand(s)
This activity is recommended for children ages 5 and up, and is a great activity to work on as a family.
By way of riddles and rhymes, explore our current moment and reimagine the future with your family! During this activity, you’ll collect household objects and build a temporary family sculpture to capture and reflect on for years to come.
Materials:
- Household objects
- Flat surface to place household objects on
- Smartphone or digital camera to photograph final artwork
Directions
Work together to try and solve these riddles:
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1. What is Black and White and Read all over? A. An artwork B. A family treasure C. Music D. Newspaper |
2. What is always in front of you, but can’t be seen? A. At-home recycling machine B. Time-travel portals C. The Future D. Gold |
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3. It belongs to you, but other people use it more than you do. What is it? A. Clothes B. Your name C. Toys D. Instruments |
4. What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it? A. Yosemite! B. Mirror C. Silence D. Crystal Lake |
Reveal answers + move on to next steps!
- D. Newspaper
- C. The Future
- B. Your name
- C. Silence
Compare your answers with the hidden correct answers. How did you do?
Explore your home or surroundings to find objects that represent each riddle answer.
Discuss the significance of each object. Here are some questions to explore while searching:
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A newspaper tells us what’s going on in the world. What object(s) around you represent what’s happening in our world? A book, a magazine, a painting? |
What does the future look like to you? What objects around you represent the future you want to see? A calendar, a clock, flower seeds, a full cup of water? |
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What objects represent your identity? A school picture, something you made that you’re proud of, a uniform with your name on it? |
What do you do to relax or feel peaceful? What objects can represent this feeling? A book, a pillow, a favorite stuffed animal? |
Final steps:
Assemblage
Once you have collected all your objects, arrange them in an interesting way. Try stacking them in a tower, or overlapping objects to hide secrets or show their importance. What other interesting ways can you showcase your objects? This action is called making an assemblage, which is how some contemporary artists create sculptures today.
Photograph your work!
Photograph your assemblage to keep and reflect on in the future. Post it online to share with your friends, family, and community. Once you have collected all your objects, arrange them in an interesting way. Try stacking them in a tower, or overlapping objects to hide secrets or show their importance. What other interesting ways can you showcase your objects? This action is called making an assemblage, which is how some contemporary artists create sculptures today.
Photo Tips:
- Find a flat, blank backdrop to place your arrangement in front of.
- Use natural light or spotlights. Set up your light source behind you.
- If using your phone, turn OFF the flash. Shoot in “auto.”
- Photograph your assemblage from a straightforward perspective, then try photographing from above or below.
- Save your original photo and play around with editing applications to achieve your desired results.
Gerald L. Leavell II, M.F.A. is a community artist and arts educator based in Dallas, TX and Baltimore, MD. His practice is interdisciplinary in approach and often conceptual by nature. As a studio artist, Leavell mostly enjoys collage and assemblage—experimenting with materials, objects, and mediums to create…a “something.”