“Saltus Chori Aevum” Film by Rodrigo Valenzuela, premiers July 3rd, The Rendezvous, Seattle

This past May, the ‘Mater Matrix Mother and Medium’ project premiered a 2-day multi-disciplinary performance called “Saltus Chori Aevum”, created by collaboration with Mandy Greer, Jessica Jobaris, Saskia Delores, Monica Schley and Andrea Ives,

During the course of the development of the performance, filmmaker Rodrigo Valenzuela worked closely with the artists, filming improvisation sessions, ritualized cleansings and an intimate view of the performances themselves. Capturing more than just a performance documentation, Valenzuela integrated his own vision into the narrative, creating revealing portraits of the labor and relationships of the performers.

Join us July 3rd for a reception and screening of his film, from 5pm-8pm at The Rendezvous Jewel Box Theater. 2322 2nd Ave. Seattle, WA 98121 U.S.A (206) 441-5823

Presented by The Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs and Commissioned by Seattle Public Utilities 1% for Art. MMMM celebrates and interprets the splendor of Seattle’s urban watersheds and encourages stewardship, especially as it connects to SPU’s work.

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“Saltus Chori Aevum” Performance images, May 5 and 6th, 2012

This gallery contains 8 photos.

The MMMM project was lucky enough to get to work with filmmaker and photographer Rodrigo Valenzuela this spring on “Saltus Chori Aevum”.  He not only captured some incredible images of the 2-night public art performance, but also worked with all … Continue reading →

Thank you! Remembering ‘Saltus Chori Aevum’, the MMMM 2012 performance

‘Saltus Chori Aevum’, the MMMM 2012 performance happened more than a month ago; it’s difficult for me to believe.  I usually drop off the planet right after finishing a huge project, and this one was no different, except for the sense of moving the action and motivation of themes of the project into the recesses of my private life; cleansing, scouring, stripping down to a rawness and starting fresh, renewing.  I have been cleaning my house like I have never done before;  moving into my own home with a baby 7 years ago, I have never taken enough time out from working to really even move in, or upkeep much of anything.  There is always a new project, more work.  But this has created mental blockages for me that have grown difficult to overcome, it seems silly but very real.  So, it seems small, ordinary, menial, unimportant to even mention; giving away piles of things, removing old patterns, and cleaning layers of real and psychological dirt….but it feels very much like the process of creating this performance is the impetus for this private excavation, and will hopefully un-block my way to re-newed making.

It brings me to a feeling of gratitude for choreographer/dancer Jessica Jobaris, for helping all of us involved to dig around in our heads and bodies for the movements to say what we needed to see.  Through meditation and improvisation workshops, she helped us all create a score, and I always found myself on the floor scrubbing, pushing and pulling imagined waters.  More than just creating what you might have seen at Dupen Fountain in May, she helped me unlock a new quiet vocabulary in my own body, and I’m nervous and excited to see how it will influence my new work.

I owe huge thank you’s and deep gratitude to all my collaborators on this project.  All of them, as well as Jessica, Monica Schley, Saskia Delores, Andrea Ivesand Rodrigo Valenzuela approached this project with a sense of nurture and working from a place of intuition and experimentation.  There was a rawness in the piece that I really loved that reminded me of community gatherings and ritual; intent takes priority over perfection.  And this is what I found compelling about the flood of cell-phone pictures that I found on the internet after this public piece opened; they’re like tiny moments of the individual’s perception.  The images in this post are just a few of those:

I also am so thankful for the guidance and support of this project from Marcia Iwasaki at the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs  and  Layne Cubell from The Seattle Center Foundation/Next 50.  This project wouldn’t have been possible with their sharp management and dedication.

I also am grateful to the kind volunteering efforts of the friends and acquaintances who came out to assist us with putting this on: Mary Lee Drake, Rebecca Bloom, Wyly Astley, Kristie Metcalf , Glenn Billard, Ellen Eades, Barb Matthews, Renata Almeida.  I know I have forgotten a few names – I’m so sorry – but I am so grateful for the support!

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More images taken by Photographer/Filmmaker Rodrigo Valenzuela

TONIGHT! ‘Saltus Chori Aevum’ final performance at the Seattle Center, 7pm

 

TONIGHT! ‘Saltus Chori Aevum’ at the Seattle Center, 7pm,

The final performance!  The responses I got from yesterday’s performance were incredible!  Thank you everyone from coming out and enjoying what we’ve been working on since February. Don’t miss the final performance tonight!

by Ellen Eades

Meet at one of three places to begin the performance, at the Kobe Bell, The Poetry Garden or the northwest corner of the Key Arena.  See the map, with the pink stars!

And here is The Seattle Channel’s profile on my work from a week ago!

http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?file=1&ID=4011228

MMMM Performance Collaborators

Mater Matrix Mother and Medium’s    new multi-media performance “Saltus Chori Aevum”  is almost here, and I am awash in realizing what a great pleasure it has been the past few months of collaborating with some very generous, humble and talents artists: choreographer/dancer Jessica Jobaris, performance artist/vocalist Saskia Delores, harpist/poet Monica Schley and filmaker Rodrigo Valenzuela.   My initial seed for this project was to bring several people together who don’t work together, haven’t worked together, but all of whose work I feel incredibly drawn into, like I am disappearing into a well of deep water.  So it has been an experiment, throwing people together and seeing what happens.  There is rawness, and refinement and some intense crystalline moments of people making work that they wouldn’t be making on their own.  It has been a feast of influences to be a part of the creation of performance, and I believe it will be a feast of sensations to experience as a viewer.  The creation of MMMM, the entire project, has always been about celebrating process over end-product;  the crocheting has a life of its own as it grows and is impacted upon by the environment.  And I see this performance blooming out of that same process.

