Rope-A-Dope: To Win A Losing War (Sound Work)

"Dance until your bones clatter.  What a prize

you are.  What a lucky sack of stars."

(excerpt) At Last the New Arriving

by Gabrielle Calvocoressi

Last Friday I performed at Cabinet Space for Rope-A-Dope, curated by Sohrab Mohebbi and Gabi Ngcobo.  It was a watershed moment in my exploration of performance.  That thing that happens in my studio, were the committed doing and the deep thinking, are simultaneous energies- happened during this performance.  I felt like I had a chance to create questions that didn't necessarily need answers, that it was the questioning that was completely valid in an of itself.  Perhaps, I am getting too ahead of myself, but I think the reaction/participation of the audience communicates something very close to this sentiment.  Ultimately, though, I want to continue developing and exploring this aspect of my art-making.  Perhaps an abstract puppet show becomes an eventual performance, or a sound work collection available on CD/DVD...

In either case, I've included the accompanying sonic component that I created for the performance, below.  Documentation coming soon!

(W)RAPPING from Kenya Robinson on Vimeo.

"Kenya (Robinson) is a multi-media artist based in Brooklyn. She takes the ritual as a site for her artistic production, addressing politics of the quotidian and the ceremonies of the mundane. Her exhibition, “HAIRPOLITIC: The Pursuit of Nappiness” was on view at the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Art in 2008, investigating construction of identities within the notions of choice and acceptance. For “Rope-a-dope,” Kenya uses the pre-fight ritual of hand wrapping as the visual backdrop for a rapped soliloquy that fuses the poetry of Gabriella Calvocoressi, the rhymed boasts of Muhammad Ali, and polyrhythmic patterns of 70’s soul.

“Rope-a-dope” is curated by Sohrab Mohebbi and Gabi Ngcobo, second-year graduate students at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College."