 

Also, please take a moment to watch Rodrigo’s film Diamond Box, which is up for the Vimeo documentary awards, and Vote for it here!  Voting ends tomorrow April 30th.

MMMM film, created in collaboration with Ian Lucero, Zoe Scofield and Morgan Henderson

Mater Matrix Mother & Medium from Ian Lucero on Vimeo.

MMMM Film preview….

Mater Matrix Mother and Medium from Ian Lucero on Vimeo.

Clip from Mater Matrix Mother and Medium Short Film on Flickr….

A film still from the short film that Ian Lucero is working on based on the MMMM performance.  I have seen about 3 minutes of a promo, and am so thrilled, and so truly truly grateful to have had the chance to work with such incredible artists, Ian, Morgan and Zoe (and Juniper Shuey and Paul Margolis).  All so generous and humble and so full of vision….

The film will premier at Ohge Ltd. Gallery in Seattle in January 2010….stay tuned….

The 3 minute promo will be showing at Dalton Gallery at Agnes Scott College….I am here in Atlanta installing the river as part of “Still Water”….

Clip from Mater Matrix Mother and Medium Short Film on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

The Performance is upon us! 7/16/09 at 6:30 pm

rehearsing

Thursday July 16th, 2009 at 6:30 pm  Mater Matrix Mother and Medium will reach its performative culmination with a site-specific performance by Seattle-based and internationally-recognized choreographer/dancer Zoe Scofield, with music for clarinet and megaphone created and performed by musician/composer Morgan Henderson .

 

Come join in this one-time experience at the Pond at Camp Long in West Seattle, 5200 35th Ave. SW.  

 

The Performance, created by collaboration between myself, Zoe Scofield and Morgan Henderson is a hushed reflection on the subtle dynamics of the Forest embedded in the urban environment, at once organic as it is artificial.  All three artists, in our own way, having responded to the quirky overgrown tranquility of Camp Long’s little pond, invite you to sit for a short time in quiet observation of the rhythms of this unusual site, heightening your focus through sound, movement, breath and site-responsive installation.

 

Mater Matrix Mother and Medium began with the creation of a 200 ft.- long fiber river, created in part through a series of over 30 community events all over Seattle, where I taught anyone willing to learn, how to crochet.  I then took the fiber “pools” into the forest of Camp Long and spent nearly six weeks on a ladder crocheting the river into the trees, flowing from 25 feet up in the tree canopy to nearly touching the forest floor.

 

The River, made up of thousands upon thousands of tiny moments and movements of individual citizens, integrated, linked together and interwoven into the natural environment, will itself embed Zoe Scofield in an exploration of how we ourselves are both literal and metaphoric manifestations of the living essence of water.  Our experience of water is both one of ultimate intimacy and also of civic structure.  This artwork, a unique blend of community engagement and personal inquiry, site-embedded installation and performance, embodies the ancient human practice of acknowledging our own physicality rooted in the cycles of water and how this forms the very foundation of human community.  Water, both mundane and miraculous, mirrors the everyday meeting of strangers and the tiny moments that begin to bond us together.

 

Please consider bringing a blanket to sit on during the performance but lawn chairs will obstruct others’ view.  Come enjoy some tranquility! 

 

This project is part of three temporary public art projects in the Water Calling series, and are commissioned by the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs with Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) 1% for Art funds. The projects reflect SPU’s management of the complete cycle of hydrology for Seattle’s water resources from drinking water through drainage, and Restore Our Waters, the city’s initiative to protect and restore Seattle’s urban waterways.

 

Mark your calendars for the MMMM performance and residency at Camp Long, this summer

After much planning, The Performance…..

Mater Matrix Mother and Medium will culminate with a site-specific performance by Seattle-based and internationally-recognized choreographer and dancer Zoe Scofield.  Come join in this one-time experience on July 16th, 2009 at 6:30 pm at the pond at Camp Long in West Seattle, 5200 35th Ave. SW.  

This River, made up of thousands upon thousands of tiny moments and movements of individual citizens, integrated, linked together and interwoven into the natural environment, will itself embed Scofield in an exploration of how we ourselves are both literal and metaphoric manifestations of the living essence of water.  Our experience of water is both one of ultimate intimacy and also of civic structure.  This artwork, a unique blend of community engagement and personal inquiry, site-embedded installation and performance, embodies the ancient human practice of acknowledging our own physicality rooted in the cycles of water and how this forms the very foundation of human community.  Water, both mundane and miraculous, mirrors the everyday meeting of strangers and the tiny moments that begin to bond us together.

An outdoor studio for myself, Artist-in-Residence at Camp Long….

 

deep in the urban forest

The River of Mater Matrix Mother and Medium will be created on site at Camp Long, as I integrate all  the fiber parts created over these many months into one form based on the topography and structure of the trees of the park.  Please join me, from June 15 – July 9th, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 am – 2 pm, and watch as this brilliant blue line begins to accumulate and grow in this tiny patch of urban forest.  You can watch me work, join in with more crocheting and also explore the trails of this hidden gem of a park in the Longfellow Creek watershed.